Happy that independent music has resurfaced: Raghu Dixit

New Delhi: Raghu Dixit, lead vocalist of popular band The Raghu Dixit Project, is delighted to see re-emergence of independent music.

"The Indian music scene has undergone a huge change. For the past many years, film music had taken over non-film music. When I came up with my first album, music channels had already stopped playing non-film music. We didn`t have any channels which would play non-film music. It`s great to see it has now resurfaced," Dixit said. And the singer credits the Internet for the change. He feels that youngsters learned about these music through social networkign sites, which helped in popularising independent music. "Today`s youngsters are exposed to different cultures whether its UK or any other around the world thanks to the Internet. Moreover, there are so many music festivals being organised where young musicians are getting a platform," said Dixit, known for songs like "Ambar", "Hey Bhagwan", "No man will ever love you, like I do". The scientist-turned-singer and his band has earned a reputation of delivering to audiences both in India and globally. His music is an amalgamation of Indian ethnic music and other styles from different parts of the world. His band includes Gaurav Vaz, Wilfred Demoz, Bryden Lewis and Parth Chandiramani. On the occasion of World Music Day, Thursday, Dixit has been roped in by Big CBS Spark, where the singer will play songs across various genres. Dixit and his band recently performed at the British Queen`s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the singer says it was an honour to sing in front of the royal audience. "For me, as an artist performing on stage was not different as ever, as I performed with the same passion as I have always perform with. But what was special was the audience. We met the royalty and everyone appreciated our performance," he said. Their performance at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations attracted the attention of musicians - Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe of British electronic dance music group Basement Jaxx. They ended up collaborating on two songs. "I was amazed to see how fast they were while making music. I had just gone to meet them and they took me inside their studio and asked to be record the song, i wasn`t even prepared for it. And in the time span of just one and a half hours the songs were recorded," said Dixit. Of late a lot of Indian and international musicians are collaborating and creating music together. Asked what does he feels about the same, he said, "It`s very human to human thing, you as an artist travel across the world and meet different people and somewhere you find a common ground and end up collaborating with each other. It`s a natural progression." IANS