Report: Unconvention Mumbai

The problem with most music conferences in India is that musicians don’t attend them. So when the British Council announced that it would pay the travel expenses of 100 ‘fellows’ for Unconvention, they’d already done half the work. Unconvention was a remarkable effort though for more than just the fact that indie kids (metalheads included) from around the country showed up.

Day 1: Saturday, November 21
There were plenty of reasons for scenesters to feel out of place at the British Council auditorium in south Mumbai over the course of Unconvention. For one, everything began and ended almost exactly on time. Also, metal was discussed. Everyone who attended – panelists, ‘fellows’, assorted music scene people – knew there was a lot to be learned from the two day conference, and made it a point therefore to leave their egos and assumptions about the way things should work behind.

Most of what was discussed in the panels is available on the Incredible Indie site, so we’re just going to list some key highlights.

• “Bollywood is not the beast” – Vijay Nair, co-founder Only Much Louder. For all our Bollywood bashing, this one statement perhaps rang truest. While it is the dominating entertainment force in the country, there are several opportunities the predictability of the Hindi film industry offers the Indian independent music scene. Nair’s opening address made some biting remarks about the lackadaisical attitude of a lot of Indian indie musicians but also offered some great advice. “Work on whatever it takes to connect with your fans,” he said, suggesting that bands should take down the email addresses and phone numbers of fans who turn up for their gigs; advice put to practice by Bangalore folk-rock act Swarathma the very next day.
• “Be original” – David Bianchi, founder and head of Grand Union Management, manager of The Enemy and Reverend and the Makers among others. He also opined, “You come from a country where Mr Big sells 20,000 tickets.”

• “You’re kind of fucked on various levels, but so is everyone else” – Sumit Bothra, head of Embargo Management. For the longest time, the biggest complaint of anyone involved with the Indian indie scene was the lack of a support system – venues, media, groupies, et al – one that was presumed to be available abroad, therefore making India a special case. But, as Bothra pointed out, these problems exist everywhere, if not in the same vein, then in other areas. Indian indie needs to create its own systems, and these start when we stop blaming something else for our own entrepreneurial inadequacies.
• Metal Hammer magazine is coming to India.

• “Every member of the band should have a second skill” – John Sullivan, MD of Source Productions. Whether this is graphic designing, PR work, or just physical strength to lug more CDs, every band member should contribute more than just playing an instrument.
• There’s a lot we don’t know about intellectual property rights with respect to music. While the panel (Unpublished) shed some light on music publishing, it’s real benefit was in getting every single musician present motivated enough to find out what the hell publishing was all about.

• This is an incredible example of a band working with a brand, in an uber cool way.
• For every paid show that Swarathma does, they perform a free show for audiences who don’t normally have access to live music.

—–

Day 2: Sunday, November 22
The true test of how good or bad Day 1 of Unconvention had been would be the number of people who turned up for the 10am session on Sunday. And, in keeping with the trend of scenester surprise Saturday, about 75% of the people present on Day 1 turned up on time-ish on Day 2. With a little schedule editing, everything was largely on track, give or take 30 minutes.

Here are some highlights from day two.

• Andrew Dubber‘s opening presentation for the Music As Culture panel was an interesting insight into how well, music reflects our culture, and, we suppose, vice versa. He took several digs at Australia, which were well received by an audience smarting from a recent One Day International series loss to the Aussies.
• Music Basti, “a project connecting the music community with street children through a music learning program”, got much love and some money (via a donation box passed around) for the great work they’re doing with street children in New Delhi. Here’s an interesting article about them in the Indian Express.
  

• Here’s what you need to know about Bant Singh. His advice to songwriters – take a stand, one that is on either side of the class divide in our country. Don’t write music to entertain, write it because it means something to you. Think about the common man – the one largely ignored as political parties and their agendas keep changing in the nation.
• “Verbal propaganda in other forms should go hand in hand with music” – Bant Singh.
• Sumit Bothra’s idea for retailing music – sell music in lifestyle spaces like coffee shops, malls and, um, barber shops. That barber shop idea’s a winner.
• Networks your band should be on – Imeem, Reverbnation, SellaBand.

• The idea that a venue that has a live music space has to “support” bands/the scene is flawed. As Amit Keswani of Hard Rock Cafe pointed out, they’re a business first, and they need to ensure they make their own money, just like the bands.
• When asked if a band, which had Rs 200,000 to spend on gigs, should play one key international showcase or a bunch of gigs in their home country, Vishal Dadlani advised the former option. His reasoning? The Indian gigs will still be there when you get back. Makes sense.
• Rahul Ram of Indian Ocean explained the importance of playing gigs abroad – it increases a band’s self belief. Something we’ve seen already with the bands that played the SoundPad showcases (Advaita, Swarathma, Medusa and Indigo Children) in the UK earlier this year.

• A fight almost broke out offstage during the Indie Top 10 panel. You missed it, damn.
• Here are the points I made during this panel – control your own PR. Most venues have their own PR companies and they usually send out band bios to the press. If you don’t send them your own, and make sure it gets used, this might happen
• The Other People with every performance they were good at rock n roll getting attracted to sounds of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry etc. With a great fan following of rock n roll The Other People makes a re-appearance to the Hard Rock Café to give the crowds a swinging performance yet again.
• Package your PR material well. Make sure it’s spell-checked and uses correct grammar.
  
• Check out this list of things overheard at Unconvention.

Unconvention was a truly engaging music conference, and if the inspired faces of everyone who left the British Council auditorium on Sunday evening were anything to go by, the sleeping giant slightly obese person that is Indian indie is about to wake up and throw his weight around. As the opening slide of Vijay Nair’s introductory presentation put it, awesomeness.

Kunal Kakodkar took these ace pics. Check out more of his work. He likes shawarma.