What made Indi-pop stars of the 1990s nostalgic

Picture this, Palash Sen singing Maeeri, Shaan singing Tanha Dil, Ankur Tewari singing Sabse Peeche Hum Khade and Rahi singing Maahi... a recent event brought this line-up together for a conversation about bringing back real music and celebrating the Indi-pop era of yore. The 1990s saw a flurry of artistes and songs in the Indi-pop space, with musicians taking centre-stage with relative ease. Artistes like Dr Palash Sen, Lucky Ali, Alisha Chinai, Daler Mehndi, Shaan, Shubha Mudgal even became household names with their hit tracks.

To celebrate those glorious years, Big Indie Bang conducted a live-chat and brought several legends together. Entertainment and music lawyer Priyanka Khimani played host. The show featured Shaan, Ankur Tewari and Rahi who chronicled their journeys, shed light on the state of Indie pop music and shared fun anecdotes about their personal and professional lives. Going down memory lane, Shaan talked about putting together his solo album, Tanha Dil, which became an instant success back in the day.

The singer said, “I felt that if you are doing your own music, you have to be a part of it. You can’t have someone write the song and someone compose it. The Indie pop situation at that point was all about other people doing the real work and the face would be of somebody else. That’s when I started writing my own stuff.”

Drawing a comparison between the music industry in the ‘90s and that of the contemporary era, Dr Sen of the band Euphoria said, “I have been educated to be a doctor. I don’t think anybody in my family or around me was expecting me to go and do music professionally. Music was something that was done for fun. We are now in a business called the music business. And that’s something that young boys and girls coming in will have to understand. Music just got itself a professional degree.”

Upcoming talent, Rahi, a Kashmir-based artiste, who has been lauded for his composition, Maahi, says that Indi-pop is all about emotions. “When you think about composing a song, it has to come from deep within you. You shouldn’t think about what’s the latest trend. Indie music is all about what you can really feel. I come from Kashmir. I thought that not many people know about the positive side of Kashmir and so I wanted to project that through my song,” he shared.

Music composer, lyricist, producer and supervisor Ankur Tewari talked about his initial years as a musician in Delhi and chronicled lending his vocals to the underground hit Sabse peeche hum khade hai that went on to be covered by Silk Route. The conversation was punctuated with fun music-centric games and involved a lot of batter amongst these musicians who seemed to have been catching up after a long time.