JAMES STRECKER: If you were asked for 50 words for an encyclopedia to summarize what you do, or have done, in the arts, what would you say?
KIRAN AHLUWALIA: Kiran Ahluwalia is a modern exponent of the great vocal traditions of India and Pakistan which she honors yet departs from in personal ways, all the while infusing intricate harmonies to create a style uniquely her own.
JS: What important beliefs do you express in or through your work?
KA: My songs talk of breaking from traditions and listening to your own inner voice. They also talk about throwing away shame and battling with the self-sabotager inside us – and winning.
JS: Name two people, living or dead, whom you admire a great deal and tell us why for each one.
KA: Malala Yousafzai – for her sheer bravery and for fighting for education for women in her native Pakistan.
Hedy Lamarr – She was an actress who did hot and steamy roles and at the same time she was a brilliant inventor whose work has contributed to the development of modern Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.
JS: How have you changed since you began to do creative work?
KA: I am less focused on perfection and more focused on capturing the emotion in the moment of my singing. I am also more inclusive of musics outside of my own Indian singing.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
KA: People wanting all music for free.
Airlines not allowing us to take our musical instruments on board when we tour – and then breaking our instruments when they are checked in – sounds trivial but it’s depressing and happens way too much – and makes touring harder. I really want to do an anti-Air Canada and anti-United Airlines tour. Bad airlines suck the fun and creativity out of a tour.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life.
KA: I quit my full-time job at a bank in order to go to India and be a full-time music student. I thought I would do it for a year but I ended up staying in India for many years. Then I fell into a career in music.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about what you do?
KA: That it requires extensive training and daily practice – and that it is not ancient – it is modern.
JS: How and why did you begin to do creative work in the first place?
KA: My parents enrolled me in classes of Indian dance and music when I was a child. I loved it and kept on doing it.
JS: What haven’t you attempted as yet that you would like to do and please tell us why?
KA: I have not yet written lyrics that include ‘swear’ words. It’s easier to do in English but much harder to do in Indian languages that I write in – Urdu and Punjabi. I’ve been making a list of ‘bad’ words in Urdu and Punjabi and hope to use them in lyrics one day. Why? – they emote in their own special guttural way in which other words can’t.
JS: What are your most meaningful achievements?
KA: Career wise – my composition Awara – one of my first ones and still one of my favs. Also – working to have good working relationships with everyone in my team.
JS: What advice would you give a young person who would like to do what you do?
KA: Everybody has their own path – there is no one right way.
JS: Of what value are critics?
KA: Not sure really. Many critics in North America don’t really know Indian contemporary music – I have been mislabeled many times as doing Indian classical music and I am not. But yet we need critics to write about the music to let people know that it exists.
JS: What do you ask of your audience?
KA: If you like the music, keep coming to the live performances.
JS: What specifically would you change about what goes on in the world and the arts?
KA: I’d like artists to get paid meaningfully when people listen to their music on streaming platforms or on any platforms.
JS: If you could relive one experience from your creative life, what would it be and why would you do so?
KA: When I met my guitarist and life partner – Rez Abbasi. Why? Because it was ecstatic.
JS Tell us what it feels like to be a figure who is presented somehow in the media. What effect does this presence have on you?
KA: I don’t have the paparazzi after me. Many of my close friends are in the media and have written about me – they have always respected my personal information so I’ve been lucky that way.
JS: Name two places you would like to visit, one you haven’t been to and one to experience again and briefly tell us why
KA: I’d like to experience Mali – specially Timbuktu and the desert again. When I went the first time, it was unsafe to travel to remote places and so I only performed at the festival au desert (with Tinariwen) and came back home. It’s still unsafe to go to the remote places of Mali but I would like to go and listen to the music there.
A place I’ve never been but is on my list is Kashmir – it borders India and Pakistan. It’s beautiful but always in political turmoil, making it hard to visit.
JS: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on, are preparing, or have recently completed. Why do they matter to you and why should they matter to us.
KA: I’m working on a festival called LOVEfest – It is a musical response to hate Crime. http://www.kiranmusic.com/lovefest/ Through three music groups and one dance group this program will take audiences on an epic journey that includes Temple music of Sikh India; my own modern Indo-Canadian music fused with desert blues; Arab music infused with western sounds; and the mesmerizing colourful whirling dervishes of Egypt. LOVEfest aims to strengthen the appreciation of diverse art forms and in the process foster greater appreciation of diverse ethnicities in our communities. Muslims and Sikhs have been subject to increased hate crimes in the aftermath of 9/11. Although these hate crimes are perpetuated by a minority of the population, both the Muslim and Sikh religions remain mysterious to the general public. These performances aim to instigate a positive curiosity and to unravel the mysteries of two lifestyles and use these art forms to open conversations about the future of our country.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
KA: The depressing part is that people are not paying for music anymore – they want it free. And for a plethora of reasons ticket sales to all live performances – theatre, dance and music are declining.
What gives me hope is that it is easy to discover music from far away – just by sitting on your sofa and surfing the net. I discover a lot of music that way and hope that others discover my music too.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising thing about you?
KA: I’m still making mistakes – very surprising!
PS: And also……..
www.KiranMusic.com
Facebook.com/KiranMusic
Check out my video shot on a houseboat on the Ganges http://youtu.be/Zi3ZmT8rlac