In November 2023, Jacob Collier stood on stage in Bengaluru as rain poured down and a storm wreaked havoc on what was supposed to be a seated concert. The British multi-instrumentalist had arrived in India for a solo piano tour, armed with just his harmonizer keyboard and five-string guitar. What was meant to be an intimate, controlled environment quickly transformed into something else entirely—a standing show, drenched in rain and spontaneous energy.
“Each one of those shows was so rich and so vivid,” Collier recalls from his London studio, the same room where he creates most of his music. “The Bangalore show was crazy because we had the massive storm in the afternoon, and so it became a standing show. The energy was just crazy, you know. It completely destroyed all the expectations I had.”
For an artist who has built his reputation on meticulous arrangements, complex harmonies, and a seemingly superhuman ability to play virtually any instrument, Collier’s willingness to embrace chaos might seem paradoxical. But it’s precisely this tension between control and spontaneity that has defined his recent touring approach—and it’s what has him returning to India this week with his full band in tow.
The tour kicked off in Bengaluru before moving to Mumbai’s Nesco Center on November 30 and wrapping up in Delhi NCR on December 2. Unlike his previous visit, this time Collier is bringing what he calls “the big show”—his complete ensemble, ready to deliver the full-scale production that his recorded work has hinted at for years.
“My absolute dream is to bring the big show to India, where the biggest amount of love and energy and enthusiasm is,” he says. “I’m so excited, really.”
Collier has always been known to adapt, whether on stage or in his sonic chameleonic ways through studio releases, the most recent being his five-string guitar folk-driven album The Light For Days.
“I think I’m the kind of artist who really enjoys plans changing and also enjoys an amount of spontaneity,” he explains. “There’s something amazing about live music, and it’s that you can’t get that experience anywhere else. My job as the kind of curator and the person on stage is to roll with the punches and to try and incorporate as much of that spontaneity as I can.” On stage, the storm that hit his Bengaluru show in 2023 could have derailed the entire evening. Instead, he leaned into it, opening with “Singing in the Rain”—a song he’d never planned to perform that night.
It helps that “the audiences in India really meet me there” when it comes to the energy. He adds, “There are some audiences who would rather stay away from some of those more spontaneous ideas or interactions. But the amount of energy was so inspiring to me, and I still remember it now, very vividly.”
After the Bengaluru show, Collier stayed back and spent an hour outside the venue talking to fans about the shared experience of the rain and storm. “Those are some of the moments I treasure most, actually, from the whole trip,” he reflects. “Just meeting people in the street and hearing stories and learning from them about what life is like in India, and what life is like for musicians in India.”
Collier’s relationship with India—where he first performed in 2019—has naturally extended beyond audience, to musicians. Djesse Vol. 4, released early in 2024, featured collaborations with Indian artists Anoushka Shankar and Varijashree Venugopal. The latter also just joined him on stage at the Bengaluru stop of his tour.
“There are so many musicians in India that inspire me and have inspired me over the years,” he says. “Anushka is a dear friend of mine, and Varijashree as well—two incredible musicians, world class musicians. But to me, I think of it as the very beginning of, hopefully, a lifelong relationship with that whole musical frontier.”
For Collier, India represents something fundamental to his musical worldview. “When I think about the world’s deepest musicians and some of the sources of some of the things I care most about in music, whether it’s time and rhythm, or whether it’s microtonal tunings or whatever happens to be, it’s like I look to India,” he explains. “So I’m excited to see what the future might hold with that too.”
The Light For Days, released this year, came together in just four days before Collier departed for his Asia tour earlier this year. He pans the camera to show him sitting in his studio with his R88 ribbon microphone and five-string guitar and explains how he found himself drawn to creating something different from the maximalist approach of the Djesse series.
He says, “It becomes a bit of an homage to the guitar, but also to gentleness. I’ve really kind of realized this year just how important gentleness is for me as a musician, as a lover of sound, but also as a communicator and as a performer, as a citizen of the world.”
It wasn’t a “high pressure situation” to make or release the album, but says it felt “right” to put the songs out in the world. Collier adds, “After the Djesse adventure, I didn’t quite know what the next big thing is. I still don’t know what the next big thing is, but it just feels so good to make music, and share it.”
Collier remains conscious of the boxes people try to place him in. When asked about this by fellow artist Aditi Ramesh—who opened for him in Bengaluru in 2023—he acknowledged the constant evolution required to stay true to himself.
“I think it’s a natural feeling to have, if you’re a creative person, is to feel like there aren’t specific straight line edges that you kind of belong in. I’ve always felt like a wiggly line, not like a straight line,” he says. “At first it was like, ‘Oh, Jacob does a cappella videos, and that’s what he does.’ And then it was like, ‘Now Jacob is a jazz guy, and it’s a one man show.’ And then it’s like, ‘Oh, now it’s about collaboration, and now it’s about audience.’ But the truth is, it’s all of these things and more.”
It’s a perspective that he says has allowed him to remain prolific without burning out. Collier has been touring intensively for the past four years, crisscrossing Asia, Europe, the US, South America, and now returning to India before heading to China and Australia. When asked about taking a break, he’s philosophical.
“I’m not the kind of person who switches off easily,” he admits. “I think there are seasons to different kinds of output. I’ve been touring really intensively for about four years, so I’m excited next year to do a little bit less touring and to focus more on other parts of my creative life and my human life.”
But even in rest, Collier anticipates continued creation. “I’m such a kind of creative bubbler of thoughts. There are always things I’m making and growing. If I make space for myself, then that space will get filled with other kinds of creative ideas.”
Beyond the music, Collier has his priorities straight for this India visit. “First of all, it’s food. It’s just food and more food,” he says with genuine enthusiasm. “The last time I was in India, I ate as much as I possibly could, and then it was that thing where I came home to London, then everything tasted really bland, you know, like cardboard, because of the amount of power and beauty and the flavor.”
He’s also eager to introduce India to his band members, including Nepal-origin singer Parijita Bastola, who will be experiencing the subcontinent for the first time. “I’m also just excited to get to introduce India to some of my bandmates who haven’t been there before,” he says. “I think we’re just going to have a lot of fun and be as expansive and inspired as possible.”
As for what comes after this tour wraps, Collier remains characteristically open-ended. “There are so many frontiers that I feel excited to explore, not only just as a musician, but just as a person,” he says. “The only limit is what I can imagine, which is a little bit terrifying, because I can imagine a lot of stuff. But for now, I’m just going to finish this tour this year, take a little bit of time next year and see where the universe wants me to go. I’d love to go wherever I’m most needed.”
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