The Gibson Profile: Karsh Kale

Karsh Kale is a pioneer of world fusion. In the last 12 years he has occupied the roles of solo recording artist, producer and composer. He has this seamless ability to weave Indian classical and folk with electronica and ambient music. Known for his percussive talents, he has developed a reputation as a genre-bending collaborator working with the likes of Anoushka Shankar, Midival Punditz, Herbi Hancock, Chaka Khan, and Lenny Kravitz to name a few.

His love for guitars goes beyond just the ethereal stroke of the strings, but of the depth of emotion and transcending history it has

When you think about music and the history of music, you think of orchestration, and how music was created with the elements that were available. The guitar took on the role of seven different instruments in an orchestra. I mean rock n’ roll is possible because of the experiments done on the guitar. It became the cello, the violin, the viola… but when you play an electric guitar, you strum one chord, it fills up that whole spectrum. And that’s really the magic of what the electric guitar is able to do.

Kale currently plays the Spanish-style, acoustic-electric, Gibson ES 339 which he describes as being “versatile between getting a really nice acoustic clean sound, to getting a really nice, dirty distortion. Which, in the studio, is good to have range, and you don’t have to change between three guitars.”

His first Gibson guitar was the Gibson Les Paul, which he appreciates for its ”playability”. He says, “The Les Paul was designed for people who, not just want to play, but for people who really want to express something with a guitar . It’s one of the finest examples of the kind of guitar that is made for expression.”

Previously we spoke to Rahul Ram (of Indian Ocean), Sidd Coutto (of Tough on Tobacco), Ankur Tewari (of Ankur & The Ghalat Family), Randolph Correia of Pentagram and Shaa’ir + Func,the guys from menwhopause and Abhishek Mathur of Advaita about their guitars. More from a Gibson fanboy soon (follow Gibson Guitar India on Facebook to find more indie rockers who use Gibson guitars). As always, stay tuned.

Karsh Kale

Karsh Kale will be curating NH7 All-Stars at the Bacardi Together Stage at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender on Sunday, November 20. Tickets are now on sale.

Visit the official Gibson Guitar India website and find your own Gibson. Follow Gibson Guitar India on Facebook and Twitter for updates too!

Photos by Anja Mathews