 Do you want to do a little musical intro there, Tashar? Okay, let's just make it clear right now in case anyone had any question. You play way better than Corbin. How are you doing, Tashar? I'm good. I think I'm going nuts because I'm going out of my house in the past 15, 16 days. And you know, India is under a complete lockdown, which makes a lot of sense. So how you cope with it? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Sorry? How are you coping with it all? I don't know, I stare at the wall like half the day. I don't have any coping mechanisms, but yeah, I'm listening to a lot of music now actually. I mean, this is actually very strange, you know, I don't actively sit and listen to music, but this social isolation is kind of forcing me to just listen to a lot more new artists. And yeah, I've been doing that. I've been composing a lot of new originals, like a lot of them. So it's for that, you know, that web series I told you about. So yeah, that's going on. And you know, I mean, actually this is what, you know, a composer's lifestyle would be even without the quarantine. So it's, I mean, now people around me, they've started calling it social isolation. And I'm like, yeah, that's just, you know, like a regular day for me. But yeah, I mean, I don't understand, you know, this special terminology that's come around. But yeah, it's actually... Yeah, I mean, I just miss going out, you know, I miss going out. I would love to, you know, step out once in a while, go to Beirut, eat good food. Yeah, so we've met to Shar before for those who don't follow us on Instagram and Twitter, which you should. You should. We met in Mumbai. We had every intention of actually doing this interview in India when we were with them. But we kind of just got caught up in talking with them at the house. And then we went to lunch and had some delicious food. And then we kind of, we had a previous engagement after that. So we never actually got to interview to Shar like we wanted to. And also, to Shar doesn't like to call this an interview. We're having a conversation right now. Yes. To Shar wants to make that perfectly clear. Yeah, I mean, we're having a conversation. Even if someone, you know, even if someone tells me that, you know, hey, I'm your fan, I immediately in my head feel, you know, that's giving me way too much importance. Like, calm down and, you know, like call, maybe like call yourself a supporter. Yeah. But, you know, I'm very, I get very nervous. I'm very nervous, of course, like, you know, fan or interview or, you know, anything to, you know, anything on those lines, I get really like, oh, don't do that. I agree. But yeah, this is a conversation. That's a good disclaimer at the start. So, Rick, do you have something you want? Do I have a... You stopped in mid-sentence. You haven't talked, so I don't want to cut you off. So... You can't cut me off if I'm not talking. Badoom! That's... No, I've got a bunch of questions in our conversation for To Shar. Yeah, go ahead. Please. Yeah. So, how... First of all, like, how old were you when you first started doing anything musical? And what was that? What introduced you to music and at what age? I actually... Oh, this is strange. I actually started playing keyboard when I was... I think I was four or five. And I started it not because, you know, I was looking for it or I was seeking it. And I don't want to sound preachy here. I started it because we had a toy keyboard in our house and my sister used to play it and I used to get jealous of her playing. I used to be like, oh my God, look at her, you know, what is she doing? She's doing a thing. So, like, you know, I'm going to get to it and I'm going to play better. So, that's how I started. And, yeah, it's because of my sister, Tulika, you know. And she used to play My Heart Goes On, like the Celine Dion song. And it was out of, you know, like jealousy that I started playing keyboard. I don't think I would have any other intent if I'm a four-year-old. So, I mean, that was like the purest emotion I had at that age. Right? So, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I can't even, you know, like, fake it and do anything else. You know, like, you know, it came to me or something, what I was for. I was eating mud outside my house. So, you know, like, what else am I supposed to say? Hold on. That's how it started. And then I, like, kind of figured out that, you know, like... Oh! What song is this? It sounds like Lois. Yes, it's... Kind of. Yeah. Yeah, it's Paul McCartney. It was Paul McCartney and Wings. It was a song by Paul McCartney, bro. So, do you have, like... This might be a dumb question coming from a non-musician. But that brought it up to me. Some people have, like, a photographic memory. Do you have that with music? Like, you can hear something once and you kind of know... No, no, no. No? Not at all. I think with, you know, musicians, I think our craft itself, it's so romanticized that a lot of people, you know, try painting it in a light which is very, you know, like, I don't know, surreal. But I think people need to, you know, like, normalize being musicians. So, it's just a job, you know. And I think the more people normalize it, the more, you know, close to reality they will be. So, I mean, you know, I'll never have, you know, like, a preachy answer to this thing. I mean, I've been, you know, listening to music and, you know, trying to kind of ape it on my instrument since I was a kid. And because of that, you know, I've developed this, I don't know, sort of mechanism in my head where I can kind of understand notes and I can see them on the keyboard, you know, before I lay them down on my instrument, like a mental keyboard or whatever. So, that's how it works for me. I mean, there's nothing... There's no photographic memory and all of that. It's only out of practice, you know, like, there's nothing else to it. But there are musicians that can do that, right? Right? Yeah, but you don't really, yeah, you don't really need photographic memory because you're not remembering anything, you know. I mean, you're more, you're kind of flowing with it. So, it's, you know, it's more to do about coordinating multiple things at the same second. It's not about, you know, like remembering stuff and, you know, in a particular order. So, yeah, a lot of people, you know, they have this insane ability where, you know, they can, you know, they can play polyrhythms, you know. I mean, very fluently and they can do, I mean, a lot of crazy stuff. So, it's more about simultaneously doing multiple things together in one go and, you know, like trying to understand things and, you know, reduce things. It's not really about, you know, like a set order where you can remember things. So, it's a very different, like, music has a very different perspective to it when it comes to, you know, being a prodigy or something. And I'm far away from being a prodigy also. I mean, I just play, you know. I've been, okay, no, no. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, I'll send you a bunch of links of, you know, really good pianists and, you know, they'll, and I'll send you links of, you know, six-year-olds who play better than me. So, I mean, I think my personality has got more to do with composition. And I would take, you know, like, I mean, that's something that, you know, I keep close to my heart. But playing wise, yeah. I mean, I can play, but I mean, again, there are players who really can play. Like Jacob Collier. I asked you to check him out, right? Yeah, look what he does. Jacob Collier, Corey, Henry, Yuja Wong. Oh, man. Crazy. You know, we are competing. Who's the better musician that you should check? If you had a keyboard right now, you would have killed me. I know, but it's okay. Nope. I can't play any instruments, so that's a lie. Not one. I'm just glad you were honest about it. Yeah. Go ahead, Rick. So did you, when you were, when you started playing out of the jealousy of your sister, how long I would assume you did what a lot of kids do. Like when I started playing piano, it was, I heard themes to movies and I wanted to play those movie themes on the piano. So I learned Rocky and Star Wars. And that's how my son started playing piano. He heard things and he started to replicate them. Is that what happened with you or did you do a formal study or how did it, how did it trans, how did it grow from there? Well, actually it started like that. And to be very honest, for the first 14 years, it was like that. So I think Till I was about what, no, not 14, like for the first 10 years, it was like that. So I think Till I was, you know, my math is so bad. I just realized Till I was, you know, like 16 or 17, so call it 12, 13 years. Till I was 16, 17, I was, you know, listening to things and you know, I was trying to copy them on my instrument. But then I kind of got into music theory because it's very important when, especially when you're communicating with other musicians. Yeah. So, you know, I mean that just, it just makes your life easy. You know, like there are a lot of people, you know, who were, who weren't, you know, hardcore by the theory, but you know, they were great musicians like the Beatles. You know, I mean, that's, I think that's the finest example. But yeah, I mean, I tried aping tunes till I was about 16, 17, and then I got into theory only so that I could communicate, you know, I could make my communication more easy. And then when I went deeper in it, I found out that, you know, it can also aid my composition. And you know, it can also help me get like a fresh perspective on things and understand them better, you know, decode them in a very, you know, like structural way. So all of that really helped. And why, I know you've probably said this a couple of times, but why did you start the Indian Jam project? What made you want to start that? So I kind of, okay, I mean, there is a backstory to it. I think there's a conscious reason and there's a subconscious reason, the conscious one being I have come across multiple Indian classical musicians and their instruments. And I think they're absolutely extraordinary in every way and it's not really out there, you know, and it's, I mean, you know, there are, there are brilliant sessions by, you know, like the stalwarts of our industry where they would, you know, like go deep in a rag and they jam on it for like 60 minutes. But then again, like if I, if you really have to find a connect for, you know, people who are my age, people who are in the early 20s, no one has the patience or the understanding to sit through that session and they don't kind of listen to the entire thing. And I'm telling you the conscious reason. So I was also a big fan of, you know, I've always listened to score. So even if I'm doing, you know, like normal listening or something, I would pick a score and, you know, I would listen to that entire album. I won't go to like, I don't know, like a musician, like a singer, songwriter thing. So I thought that, you know, like we should pick scores and, you know, because the playability is also a challenge. Like if you're playing something like Hedwig's theme from Harry Potter, you know, it's tough to play while, you know, experimenting with Indian classical instruments. So it'll also be a challenge for Indian classical instruments and, you know, we'll also get to have fun with the score. Like it's not, it's not like a, it's not like a four chord thing, you know, like there are... 1-4, 1-5. Yeah. I know what we're talking about. Sorry for that. 1-4, 1-5, this makes me sad. I mean, no, nothing against commercial music, but I don't like it when it's, you know, recurring and it's the same pattern. I'm with you, brother. So yeah, then I thought that, you know, like maybe we should try merging both the things and I was really into making arrangements and, you know, like writing parts for the instruments and all of that. So I thought, you know, like why not start something and subconsciously, I think I started... I don't know if this is the reason, but this has happened. A very good friend of mine, Jayan, she invited me to her dad's concert. This was in Thane and her dad was a Sarod player and he was... I think he's one of the most extraordinary musicians I've come across. So we went to Thane, you know, Thane is an area in Bombay and I sat through the entire concert. You know, he was brilliant and I was just getting introduced to Indian classical music. So obviously, you know, like I started fanboying and I told her, like, you know, can I go have a picture with him or something? You know, can I go to the green room and meet him? I just want to talk to him. So she told me, yeah, I mean, obviously, then after the concert ended, both of us went behind and I could hear, you know, like loud, loud arguments coming out of the green room and he was basically arguing with the organizers and it was in Marathi. Marathi is not my first language so I couldn't understand anything and I obviously sensed that, you know, something's happened and something's gone off. So I told her, like, you know, we can do this later. And I think after a month when she finally found the comfort to, you know, tell me what happened, she told me that basically the organizers were not paying him any money and before the performance, they basically told him that, you know, we'll pay you like a token amount and then once the performance ended, the token, they told him that we'll pay you a token and the token wasn't money, it was, you know, like a shawl and a bouquet of flowers. So, and he was arguing with them that, you know, I know that, you know, you're giving me a lot of respect and, you know, you're giving me like a shawl and flowers and everything but that's not going to pay my bills. You know, like, give me something and, you know, he was asking for, I don't know, he was asking for two, three grand and that's not, I mean, considering how extraordinary he was, you know, I just felt, I felt like shit and, sorry. You can curse, it's fine. Yeah, okay, okay. I had Nawaz call me a mother, Jordan, it's fine. Oh yeah. And he called. Actually, I completely forgot. Oh yeah, remember he said when he first saw OSR, his first thought was, what is this fuckery? Yeah, he saw the internet. Yeah, no, no, you don't need to apologize, go on. Yeah, so anyway, anyway. Yeah, so then I just felt really bad, you know, and I mean, for someone as extraordinary as him to, you know, fight for two, three grand after a concert and I mean, that's incredibly sad. So I thought that, you know, someone, like I didn't think that, you know, I'm going to do it but I thought someone should start painting Indian classical instruments in a very different light. You know, Indian classical instruments need to come out because when I was listening to that concert, I could easily imagine that, you know, from the notes that he was playing, I could imagine that, you know, he's very capable of playing Star Wars as well and you know, he's very capable of playing maybe something like Harry Potter or the Queen Potter Dream because the instrument is so versatile. So I think that is kind of, like if I have to trace it back, like I've tried thinking about it a lot of times but if I have to trace it back, this would be the reason why I started the Indian Jam project. Again, like it's not, I mean, I'm anyway, you know, like a little distant from the cover space and you know, I would never take a guitar and you know, go like Gulabi Aakhe or something. I'm just not that person but I think I really wanted to recontextualize how people think about Indian classical instruments which was very, very important and that's why we are also taking you know, scores and songs which are very iconic, you know so we are not really, you know, going for like the four chord thing or something I mean we are taking things which are either iconic or which are either like, you know, very challenging and we are trying to, you know, merge and you know, make like this Indian classical soundscape so whatever we are releasing right now that entire soundscape is Indian I mean, there's drums in it and there's a piano in it you know, if you listen to the sound of that thing it's Indian classical and it's solely Indian classical instruments and man, they sound so good I'm not even talking about I'm not even talking about my videos I'm just talking about when I'm recording them in the studio you know, half of the time I'm like, Jesus man help me Yeah, and you definitely helped us get introduced to a lot of instruments just through your videos alone that we had never heard of and all the stuff like that and I'll jump on your question right here Rick and then I'll get back to you, sorry how do you go about picking the songs that you're going to cover basically with Indian music is it just your favorites or is it just, what's your process like that for picking a cover that you want to do next? I mean, it's mostly to do with how I can imagine them in my head so say like if we pick something like Harry Potter I think I have some sort of imagination and that kind of drives me through the entire process so when we were doing Harry Potter I was really excited about the Sarangi playing this part this part I was like, oh my god that's going to sound extraordinary and that's going to sound so good so that kind of I thought man this would be something and also sometimes a lot of these songs they align very nicely with a lot of Indian classical ragas so I think when we were doing a cold please fix you if you change one note in the riff but if you make this a minor it becomes more evocative and it comes close to this rag called Nutt Bhairav and the plan was basically I'm telling you what got me really excited I thought that if we do this thing and if on the minor we can get a vocalist and a Sarangi in a flute to do a lot of harkats within Nutt Bhairav it would be very very interesting so it's mostly that thing that hook which gets me all pumped up and excited and I'm like man it's going to sound so nice and it's going to be such a good space to be in so I just get happy and it has to drive me through and then I'm like okay cool do you also conceptualize your videos yeah oh wow I wanted to clarify I do not and I know videos are such a big part of what we do and it's mostly three guys who have helped me through and through and all three of them they are DPs so we are essentially performing right I mean there isn't a story so they don't have to think like directors so whenever I'm working with them I kind of let them lose and I tell them that you go and you do whatever you want I'm not even going to get into the video process and they yell at me and I try telling them they shut up you know this is not your zone DPs do not like being told what to do yes and trust me they work very well if they're not instructed if you're not putting a mold on their head and you're telling them this is how you have to remind them of the time and I only check the scheduling and all and I check the overall management of the shoot but you know I'm never telling them what to shoot and how to shoot and yeah so I mean video is all them do you have a favorite song but do you have a favorite video that you've done yeah I think we really did a very good job with Believer because we had very good cameras with us we had two units like Tuhin and Rithvik both of them were shooting it and they did a phenomenal job you know I mean obviously when it's happening you know you can't check how it looks and you can only look on that small monitor or something but then when in the post they did their thing and I don't know they colored it and everything the entire DI process and after that when I looked at it I'm like damn man what did you all do and how did you pull this off so that video was actually and we did the entire video in one day which was also something really because I mean yeah so that's why we had two units and you know we were shooting throughout this area called the Kohliwara Fort and and I think video is you know that and also Requiem I also like Requiem a lot because of how it's edited that's the serial one right you know what I mean now one was great I love that one yeah because Rithvik he just like went ham are you saying Rithvik? Rithvik Rithvik well I thought you were saying Rithvik like you know Rithvik Rithvik Rothan he's my DP he's my editor I wish man I wish my favorite is probably just because I have an emotional attachment to it already is Dark Knight that was probably my favorite video of yours just because of how it was done where they added the Joker's voice in a certain part when they panned and then a lot of the pans were extremely cinematic and beautiful that was one of my favorite ones that you've done that's again Rithvik and although there are a lot of Easter eggs in that video so that's all Shantanu Shantanu is also a great VFX guy these guys are very brainy when it comes to their own craft so I'm just happy that they're all my friends it's so funny we've gotten drunk and we've done horrible stuff together but also we worked together well that tends to turn into a good partnership yeah yeah drinking is always the correct answer yeah we spent like a few years doing that together before we started that's true yeah I mean yeah it's actually good you know working with your friends I would love for one day when we can actually travel again and go out of our houses to collaborate with you on one of our videos that'd be phenomenal I would love that yeah actually we should actually do one of your videos in a very cinematic style yeah in a very larger than life cinematic style we usually try to do our celebration videos every 100,000 we won't be able to right now because it's not obviously we can't go out in the last one we were in India but those are the ones that we can do a lot of stuff on in terms of being very cinematic it composes the music and writes it and then I come up with the video always very well done yeah there's so much fun to watch and you've got so much Indian trivia in it so much of it and I'm like damn man certain ones of writing arranging recording I love it all the music is done by Rick obviously because I would be no help in that I sometimes throw a little word or two here in my rap part but that's about the only input I have in the lyrics or the music part other than that I'm just the D.P that's your contribution well yeah but no then after that every video has been conceptualized and directed and filmed and edited by Cork that's much easier though yeah the entire concept I put the song together and even when I put the song together there was only one song there was the very first song that we did that I did that we I showed him the song and just hoped he liked it the rest of the time it was collaborative and I gave him an idea of where we were going with the song when you're writing do you have a program that you put it into that puts it on to the sheet music for you or do you like to do old school writing where you're actually manually putting stuff are you sitting at the keyboard most of the time or does it just come to you you said a moment ago you'll see the notes will you just sometimes take the sheet music down and just writing out the notes actually when it comes to Indian classical musicians like you don't really work with sheets necessarily I mean most of the people around me they don't work with sheets you directly write the sargam on a piece of paper I mean it doesn't work with sheets is when I was working on my original with the Budapest symphonic orchestra that's when you're writing parts for first violin, second violins cherry and all of that I mean then you have to work I had a great friend of mine he helped me out with all of that so yeah that's when you actually sit down to kind of write on sheets and you know because then it's like a big live performance together but mostly when we're recording I'd either sing it out to them I always have a keyboard with me so I'll play it out to them and sometimes their own feedbacks they do things on their own obviously I'm also simultaneously giving them complete freedom to work on their instrument and yeah it's usually a mix of both I lock 90% of the arrangement but then there's always that little buffer for whatever you want to add then it or something I got a technical question I want to ask you about writing for different instruments so I know that if you're working with an orchestra and you're doing a western modality and you're using say a standard orchestral arrangement you're going to have to transpose things for the wind instruments depending upon which instrument is going to be used in Indian instrumentation are there Indian instruments that you have to do that too because what you've written on the keyboard actually needs to be transposed for whatever that instrument is their key is for that instrument ideally an easier way out is to you know kind of pick a key which is more comfortable for Indian classical instruments if you're talking about a sarod and we use the sarod in the yellow scientist you can't tell a sarod player that you know we have to play this on G or you know he'll have to figure it out but it's way easier if it's on C C sharp or D you know max like D sharp D sharp is also you know like a little too much but a sarod ideally you know like revolves around C C sharp D and also like say flute you know like very versatile like that I mean say if I'm writing a part for flute like you know that interstellar this the part on top of this wow it's not playing anymore once again so there's a melody which runs on top of this so you know when I was writing that you know I kind of kept in mind that you know how he would bend the note and you know how he would I don't know like what actually I'll give you a better example talk about a sitar so you know when you're when you're writing parts for sitar you can't you can't you have to keep the fret length in mind and you know you can't write parts for a sitar like you know it's a guitar and you know because he really has to go like that if he's sitting down so you really need to know the instrument and obviously like I wasn't I'm learning something and you know next time you know we'll keep it a little more I don't know like close so I mean every instrument works differently but yeah you really need to you know like record the instrument once you know talk to the musicians the musicians are you know always like super supportive friendly so they help you out with it as well it's not distracting at all that Corbin's sorry sorry they were doing construction and I didn't want the noise could y'all hear any of that oh no okay well they were being real loud okay sorry but yeah I heard you what is the biggest difference from western to Indian music that you would say I think I think western's more about yeah wait let me allow me to be a little preachy I think if I have to describe it within a space I think western's more horizontal for me while you know Indians more vertical so you know western's more about color and you know it's more about I'm talking about western classical like it's more about color and it's more about dynamics and you know how it flows and it can be everywhere Indian classical is more about depth definitely because you know like you always have you know one note where the entire things you know revolving around so Indian classical is more about exploring depth and western classical is more about you know like it being out there and you know the dynamics and variations and it's to do with the instruments Indian classical is more about it being meditative and you know it's it's more about you know it taking you to like a very I don't know it's like limiting yourself but you've done that on purpose so it's don't don't see it like you know you're trapped in a prison see it like you're meditating in a cave like you know you've made that choice that I'm gonna go you know like deep in this mode western classical is like very Rick often says what do you say Rick about that in the universe what it's Indian music like it's about Indian music sounds of the what do you say well that I there there is musicality that can be measured and heard in the universe and I often talk about how the harmonic series in music resonates with some of the vibrations that we know exist in the universe that have musical mathematical notation and something something you just said to Shara that I feel this way about the constraint actually gives you an opportunity to be creative in a way that most people wouldn't think of it at face value so like for example one of my favorite my favorite way to write something poetic just to write poetry is to constrain myself into ionic pentameter and I found that the constraint of ionic pentameter not necessarily 14 stanzas but at least the 10 beats per line forces me by reason of the restriction to be creative in a way that I couldn't be otherwise and it releases something of the poetic in me and that same thing happens for me and you gave a great description of the comparison of western and Indian which now leads to this question for me so for example in a jazz composition they'll have stuff that's been written and then they'll get to a certain measure and the instrument the guys in the band will know we've got 25 measures right now of just improv so just count the measures and go and then when we're done we'll count you back in and we'll pick up where we went off does that happen in classical music in Indian music because it feels like it sure does absolutely yeah I mean especially if you're talking about a tabla I mean I'm not very well aware of you know how tablas work you know the basics of it but tabla players you know like they're working with some very you know like six mechanisms in their head heads you know like while they are playing and while they're performing so say they yeah always like at the back of their heads you know they always have the count of the measures and you know like when is it finally ending you know they've all the bars like sorted in their heads and even you know there's a thing in in classical rhythm school of thought called at the high and say it's it's like how do you explain it like the same it's the same count okay one second should I just look this up the highest basically if you're ending other the more you know if you're ending like a junction of a composition you take three cycles of the same measure and you end it on the downbeat so sometimes you know the highs are very short but I wish I wish I had a tabla there would be right or sometimes the highs are very short but if they started counting the first cycle of the high like you know I don't know like 11 bars before the thing is ending or you know 11 bars before the downbeat so they have to count it accordingly where they have to split all of the 11 bars into three parts and they have to make sense out of it right yeah you can't do that sort of math unless you have the bars running inside your head constantly right you know so this is this is just a very like I'm I'm sorry if I offended any tabla players but this is just a very basic version of you know like what they think and you know how their head works but yeah I mean you for me like the first thing that you know when I started learning about there is the first thing I understood was that you know you have to you have to have like you know a basic count of the bars at the back of your head while this entire you know piece is running because it won't work otherwise you know because you get lost yeah you're not just ending on the downbeat you're doing like three equal cycles before the downbeat so when the first ends there might be a high possibility that you know you sound completely off and you know you're not very well juxtaposed to the rhythm that's already running but then you have to keep going and you know you have to keep that count Corbin's just like why am I here I'm just I'm just letting you two talk I don't which yeah it's usually how I am during music reviews yeah okay so this is a weird this may seem like a weird transition and then I'll switch over and let Corbin ask the question okay so you're are you very familiar with the music of the band Rush not not not too familiar actually okay I am I think Tasha if you ever get a chance you might want to listen you might want to listen to some of the music from the band Rush okay because one of the things that differentiates them from other bands from the 70s is they like Chicago had a really high musical IQ and they would constantly change rhythms like they'd be in something that's four four and then they switch it to seven eight then they go back to four four and people listening just are like wow this is really cool but if you know music you're like you're counting with them going dang these guys they're rhythm changes and they're drummer I would love your impression of them anyway they have a lot of iconic songs that you can Indianized that's for sure really do I would love to see so check out their song Tom Sawyer okay can you spell it for me T.O.M yeah if you if Indian jam project took Tom Sawyer oh baby yeah so good so well I'm checking them out yeah no you gotta rush have you ever seen the the movie I love you man the the movies call I love you man yeah with the yeah whatever I can't think of their names right now so well I thought you were just expressing yeah yeah no I'm just I'm expressing via music via my voice but yeah so I want to ask you some rapid-fire questions because we do that in every interview it's kind of thing now this is like this is like a legit coffee with cotton yeah exactly yeah coffee with Corbin first question coffee or chai chai do you like coffee at all though yeah I do I don't know if you have any of these in front of you Rick I'm basically just asking the ones I asked Nawaz yeah do it fire away favorite Hollywood actor okay Matt Damon really interesting favorite Matt Damon movie what was it I know he wasn't the lead role interstellar but I really no no once again good will hunting yeah good will hunting is interstellar your favorite Hollywood film one of my favorites for sure I mean what a great movie favorite Indian film okay it could be any movie yeah it's a great movie it's just a great film it's a very well made it's a great film people study it I mean here's a question can anyone and it might be more than a rapid fire can anyone be a musician yes yes obviously I mean in their own capacity let's answer it like that you don't have to go overboard and be sad if you're not able to play as well as you know someone who you idolize but in their own capacity a lot of people can be musicians and it's very important for them to understand that a lot of great songs are very simple so you don't reject simplicity it's a very nice thing so even if you know only how to play like seven or eight chords it still means that you can make a great song you don't need to know all the charts at the back of your head what's your favorite thing about making music okay about making music I'll take composition when you're really feeling the composition it's a surreal experience I don't know whenever I work with my instrument it literally comes on my body and on my mind and I start feeling it and I've never felt like that with anything else so it really hits me in a way I almost feel like I'm doing a drug or something I mean it's nice not that I've tried drugs but I mean I'm assuming I'm assuming that you know going through that surreal experience that's what must be like what's your least favorite thing about making music coordination say if you're jamming calling everyone and making sure everyone's on time the management part of it that's something that I don't dig I wish everyone could just magically pop up at one place or magically meet and start setting up a bit of it do you prefer I don't know if this would actually make any sense do you prefer doing the covers or making originals making originals but then again also I don't know I get very scared not because I haven't made a lot of them I've made 17 of them actually but before releasing it I just really want to be sure that it's the perfect thing and then when I think I was starting Indian Jam project I was expecting this to be like a minor blog sort of a space where people come to chill like a cafe sort of a zone where people listen to and then this also blew up a little so then while I was handling it I was also handling my insecurities about making my compositions downright perfect really like getting over that and I'm working on a lot more so internally like I'm happy now and who's your favorite Indian actor Indian actor I just want to know you'd be okay I don't think you'd be surprised Pankaj Tripathi which one who's he Pankaj Tripathi he was in Gangsova Seppur I'll send you I'll send you some links how do you spell his name? P-A-N-K-A-J T-R-I-P-A-T-H-I Oh Tripathi oh yeah you just say it differently you say it right you say it correctly that makes sense we love him we've seen him like if you're asking me favorite actor my head automatically associates actors being from a theater space or something so I think if you ask me who's your favorite Bollywood superstar versus who's your favorite actor these two are different questions in my head they play and especially it's very different in India than it is in America superstar is a completely different thing Nawaz even explained it he's glad he's not in that category because they have to play a hero and he's like I can play so many different things and so it's very interesting the way that it is different especially Bollywood in comparison to Hollywood he's so brilliant in his own space I would not know how to deal with Nawaz dancing and trolicking around that's just not him he's more of what he called you he's more in that space I would love I think he's very versatile and he can be anything that he decides to be would you say right I love seeing Nawaz in a big musical number well I think he was I think it happened this past year in like some weird comedy film that we saw him in yeah there was a comedy I'd like to see him in a full blown massive Bollywood musical number like an SRK thing and he is the main dude in the music number I would love that yeah that would be great Rick if there's a question you wanted to ask and I don't want to cut you off if there's a question you wanted you didn't get to no no no background music to what you think well in a second you will so here's a quick question that's easy to answer and then I just have a statement so the first question is how many instruments do you play I mean I think I play like I'm not counting by the way like I only know one instrument properly that too like I think I'm you know like not too good at it anything like for example I used to sit at a drum kit and play the drums but I would never think to be in a band and play drums so anything you can play oh okay so like that like four five okay four five that's more than I can play so I can't play a one instrument that was a hard to guess okay so now you can play some nice little background music right now just something really really nice because I'm gonna we've already kind of alluded to it but you what you have wanted to do with Indian Jam project in bringing to specifically I know you've said people of your generation but it is much broader than that definitively our introduction to Indian Jam project is exactly what you've wanted it to be so I think you should feel encouraged by the fact that our introduction to Corbin's Love in the Background music that you are doing exactly what you set out to do with Indian Jam project and that you have taken things that we love and we are aware of and are palatable like the Dark Knight theme and like the song from Titanic and all of these covers that you've done and you have made them you have given them the Indian texture flavor and flair and incorporated instruments and vocalizations and things that have been lost in the wayside and I just I want you to know exactly what you've set out to do I hope you feel encouraged by the response you've gotten from stupid babies and the response you've gotten from people who just know you as Indian Jam project and Tasha and that you we feel you are making a massively important contribution to the world music and the world of artistry and there's nobody in music forget Indian there's nobody in music that we believe in support and think is making contributions to the world of music more than you man I mean truly that's very it's a very heavy statement for me but there you go yeah that yeah I don't know wow man that's a lot to take actually I mean I'm glad you know I'm glad we were able to you know recontextualize Indian classical instruments in a new light I believe there's this sort of exceptional versatility to Indian classical instruments they're very moldable you know very malleable in the best way you know in the most positive way and I'm glad that you know we are just in this space we are getting to explore Indian classical instruments and you have no idea how big a contribution you've made to you know help people discover us because half of the comments are you know like we are the OSR family and you know first things first like your fans you know I mean they're just they're so supportive and you know they're so I don't know they're just so like positive and supportive you know like they're like you guys you know like talking like if I get into a conversation with them you know it just immediately puts me in a good mood and I'm like man like you know this person's supporting me like he's like my brother or something I mean that makes me feel very nice and then again like you know just your fans and you know just you guys you've really helped us you know like put our work out at a lot of places where I think no one would have you know heard of Indian Jam project and you know you guys you guys did actually you know such a big favor to us by kind of not just reacting to it but also you know the insights you give and I'm also so glad that you're a musician yourself and you know you're able to understand Corbin with the straight face and Corbin as well you know like it has to be it has to be the two of you together and you know like whatever you put on the table like it's just yeah I mean it overwhelms us every single time and you know I like just reacted to Hotel California and you know I could just see like you guys jamming to it that just made me happy you know like it made my day and you make our day man yeah so I mean I'm yeah I'm glad you know this is like a symbiotic process and I'm very very happy well thank you so much for thank you for that thank you for sitting down with us and thank you for making your music man you know we love you and I can't wait to sit down and have a lunch with you whether it's here or man in Los Angeles or in back in India yeah yeah yes we're gonna do that we're gonna do that real soon like let this I don't know how long this is gonna go on for but I hope you know like in another two three months you know like maybe one of us could come down and yeah we'd mean for lunch absolutely yeah we'd talk more yeah that was so much fun I love you man very nice talking to you