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Transcript of the Interview:
Q. Your music transcends the mainstream. While its loved by people from different walks of life, its hard to place in any one genre. How did you go about choosing this sound and why this sound and not anything else?
A. It's definitely representative of my environment now and the environment I was in growing up and it's a combination of different time periods coming together. I grew up, like a lot of people in this country, driving around the country in the back seat of a station wagon. In my family we used to listen to all different types of music and I was the youngest so I had the least choice so I was basically stuck between my brother's Rock music, my sister's Pop music, my dad's classic music and my mother's film music.

So I was constantly hearing be it Beetle's song, Bhim sain joshi raag, my mom's film soundtracks, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran. So all this stuff was happening at the same time, it created a sound. Well I don't think anybody really creates sound, we discover it. There was definitely a moment for me when it was a discovery of an identity, so this is what makes sense for me here and what makes me feel comfortable to stay and the sound is analogous to that.

Q. Did you expand to a whole lot of different genres?
A. I am always playing with genres, because for me genres are secondary to music itself. So whether it's classical music or electronic music or glitch hop or ghazal, it's all for me really the same thing. It's really about the attitude and the sentiment of the music. I don't necessarily say that today I want to dive into this kind of music, it just happens naturally. Sometimes I am listening to a lot of dub-steps so a track I am working on might become a combination of Ghazal and Dub-step, but there is no conceptualization of that kind of thing going on.

Q. When did you start pursuing music/what you do currently as a profession?
A. As a profession I started pursuing it because all of a sudden I had to pay my rent, but I've been playing music since I was a kid. I started playing music live as soon as I came to NY city as a student at NYU, but before that I had been performing out in Long Island with a lot of bands and things like that.. So, since I was 3 I think I can say I never stopped doing what I do now.

Q. When did you get the big break, when you knew this was it?
A. I don't know if I've had that big break yet, I think we are always waiting for the moment like now is the time, but there have definitely been milestones for me but they have been personal milestones, it's not like records sold, or a number or a status thing, it's just personal moments like getting blessings from Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Ravi Shankar, these are huge things for a kid who grew up so far away from them and kind of was worshipping them from afar. So it's pretty exciting, so if anything I think that's the closest to answering your question.

Q. What's on your iPod?
A. I have everything on my Ipod or everything I would want to listen to, because I just listen to good music, ah and I love to hear it on shuffle. So if you come to my house, you will hear a Sigur Ros tune, followed by L. Subhramanyam, followed by some film track - Hans Zimmer thing and then Metallica, and then anything, I love music and I love varying the different things that I listen to.

Q. I'm sure your parents aren't regreting making you listen all sort of things when you were young...
A. My parents love music, and it's because of them I appreciate music and the power of music. I remember being a kid and seeing my father's eyes well up when he heard an old song, even before I understood why, but there was definitely something about the power of music I learned from that.

Q. What do you think is lacking for an aspiring musician to be successful?
A. I think that what's most important is to focus on what makes you unique, everybody has something that makes them unique. A lot of times as artists we try to become analogous to someone, something or a style of band or genre and then we get stuck there and we don't get to explore what it is that we have to say that's different. Nor do we sometimes feel that we deserve to. Indian classical music for instance is a very intimidating institution. For someone to feel like, I am going to do my thing, it's a very bold statement to make as a classical student, but I think that's what's important and that's what people need to be able to do. The people that we look up to are people that did exactly that. They changed what was going on to make and put it into context for the audience. 100 years ago classical music did not look anything like what it does today.

Q. Did you get personally trained in classical music?
A. I was trained, but I don't think I was trained enough to be a classical musician in that way. I mean I was always a free bird and anytime I would be studying with a teacher and as soon as they would tell me, OK it's time for you to stop doing everything else- there would be that moment, and that would be the moment I would leave. I always believed that 1 thing that I was taught was wrong, and that was that you can only do 1 thing and you should focus on 1 instrument because for me music in information and everything else is just physicality. So whether it is on a tabla or guitar or sitar, whatever it is it's just about learning. If you can learn how to type and send an email in 30 seconds that means you can learn how to play an instrument. The hard thing is, knowing what you want to say as a musician and that's what people need to figure out.

Q. What inspired you to do what you do?
A. First and foremost, music and life. For me everything that I write about is what is happening to me and my life and it's a way of therapy, it's a way of dealing with my own life. So the inspiration for writing a particular song may come from something that just happened to me the day before. And music, artists inspire me, I have always been a huge fan of people like Pandit Ravi Shankar, people like Bill Laswell, Peter Gabriel, Zakir Hussain. When I see what it is they do and an old record they did 20 years ago and it's still relevant - that is inspiring to me.

Q. You've traveled and performed both in India and the US. What are some similarities and differences between the two?
A. One thing that is happening in India right now which is very exciting is a huge live music movement and there are a lot of live music festivals - I'm talking about Rock bands, Hip-hip groups, Pop groups and people doing the kind of anti-bollywood thing. So there's a whole movement going on in this underground music, different styles of music in India. Over here, (in the west) we have an audience all over the world. I remember Zakir Hussain when I was a kid talking about classical music and people were asking, do you think it will ever come to a point when you will be playing in stadiums and he said that is not what this music is about, we were never supposed to play in stadiums. We were supposed to play in front of audiences that truly understand what is going on. I think that has happened, I think there is a scene everywhere. Everywhere that I go, there is a scene and there is a true following for this music and that's what's most important. So whether someone blows up and becomes a Platinum selling artist, unless you have a true following, that goes as quick as it comes.

Q. What is your career goal...what are you striving for?
A. I think it has changed a little bit. I had a very ambitious goal of bringing Indian music into Western music in a way that was true and was influencing other music around it, once again becoming analogous to people that I looked up to. But I think now it's just to continue to enjoy making music, that's the most important thing to me. I'm starting to realize that all of these distant goals are illusions and what I feel today, is most important. I think now I'm just really happy to make music and as long as I can continue to do so is awesome.

Q. Aside from tabla, guitar, and the drums, what are some other instruments have you dabbled in?
A. I played Santoor for a little while, I've dabbled in Sarod for a bit. In studio I play a lot of piano, guitar, bass and anything I can get my hands on really. If I'm in the studio it's not necessarily about performing, it's about figuring out a way of laying out a particular idea. So I'm very open to playing all kinds of instruments, and like I said before I've learned playing instruments because I kind of detached myself from the physicality of the...well not detach myself but...practice. Once again I use the analogy about how people can sit down on a keyboard and type so fast, all it is is the transmition of the information in your head and being able to lay it on the screen. For me, that's how I look at instruments, I have a great respect for instruments but for me it's much more about exploring the possibilities and seeing what else can happen.

Q. Are you always looking for new instruments or find yourself exploring with all types of new instruments?
A. When I am in a studio I will first and foremost sit on a piano or guitar and tabla, those are the main instruments I compose on. I'm about sound so if there's something that works in between a core progression or raag, it's all good, if bagpipes work...then let's do it!

Q. So far what is the biggest lesson you have learned in your music career?
A. Biggest lesson that I have learned is that you don't own your music, you might own the rights to your music but you don't own the music because music belongs to everybody. A lot of artists get very attached to their own work so biggest lesson I have learned is to just let it go as soon as I am done with something I let it go and move on to the next thing I want to create, keeping in mind that it's about the process and not about releasing albums. All of that is great and it's a fantastic process of making music but the real beauty of it is the moment of creation.

Q. Being a visionary yourself you have probably seen a lot of talent, is there anyone we should be looking out for in the near future?
A. There's a lot of amazing artists. There's some really amazing producers, friend's of mine in Chicago named Radiohiro and there's another artist in San Francisco named Janaka Selekta, he runs an event called Worldly and they are amazing producers, amazing DJs amazing representatives of this new sound and genre. Then there's a lot of great new musicians like Shaa'ir + Func good friend's of mine. Monica Dogra is a singer from NY, and Randolf Corier is a guitar player and producer from Bombay and they've created a band called Shaa'ir + Func which is amazing. There's an artist from Delhi called Jalebee Cartel - they're a brand new live electronica band. So there's a lot of different really exciting stuff going on. People like Niladri Kumar who's taken the Sitar to a whole new place when he plays it like an electric guitar, but he's also incredibly well versed, he's a son of Pandit Kartik Kumar, he's amazing. Amaan & Ayaan Ali Bangash, they're doing amazing stuff, people are inspired, there are exciting times, there's a lot of new artists feeding off of each other.

Q. What are you working on right now, what should your fans be looking forward to in the near future?
A. Well I just rescored Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon soundtrack, which I will be performing live at a few venues in the States, which is exciting because he is another hero of mine who is unfortunately not with us but I grew up worshiping his vibe as well so that was exciting. And we just finished work on the Medival Punditz album and Vishal's album and I'll be scoring a couple of films this year and then finishing my own album which I will be releasing early next year.

Q. For an aspiring musician to get their music to you, how should they go about doing that?
A. Usually people get in touch with me through Myspace, or Facebook or they'll email me or get in contact with my management and they send it over. We check out everything, I'd love to listen to new artists, new bands, new singers. So if you have anything, send it on over.