The Indies ’09: Indie Of The Year

The Indiecision ‘09 is a recap of the year gone by in Indian indie and a recognition of the work of its artists and those involved with the creation and promotion of the music.
The Indie Of The Year is the Indian independent artist or associate whose creative and entrepreneurial work was the most impressive in 2009. The nominees for Indie Of The Year are

Cochin act Motherjane are soon becoming Indian rock’s equivalent of ‘stadium’. Following the release of 2008′s Maktub the band, with their US-based promoter, took Facebook and college festivals by storm playing big outdoor gigs across the country and in the process gaining one of the most loyal fan bases of any Indian act today. Supported by the work of their label Aum-I Artistes, Motherjane are proving that the possibility of being full-time musicians in this country is not as absurd as it was.

As the folks behind Underscore Records, singer Shubha Mudgal and tabla player Aneesh Pradhan have always been indie music heroes. But in 2009, they further cemented their reputation as crusaders for the independent music scene by organising Baajaa Gaajaa conference in Pune. They followed it up with another seminar in Mumbai on intellectual property rights for musicians later in the year. They’re already planning the second edition of Baajaa Gaajaa. Whether it’s banding together independent musicians or empowering them with the knowledge to go it on their own, Shubha Mudgal and tabla player Aneesh Pradhan have been the first couple of the Indian indie scene. They’re Indian classical royalty to the country, but to us, they’re among the nation’s biggest rock stars.

Swarathma do everything an Indian indie rock band should be doing, and then some. It’s not just that they give you fabulous art work with their CDs, it’s not just they’re one of the most active groups on Facebook/Twitter/every other social network out there. It’s how when all the other bands were nodding their heads at Unconvention, these guys weren’t just taking notes, they were implementing each and every one of the suggestions given out to them by the panellists. After their gig at Zenzi, staged on the last day of Unconvention, they took down the email addresses of all the audience members and as suggested, sent “Thank for your coming” mails to our Inboxes the following week. They’re kicking off 2010 with a free gig for every gig, another learning from the two-day seminar. Oh, and did we mention that they’re also the nicest guys in Indian rock? Even if they weren’t, they’d still be the example to follow for all the other bands out there.

Vijay Nair and Co at Only Much Louder are setting a template for indie artist and event management in the country. The perpetual complaint with Indian indie over the past decade has been its disorganised nature. OML’s work, in 2009 in particular, is reconciliating a disconnected scene by harmonizing the work of the various parties involved. This was recognised by the British Council worldwide when Nair was awarded the International Young Music Entrepreneur award in ’09 after comfortably winning the award at home.

In the days before Blue Frog, the Alliance Francaise and Max Mueller Bhavan were a couple of your best hopes of getting a chance to see some quality international music talent, and while those two cultural organisations continue to introduce us to some great acts from France and Germany, the British Council decided, for some reason, to put their money and muscle behind home-grown talent, specifically Indian rock bands. The first-half of the year saw the release of the long-awaited, British Council-funded compilation Soundpad. In the second half, they held Unconvention, a two-day music seminar on the Indian independent (rock) music scene. If Indian rockers were ever looking for a guardian angel, they found it in the unlikely form of an NGO from the UK.

And the Indie Of The Year is

Swarathma.

Head to the Indiecision ‘09 homepage for all the action.