MATCHBOX

Kabir Deb: Hey Sidharth! I hope you’re doing well. It feels good to see a work of fiction keeping the Rock N Roll genre in mind. What made you think about this plot surrounding all the elements that arrive with rock music? 

Sidharth Singh: I have always been fascinated by subcultures, by people who live on the fringes of society, by outliers, non-conformists and rebels. Perhaps it has something to do with all my adolescent influences – the outlaws in the westerns of Louis L’amour, the Beats of Kerouac and Burroughs, the Gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson, 60s psychedelia, Hippies and of course, rock and roll. 

But the big question was: with the emergence of the 60s counterculture in the West and the arrival of the Hippies in India, ostensibly to ‘find themselves’, what was happening in India at the time? How did Indian society and its outliers interact with these cultural influences?

This was the trigger that lead me to explore the advent of rock music in India, the political environment which surrounded it and how all that would impact a rebel. As the story evolved, however, I found in Max Bulandi a larger-than-life persona who could embody the rebellious spirit of his generation and continued pushing the envelope beyond rock music to the politics of the time and eventually to the spirituality of Kabir, who in many ways, is the ultimate Indian rebel. 

KD: Kurt Cobain in his book speaks about the necessity of rock music in the mainstream, but also shares how the mainstream ruined the genre. The protagonist of your book is named as Nirvana, and has all the traits of a rock artist like riding a Royal Enfield, has internal demons etc. Is it because of the social vision of a rock artist? Or do you think the music itself is a symptom of all these interests and vice-versa.

SS: Nirvana is a disillusioned journalist whose life is starting to unravel when he discovers an article about a 70s rock and roll band from Calcutta, which rekindles his interest in rock music and gives him a sense of purpose. The motorcycle, the sabbatical from his job and the journey he undertakes, are his way of reconnecting with his own rebellious nature, getting his mojo back and expressing himself freely. Doing your own thing is what rock and roll is all about and Nirvana represents that spirit, which often gets buried under the weight of building a career and checking the boxes of marriage, parenthood and upward social mobility, until many find themselves staring at a mid-life crisis.

KD: How do you think the present world is taking rock music? Also, what is the basic difference that comes to your mind when you listen to a band of the present time and those of the 70s or 80s?

SS: I am an avid listener of music, not an aficionado or tracker of trends, so I can’t really comment on how the present world is taking to rock music but when I hear artistes like The Strokes, The War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett, The Black Keys, The National – with all their stylistic influences and reinterpretations of classic rock – I know that the genre is alive and kicking. 

I listen to all kinds of music and don’t care much for boundaries and definitions. What I love is getting blown away by it. It could be a new album by The Strokes from 2020 or Patti Smith’s Horses from 1975, which I discovered only this year, but the pure joy of the serendipitous discovery of something that blows your mind, is unmatched. 

KD:  What is your thought on the impact of politics on rock music? Also, while writing this book, how did you break the limits which society puts before writers while writing about politics?

Music has always been a vehicle of political expression, which is why Bob Dylan is as relevant today as he was in the 60s. In the context of the book, however, the early music of The Flow alludes to the sound of bands like The Doors and Led Zeppelin. Later, when Max Bulandi finds himself enmeshed in left-wing politics with the railway workers union, his style becomes more political, more Dylanesque and folksy – alluding to the sound of 70s Calcutta musicians like Mohineer Ghoraghuli and Susmit Bose – who were all very political in their expression. 

This book is exploratory in nature, which is why it is full of journeys and is a travelogue in many ways. It was important for me to understand my father’s generation, to know where we are coming from, as a society, as a generation. The history taught to us in school made an abrupt stop at Independence in 1947. What happened after that? As Nirvana says early in the book, ‘how did we leapfrog to this dimension?’ And so, through music and pop culture, we journey with the characters of the story into the politics of the time, to try and make sense of it all. Fiction tends to fill the gaps left by history. 

KD: If I have to play the devil’s advocate, rock music has become monotonous with its penetration in every genre (especially a metal chord in a semi-classical music). According to you, how should a person who is new to this genre think of approaching this style of music?

One must approach everything with an open mind. 

KD: What makes a rock metal song important in the present time? 

If you look at a song like ‘Bandeh’ by Indian Ocean that was used in the soundtrack for the film Black Friday – which was about the Bombay blasts of 1993 that took place in the aftermath of the communal violence triggered by the Babri Masjid demolition – it delivers a very impactful message about the futility of violence and illustrates how rock music can also be a powerful political tool.

KD: If you have to choose three of your favourite rock artists of all time, who would they be?

This is a trick question for which there can be no right answer, but for the sake of this interview I will choose four: Bob Dylan, The Doors, Bob Marley and The War on Drugs. 

KD: Lastly, what do you think about the Usawa Literary Review?

It is heartening to see a thoughtfully curated magazine like Usawa Literary Review which provides a platform to alternative voices that struggle to find representation in the Indian mainstream.