Grammy Award-winning musician and Padma Shri Ricky Kej (right) Image: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images North America / Getty Images via AFP
Three-time Grammy Award-winning musician and Padma Shri Ricky Kej describes his latest album, Gandhi-Mantras of Compassion, as his passion project. The 44-year-old has collaborated with Nobel Peace Prize-winner and activist Kailash Satyarthi for the musical and spiritual tribute to the life and philosophy of the Mahatma. The self-funded album saw him join hands with 200 musicians across more than 40 countries, including friends Tina Guo, a Chinese-American virtuoso cellist, and Masa Takumi, a Grammy Award-winning shamisen player from Japan.
The album has 11 songs and four spoken-word passages by Satyarthi. Kej says it blends melodies loved by Gandhi with original compositions inspired by his ideals. For the ‘Raghupati Raghava’ video, the musician spent two years, visiting religious places across the country—from Varanasi, Kashi, and Manikarnika Ghat to ancient churches in Kolkata and Bengaluru as well as the Ajmer Dargah and Jama Masjid.
In an interview with Forbes India, Kej speaks about Satyarthi’s inputs and role, the challenges of dealing with a diverse set of musicians worldwide, why he stayed away from major labels, his role as a UN Goodwill ambassador, and why he doesn’t compose music for Hindi films. Edited excerpts:
Q. You call Gandhi-Mantras of Compassion your most epic and ambitious project. What makes it so special?
I have always been a huge follower of Mahatma Gandhi… he has been my hero. In fact, each of my previous three Grammy Award-winning projects had a song on Gandhi, but there was always a desire to create a whole album on him. Last year, I did a four-city tour within India with Kailash Satyarthi, who has also been my hero. He has based his entire career of activism on Gandhi, and I have been following his work for years. We talked a lot to each other during the tour and mutually decided to make an album on Gandhi. It became epic because I ended up involving over 200 musicians from 40 countries. The album kept growing and growing, because I kept meeting more and more musicians who wanted to be a part of it… or musicians who I would find online, who would speak about Gandhi in a favourable way. It became a huge project.
Q. How did you choose this as the theme? And why did it take you so long to come up with an album dedicated to Gandhi?
Gandhi was not only a person who was involved in the freedom struggle of India. He also took society forward with his ideals. His footprint has been felt all over the world without a lot of people knowing that it is his footprint. Today there is so much hatred, trolling, negativity, division and even wars. With every passing year, it became more and more clear that we need to come back to Gandhi’s ideals… they are getting more and more relevant. After meeting Kailash and knowing how his life has been inspired by Gandhi… all of these things came together. It then became obvious that this album had to happen now.
Q. How is this album different from your other ones?
One thing is that it was heavily reliant on collaboration. My previous albums were with just one or two collaborators. The second is that my main collaborator—Kailash Satyarthi—is not a musician. In fact, that came as a blessing because he would look at things completely from a conceptual perspective and give feedback. Even though he’s not a musician, he’s got the heart of a musician, the sensibilities of a musician. The next thing is that this album is heavily layered. If I have to get into the technicalities, each of my sessions, each song has almost 300 to 350 layers and tracks. Because there were that many musicians and instruments. The challenge was to keep it simple and listenable. People will find something new every time they listen to it.
Q. You collaborated with 200 musicians across 40 countries. How much time did it take for you to compose the music?
The planning went on for about a year. The recording took six months. Some of these musicians are friends of mine, who I have known for a long time and collaborated with multiple times. Some are people who I’ve met at concerts during my travels… they are traditional musicians. For instance, for the first time, I recorded a Charango, a traditional instrument from South America, and I recorded with a 75-member Grammy-winning youth orchestra in New York whose belong to the 12 to 20 age group. And then there are musicians who I saw online… who talk about non-violence, who talk about the ideals which are similar to what Gandhi speaks about. I reached out to them and asked whether they would like to be a part of this album.
Also read: The most important thing is to create music from the heart: Three-time Grammy winner Ricky Kej
Q. What are the challenges of working with such a diverse team situated across the globe?
The challenge is that I would love to be in the same room with them while I am recording. And for almost 50 percent of the musicians, I travelled to their countries and recorded with them. Where I could not, I used technology—Zoom, Skype, remote recording sessions—so that it would have the same effect as me being in the same room with them and jamming off each other. At the end of the day, they are all brilliant musicians… they are extremely good at improvising and bringing in their own ideas. They bring in their own life experiences, their own thoughts, ideals, and that takes the composition to a whole new level. So sometimes it’s good to give them space and let them experiment with your composition.
Q. This is a self-funded project. Why didn’t you opt for sponsors or partner with labels?
I’ve worked with major labels pretty much all my life… I love working with them and will continue doing that. But for this album, I wanted everybody in the world to use music that will be open source… that anybody can use (without copyright problems). For example, we are trying to get prisons all over the world to play the music and I have started sending it to them. Doing this in a non-commercial way is a challenge when a label involved. When there is a corporate setup, the credibility of the album gets pinned on the shoulders of that corporate house or that individual… that is the reason I funded it myself, so that I have the full freedom to do whatever I want to with it.
Q. How much money did you end up spending on the album?
Quite a lot (laughs). It is one of those things I did not even want to calculate because I know I’ll start crying immediately. In the beginning I had Excel sheets, and I was noting down everything. I gave up halfway through because I was getting anxiety opening that Excel sheet every time.
Q. How did the collaboration with Kailash Satyarthi come about? What was his contribution to the album?
It was almost like a mutual decision. We spoke about what Gandhi meant for us and we decided to make the album. There are 11 songs in the album, and he helped me choose five hymns that Gandhi loved during his lifetime—Raghupati Raghava, Payoji Maine, Abide By Me, The Lord’s Prayer, Vaishanava Janato. We went through the lyrics together. There are six original compositions… and I would send him the music I would compose. He would give me his feedback. Not only that, he has done four spoken-word passages for the album. He has spoken about what Gandhi means to him from a personal capacity.
Q. Which are some of the principles and teachings of the Mahatma that are dear to you?
Truth and non-violence, as well as environmental consciousness. Since I have been an environmentalist all of my life, I am drawn towards the environmental messages. But the most obvious one is: Be the change that you want to see in this world. We constantly talk about changing the world, but we never talk about changing ourselves.
Q. You are also a UN Goodwill Ambassador. How do you use that position to make a difference?
The only kind of music that I make is about the environment or positive social impacts. Previously, it used to be just the environment, but then I increased my scope. When I started off as a musician-activist, I was an aggressive activist and completely outspoken. Later, as I grew older, and especially after living in India, travelling the length and breadth of the country and other parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, I began realising that the narratives that the West feeds us are completely wrong when it comes to climate change. So, I started getting a little more realistic, and I realised everybody’s got dreams and aspirations. We cannot cut that off from people. We have to walk together. I have got a global role with the UN, and I work with multiple agencies.
Q. You have won three Grammys and you are a Padma Shri. Does this kind of recognition open new doors or inspire you to do better work?
Of course, 100 percent. I believe my music-making process is not dictated by awards… it is very sacrosanct, basically based on my own sensibilities and what I want to communicate. But if I win an award, I am extremely grateful for it, because, especially with the kind of music that I make, which is always about a message, these awards give you a platform for doing bigger and better things, for having more people take it seriously. For the music to spread further and wider, and the message to spread further and wider. For me, it’s not about the goal to win an award, but it’s once I win the award, what the hell do I do with it and how do I maximise it as much as possible? How do I use the platform for expanding my work. So, for me, the work starts from the time the award is won. The Grammy is given for a particular project, so that’s pretty cool. But the Padma Shri was extremely special, because that’s almost for your lifetime of work and given by your country. I think that is the greatest honour I have achieved.
Q. We don’t see you working much in the Hindi film industry. Is that a conscious decision?
That is a conscious decision, for sure. Of course, I’ve been offered a lot, more so after I won my first Grammy. But as much as I love listening to Hindi film music and watching Hindi movies, I do not see myself making it. I want to make the kind of music that I love. I had to make a strong decision early on in my career whether I want to be extremely well known for songs that do not define me, or do I be lesser known for songs that define me. I chose the second option because it’s a little more honest to the kind of music that I create.
Q. What’s next for you? What are you looking forward to?
I have spent so much time, effort and money on this album that I think it deserves to be heard as much as possible. So, for the next one year, I’m only going to concentrate on promoting this album, playing it at concerts and trying to get as many people as possible to listen to it and trying to get it heard.
Q. How would you describe yourself as a musician?
I would say I’m a musician painter… where I like communicating something through my music and also keep music as artistic as possible in my own small way.
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