 And I do apologize. It's Kale? Well, it's Kale. Kale. Kale. Kale. Because we, I think we called you Kale for three years. I apologize for that. I'm so sorry. Hey, welcome back to our stupid reactions. And we're with Mahesh. Kale. Kale. Kale. The incomparable Mahesh Kale. Kale. Who we just, we just were blessed to see live. Yes, we were. A few minutes ago. You are our first, second technically, our first Indian kind of concert was with the Ustad Jusque Hussein. But he was with a guy playing like a cello. Yeah, there were no vocalists. You are our first ever Indian classical concert. Yeah. And it was, I don't know if there's, it felt kind of like a three-hour reaction because I felt how I do after reactions almost speechless because you don't need me to tell you this. You're really talented. But Mahesh is currently doing a United States tour. You're first, correct? Yes. I mean performed in many places. Right. I haven't been on an extended time on the road, so to say. Yeah. I've always wanted to know why not. Yes. And so I will put the link in the description below so you can go buy tickets because you absolutely need to buy tickets to go see this wonderful, wonderful concert. What is, well first, before I were on that subject, what are the differences between an Indian audience in India and like an audience in the United States? What would be the big differences, if any? Not many differences. Some differences because there is anticipation of familiarity for the Indian audiences and then there is anticipation of mysticism for the Western audience because they don't know what to expect. They are ready to go somewhere they don't know but they know they are probably going to feel good while these are visitors that have been to the city a few times before that they know we want to go there and there and there so when the anticipation is relinquished they feel good versus in the West when people are coming for the first time they feel like they are more kind of trying to see where they are going to be headed to. Yeah. Is each concert different in many ways or in small ways or a little bit of both? Many ways. Many ways. You know the same river doesn't flow twice. We don't breathe the same air twice so Indian classical music is very spontaneous it's like you cannot decide what you will crave to eat a month after so it's just in the moment. So I like to surrender myself to the moment and whatever inspires me I go and start singing. Yeah. So you have an insane range. Oh my goodness. We didn't really understand it. We got to hear it tonight but at least we think we heard the full range. And I'm not a musician Rick is a musician so what would your range actually be if you know in terms of like... We will think about that in terms of western. You probably can sing bass and tenor. I don't want to sound philosophically but I think it is my range is enough to experience but not enough to express. Oh wow. But note for note because our only understanding would be in western understandings of that the notes I heard you singing would be within the range of what's a bass would hit and they would also be in the range that a tenor would hit. Yeah I mean I was trained to do a full three octaves. There you go. That's what I can do. Yeah. But it's something to hold not to display. Right. I don't always... It's nice sometimes I like oh let's go low today that's what I felt like today. Right. Partially because this is the third concert of the weekend and my voice has taken a beating. I'm sure. And it naturally lends itself to the lower registers then. Yeah. I mean obviously we know Indian musicians in general all of them start very young in terms of when they start training. Did you start like as a wee wee child as well? You know I don't know. Yes I mean I've been told I sang my first song when I was three years old but it's mostly like you know it's beautiful with music and it's very close. I know you're a dad. You know the baby learns the language just as sounds and after they actually learn the words they start deciphering what those sounds actually mean until then the sounds are just associations. So I have started to learn music since it was just an association to me. Yeah. And then once you start learning the language and the grammar that association starts making a little more sense. Yeah. That's basically how it was. Yes I started young. My mother was a singer. She was a homemaker but she was very passionate about singing. When me and my elder brother were both teenagers is when she actually decided to get into a master's program and get her degree in music. That's how passionate she was. So I was very fortunate to be growing up around music all the time. Yeah. I know a lot of Indians are way more familiar with Indian classical music than we are or most people are in the West. I have a question about that in a second but the main question I have is I was reading that when you were growing up and you were a disciple if I mispronounce the name please forgive me of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki and that I've heard it described as a Gurukul-like setting. Yeah. What exactly is that? You wouldn't even know what that means in terms of the setting you grew up in and studied. It means you just go hang out, you don't have a schedule and then you observe and then you imbibe and you execute that is basically what it is. It's like an internship when there is no clock in or clock out time. I got you. So it's an absorbing all of the time. See until then what happens usually like many other things you do you look at music as a thing that you want to conquer and achieve and then you put a schedule around it you say I'm going to do it twice a week I'm going to do twice a week and every day and twice a day but in a Gurukul you are suspended in a way that music surrounds you when you are sleeping. It is with you the whole time whether you are consciously doing it or not. So you do it enough amount of time when you are awake that when you go to sleep the subconscious mind starts doing it on its own and hence you get into a 24 hour cycle. So in a way, in the Gurukul you actually learn music as a way of life not as a subject to conquer. Right. I think Ustaji said something. He did say something about the instrument itself. He's not the master. Our vernacular would be to say someone's a master of an instrument and his response to that was I don't master it I'm allowed to partner with the instrument I do not master the instrument. But he's definitely a master. Very masterful. We know that you've done work with him. Yes. I'm very lucky to have worked with him a few times. The concert that we just saw you were speaking mostly in Marathi, correct? I'm sorry. No, that's fine. Don't be pleased. It's part of my question. And so obviously any time you talked I didn't really understand what you were saying and people were laughing, people were clapping at times but then when the music started I could understand what you were saying for the most part, right? Do you think music is like the universal language? Oh absolutely. As long as all human beings irrespective of their geography their privilege, their background laugh when they feel the same way cry when they feel sorrow jump when they feel elated I think the bottom line is always going to be the same for all of us. It is one language that we understand even if we did not know it that is what I feel about music because you could see that there were different age groups and they are from different places in India also here but there was kind of a unison in response of how nobody laughed and why everyone else was crying everyone was elated at the same time and that's the bottom line I think music is a wonderful equalizer and brings to me all living beings on the same platform. One of the things I loved about the concert was how much you had us the audience involved where we were singing with you and we had to respond and not just because that's an entertaining thing but because it evidences how much it means to you to have people involved and you said a beautiful thing during the concert you encouraged people to sing because they had messed it up and you said so you said, yeah, no that wasn't good but then you said get perfect joy with an imperfect melody for us and everyone in the West who doesn't fully understand the depth of what it means to you for us to understand Indian music what's some of the most important things you'd want us to know about Indian classical music for people who don't know anything about it what are some of the most important things for you for us to take away from it I think it's the purest impression of the breath in the sound arena it's more introspective I mean I might be singing loudly doing a bunch of things but it brings me an acute sense of calm inside I mean I am there with you I'm making all of you sing and indulging with all of you but in a different plane I'm flying and I think it's empowering and humbling both at the same time and you know by and large in the way that the world is turning and changing so many of us are trying to look for happiness all around us and indulging so much that we forget that all the happiness that needs to be is all inside us and I think music is such a simple and a beautiful path go to that inward journey and if it gives me that much joy and if me singing and having joy gives people around joy it's what a wonderful world absolutely, absolutely that's a good segue into the question I had and I've asked another musician this how do you see music when you're reading it or when you hear it for the first time how do you see it in your head well it's different sometimes it's just all white and pure and there's nothing you feel like you're drenched in the rain it's like a breeze that washes off of you or sometimes there's an absolute sense of calm to a place where it is so quiet that the sound of silence is what is most enamoring does that also translate into what I understand about Indian classical music is that the moments in between the notes are more important often than the notes themselves including the silences yes it's not only what but how you sing certain I mean it's the shape of the notes not just the position of the notes so I love to blend it's like building a sculpture in the air using the notes that's a great analogy it's actually another good segue into my next question you are very expressive with your hands while you sing more than others in terms of maybe this is why are you directing the music like how to come out like when you're pointing it goes like that when you're doing I forget what it's called but that thing you're spinning your hands is that just part of your training but one I don't know that I'm doing all that thank you very much but you know so again at the risk of sounding philosophical please do you know the mind is what is playing your body as an instrument where the lead is being taken by your voice and then it all comes together with your body so it's almost like my hands my gestures are the accompanying instruments to my voice and my mind or my soul is playing this whole instrument together so just like you have the drums and the melody accompanist I think somehow my hands and my face are trying to accompany the music that flows through my voice would it be comparable say to an electric guitarist makes facial expressions while they play so it's just the physical accompaniment happening through the expression there's a beautiful scene in the movie Avatar where he goes and so it's like that once your mind attaches to your body and it just flows and when it flows you don't know which way the breeze is going to sway you but you let it because it's the most beautiful thing to experience I go unhindered if you talked to me off stage I'm a little reserved but on stage I just feel possessed and I'm allowed I have a personal question because I saw this on your website about who you've worked with you worked with Pedro Eustach I know Pedro so when did you get to work? I was in LA there's something called grand performances where they block out the down now and they have different bands so we were part of this if I remember it correctly Raga Jazz or something Paul was on it there was cellist, there was a piano player there was a drummer and then there was Pedro and I bonded with Pedro because he has learned with Hariji for a little while and I love how he surrenders to the instrument that's something that we have in common and he's a very sweet kind, open what's wonderful we've interviewed quite a few not maybe not quite a few but a couple amazing playback singers or classical Indian singers and like Chakraborty or people like that and people get mad at us when we don't ask them to sing on camera I'm not asking you to sing right now I'll get mad if you did it's not the three hours of time you've done enough singing but apparently it's like very normal to ask Indian classical singers to perform for you right off the bat but also I saw it in your concert like you'll be just talking and then you'll go straight into music or like it felt like you just got on you just came into the venue and you started singing is your voice just always ready to go? it goes back to the training where I said that music is a way of life you know the musical concert starts from the time you leave your home or whatever place to go for the venue the breath that you breathe in with the consciousness of I'm going to the concert is actually where the concert begins and that's where your subconscious brain starts understanding things I don't know them but I would like to believe that's how it happens so and it's like a play field you're playing ball you don't need to warm up to play catch you just throw the ball you catch and then throw back and you catch that's what music is for well from what I know of like western singers they need like tea they need like lemon water we have particular regimens that they go with I love this musical lot Andhra Pocheli I love love his voice Josh Groban they're all wonderful so they are beautiful singers you know this is only a passage right the music comes from a deeper place within what you're going to drink or eat is not going to reach there you're just going to make sure that you condition your body so that whatever has to flow through flow through unhindered and of course we have some Ayurvedic I'm actually having an Ayurvedic tablet right now which has some turmeric, some cinnamon and concoction of certain different herbs I like to have it because I think it makes me salivate and keeps on making me hydrated but I don't think I have a regime I I might be an engineer and you would like to believe that I have an algorithmic life but I'm very spontaneous my body knows what I want before I actually know or somehow I get on the stage and for us musicians working we didn't sing I think in fact that's the first time we sang that track together you saw how spontaneously we were getting it it's just you know sometimes we think control is very empowering I think surrender is more empowering than that and I love to surrender to music take me wherever it can which is the nature I understand of Indian classical music itself is the improvisational aspect of it the other thing that's very obvious and is beautiful as part of the experience is the fact that the only word I can figure out and this is probably the word is there's an auspiciousness to the way you are on the platform on the stage where you are shoeless or sockless and you are cross-legged and we found that to be pretty much the case across the board with all classical musicians that they tend to not we're in the west there's a lot of standing and I've been directed before to not be sitting because you can slouch but I know you've been trained and is that coming from a place of respect for the music, respect for God respect for your instrument you know if you went to a temple I know you guys went to India a few years ago if you went to a temple when you meet the gods, when you pray them you're not supposed to leave without sitting and just respecting and observing your respect to them I think the sitting comes from that background when you sit with music you're actually praying for the higher divine power to intervene and flow through you and for that you sit you surrender you allow everything that has to and that only happens in worship and in worship there is surrender so that cross legged position is I volunteer myself for the music to flow through that is the way I look at it and sockless because we don't wear shoes in the temple so to me the moment the drones, Tampura starts playing my accompanists are in their places the stage transforms into a temple and we observe the same kind of decorum we would in the temple yeah we've seen you also as a playback singer in I apologize I do not know the Marathi name I do not know the Marathi name the one with here I'll teach you Katyaar Karozat Karozat Karozat I will not remember that Goosley Goosley I like that word he'll take Goosley out of that Goosley like Bruce Lee Goosley Goosley that's like the only Marathi word I know I think Goosley we need to know friend though because we know friend in Hindi and Bengali but what would be Mitra Mitra are you saying that but anyways obviously on that movie I'm not going to say it again what is there any difference in playback singing verses obviously yes there is I'll tell you the difference you know live music is kind of playing a sports game where you start scoring from zero every single time you actually sing and singing in the studio is like drawing a painting you can redraw you can change and only when you think it is ready you actually put it for display that is what recorded music is so it's a very different kind of a ballgame recording versus a performing life yeah I just want to make sure we're respectful on time how we're doing questions I just have a final statement that I want to just thank you for about the concert before we go do we want to speed round do you want to have any other yeah we'll do a rapid fire really quick here okay with a slow musician rapid fire with a slow musician you were doing that really fast at the intermission we were outside drinking some chai and hanging out I need you to teach me was he singing what do you call I apologize it's called Don Don faster pushes right yeah the fastest which it's the same mechanism of western vibrato yes it's just a lot faster it sounds awesome and you do a lot in like one breath too right yeah yeah it's crazy you know it's like when I was a kid I'm sure you must have done it also when you're a kid you're trying to jump from the stairs and you're jumping because you want to get there you don't essentially count the number of stairs that you go to me when I'm doing those portions it's not about how long I can do but it's how far I want to go and sometimes I go there and sometimes I don't but it's okay that's awesome anyways rapid fire you're on coffee with Karan right now we have a hamper coffee or chai chai when I have a set schedule and coffee when I'm traveling all right thing you miss most when you're away from India when I'm away from India well food folks thank you miss most when you're away from the United States my wife thoughts on winning an Oscar for natu natu right answer favorite marathi food favorite marathi food has to be hands down varan bhat and katsure chi bhaji which is dal and rice and potatoes fried stir fried in a certain way sounds like my Bengali wife she's like yeah that sounds wonderful is it spicy it's spicy but not spiciest it's spicy for me I have white boy disease favorite style of music other than classical it's very hard to choose I'll tell you why when I was going to UCSB I did middle eastern ensemble then I did jazz and popular music and all of this I love to nibble a little bit of food that's how I feel about all non classical genres rap rap has something we call it laikari the syncopation of the beats it's a beautiful thing it's kind of like a kaleidoscope where all shapes have to make sense and then they change and they change and they have to make sense again and they have to sound beautiful favorite western singer or a few favorite Indian actor favorite Indian actor favorite Indian actor Shahrukh besides yourself who is the greatest Indian singer oh give me a three it's got to be my Guruji I can't see anything beyond my Guruji he's got to be I mean he's I don't think I can compare anyone to him because the way I feel about him even when he's not singing is so musical he's like very musical but there are too many I can't name three but if there have to be three Bhimsen Joshi Ji hmm how long can you hold your breath do you know no I well I don't you don't hold your breath well you have great breath support I use my breath to go as far as I want so like when you're swimming you don't ask your wife to time you I favorite Indian movie favorite in besides your movie favorite Indian movie Indian industry you'd be surprised but I like Munna Bhai MBBS a lot we haven't seen it yet I loved the comedies but I also like I loved Wednesday Nassir and I also love the typical Shahrukh Khan movies I love Amil Khan movies I love to it's sad that I haven't gone to watch too many movies lately I only am able to watch movies when I'm flying across and I'm not able to complete because I'm always sleeping and last where can people in the United States go to buy tickets to your concert can that be done through your website yes yeah yeah I don't know the exact description it'll be in the description don't worry did you want to say something I just wanted to say just as a closing point that you had mentioned a few moments ago about the atmosphere in the world that we live in right now and how the atmosphere in the concerts is so wonderful because you don't see in the world right now a lot of unity and kindness and that is the one thing even though we don't speak Marathi and that was what everyone was speaking there was a unity of everyone involved experiencing the same emotions being in the moment with you knowing what you were doing and what the instruments were doing with you was just in the moment and aside from the beauty of the artistry one of the most beautiful takeaways from this is to have experienced three hours of humanity being unified and at peace and focusing on higher things and appreciating beautiful things that was one of the most unexpected and beautiful things about the concert tonight so thank you for that I can't say anything as pretty as that thank you so much you can just say Mahesh Kare and Katyaar Karzad Kusli Kusli how do you say Mithra goodbye in Marathi is there a word you don't say goodbye let me see you again let me say something funny in Marathi anything silly anything silly you want me to say something silly he would like to know something silly in Marathi that he can say or vulgar okay I'll tell you something it's like a very village kind of what do you want to say what do you want to say what do you want to say what do you want to say there you go he's gonna he will rememberize that and he'll do it in intro so thank you thank you so much