International Desi

>> Young Indians from here, there and everywhere showcase their talents at the auspicious Karma show

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Most musicians see Toronto, New York, Paris or London as the brass ring, the point of departure for the proverbial big time. However, for many young Desis, diaspora from the Indian subcontinent, the big time lies around the globe in Bombay, flashpoint for the massive Indi-pop scene where their fortunes await--bringing it all back home, so to speak.

Take U.K.-born-and-raised Sophiya, formerly of all-girl Indi-pop act Sansara, currently riding the success of her hit song "Le Le Mera Dil." In her books, being a foreign-born Desi is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

"Firstly," she says over her cell from London, "in a way I'm seen as an outsider, so people are a little bit skeptical. What's she gonna do? Is she good? But I guess as soon as people see me, they realize I'm probably more Indian than most Indians. I've always been really, really close to my cultural roots. In fact, you find that with most South Asians who live outside of India--they tend to be a lot more Indian in their ways, because their parents are retaining the old values."

Which can only help, considering what a ruthlessly competitive scene Indi-pop is. Something that helps Sophiya make her marks, is the plethora of outside influences she brings to the table. "Being brought up here and having cosmopolitan friends, from Arabic to European, my musical influences show that. I'm very inspired by Arabic music and I like to sing in Arabic as well, and I've lived in Paris, so I love French hip hop and R&B. There's a whole range of stuff in my music and maybe that's why it's different from your typical, traditional female Indi-pop, which is usually all sort of sweet-sweet, nice-nice, pretty-pretty."

Guerrillas in our midst

Sophiya is fortunate that she has an established relationship with a supportive label, a rep from her Sansara days and a longtime friendship with leading Indi-pop producer Biddu buttressing her advances into India. Montreal's own Josh, a trio comprised of Sikh brothers Rik and Rup and Middle-East-born Pakistani Q, tell a different story. Their haunting tune "Main hoon Tanha," while far more understated and sophisticated than your average Indi-pop fare, is nonetheless a smash hit over there. Q chalks their success up to guerrilla tactics.

"In order to make it in the Indian community, it takes a lot of contacts. That's how us brown people work. But we had none--our first trip to India, we paid for our tickets ourselves. We landed in Bombay with our demo tape, not knowing anyone, and went around town, from one record company to the next, in a rickshaw. We got their addresses from the backs of tapes that we bought, and went to the head offices to meet A&R guys. It took a little time--we started about three and a half years ago, with the same music we have now. At that time, India was all about dance, bhangra and stuff like that. We were told we were ahead of our time, that there was no place for us at that point. But while we were back here, just improving the music, the trends in India were slowly changing."

After repeat commando rickshaw raids, further armed with an excellent, shot-in-NYC video, Josh nailed their target. "Luckily, one of the guys from Tips Records, one of the biggest labels in India, wanted to start something different. He liked us, we clicked--it was a right-place-at-the-right-time kinda thing."

It should be noted that "Main hoon Tanha" is classy and current enough to, potentially, have legs on these shores and in the U.K., even if most listeners couldn't tell the lyrics from a curry-joint menu. Q eyes the future hopefully.

"We feel that, because we write in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, it makes more sense to communicate with people who understand what we're talking about and not just grooving to the tunes. People here will understand that there is depth to our tunes, but the message won't be as clear. So it was only natural for us to start of there. We'd love to make the move here, but that'll take more time. We're hoping that with the trend now, such as Madonna wearing a bindi or Shania Twain wearing a sari, it'll be like what happened with the Latinos--Spanish became cool."

Karma comes together

Whether Josh and Sophiya can break through to non-Indians remains to be seen, but there is a market for them here: their fellow Desis. Proof lies in the Karma show (and Karmakazi after- party) happening in Montreal this weekend. Organized by the tireless and good-natured Kailash Patel, a successful video-game entrepreneur testing the live-show market, Karma is nothing less than a first for Montreal, and already turning heads across North America. Toronto is booked for December, Vancouver's looking good for springtime and Desis in Florida, Washington, Calgary, all over are getting in touch with Patel about making some good Karma happen in their towns too.

Patel jumped into the game first by taking Josh under his wing, then after a high-profile visit to last year's Bollywood Music Awards in NYC, compiling contacts and formulating the unprecedented Karma show.

"When I got back to Montreal, I thought, We've never had anything as exciting as New York or Toronto. It's time to do something. But because the population is limited here, I wondered what we could do that was of a high calibre and at the same time entertaining for a smaller crowd. I didn't want to do just music, I wanted music, dance, comedy, young South filmmakers--a combination of entertainment, something that appeals to young people and at the same time, have a laugh."

The laughs come care of Toronto comic Russell Peters, well established in the mainstream Canadian comedy scene. Don't let the name fool you, Peters is Desi and proud of it. And Karma, which he's hosting, brings his career around full- circle. "I've been doing this for 12 years, so I'm the first guy to represent us in the mainstream entertainment media. I started off doing a lot of Indian shows, culture shows for the universities, for the Indian Students' Associations. Then I broadened my horizons and wanted mainstream notice, so I started doing TV. That's when the community started to really notice me, but at the same time, they were nervous, so I started getting death threats and stuff."

I'm dyin' up here

Whoa, hold on. Death threats? Heckling, sure, but jeez...

"That was in '95, and it was over one joke in particular. People were saying, 'You better watch what you're saying, watch yourself, blah, blah, blah.' I think they were just nervous because they hadn't been represented at all. Then they see me on TV, and I'm making jokes about us, and they're like, 'Whoa, wait a minute, nobody knows about us and you're making fun of us. Who's this guy representing us? We don't know him, we can't have him up there.' Then when they saw that the mainstream liked me, the blacks and other communities liked me, they said, 'He's ours.' They claimed me then, after I'd been validated by the mainstream.

"I always considered those people, the nervous ones, to be ones who actually have a problem with what they are. If you're confident in what you are, whatever I do is not going to affect you."

At the same time, Peters knows that the Karma show is a family affair, so for the real raunch, buy him a drink at the after-party. "You can't swear, you can't talk about certain subjects, you can't get too racy. Fortunately, I'm hosting, warming the crowd up and doing jokes in between. The good thing is, I can react on what's going on around me."

In that case, Peters has mad ammo to work with. Homegrown Indi-pop overlord Sukhbir will be strutting his stuff in headline position, Josh, Sophiya and local Charan G. will perform as well--accompanied by wicked, Bollywood-esque choreography care of Parul Gupta--and the kids behind the film American Desi will be on-hand to talk about their experiences. Polyglot popstress Anaida was also scheduled to appear, but visa hassles nixed that.

Then there's the after-party Karmakazi, which promises to be off the hook boasting T.O. DJ Baba Kahn and our own Hadji & Lmo. "The after-party," says Patel, "recognizes the launch of the

Desiclub.com Web site in Canada, and is different from other parties in that all the stars will be present. At the show you see them, at the party you get to actually talk them, interact. You know how artists do a show and then get the hell out of there? This is the opposite."

Count 'em, 1.2 billion

As for the stars, do they see the pockets of Desis around the world as a valuable market? "Of course!" exclaims Sophiya. "You've got to remember, I'm a--what do they call 'em, officially--a person of Indian origin who isn't from India. In other words, 'outside of India' means a lot to me because I was born outside, so I know how much it means to the people. You're so far away from home, technically, that you value your culture a hell of a lot more."

"You gotta look at it like this," says Peters. "India is the second largest population in the world. There's 1.2 billion of us. So for us, as Indian people over here, to ignore that is financially retarded. I think Kailash is a pioneer, almost, taking us to a new level. The old promoters of these Indian shows would just bring Indian movie stars, they'd lip-sync their songs and dance around the stage and that's it. It would be geared to an older audience. Sure, they're getting 25,000 people into the Skydome, but it was geared toward uncles and aunties. Now this guy, while getting the older folks in, knows that the younger kids need stuff that they can relate to. So he brings in me, the American Desi guys, all these people who cover the entire spectrum. It's brilliant because he's covering all his bases."

The Karma show is at Olympia Theater, 1004 Ste-Catherine E., on Saturday, Aug. 25, 8pm, $25-$150 (for tickets call 334-6677, fax 334-8695, e-mail karma@atekinc.com or visit karmashows.com). Karmakazi is at le Medley the same night at 10pm, $19