It’s time to get ready for a musical extravaganza as the Capital will be witnessing an amalgamation of British, Spanish and Indian artists at the Jamgarh Music Festival and concert tour. The festival will feature a Flamenco group from Spain from Madrid called Las Tablas, Terra Rosa Gypsies playing their rock-fusion, Hindi-Punjabi songs with Sufi strings, and Bernie Marsden, the founder member of Whitesnake band with his evergreen songs.

Curator of the festival and a member of Terra Rosa Gypsies, Vineet Sharma, says, “I think the Indian music lover is evolving. Indian music lovers are overloaded with Bollywood music but then there’s a section really interested in rock and other genres such as rock fusion, jazz and so on. The number of bands that have come together in the past few years is indicative of how music is evolving. People are confident that there is an audience for independent music and poetry.” 

Talking about Terra Rosa and his journey, he says, “It was a natural progression, from a point where I organised a jam session with around 8-10 musicians from across the country. We played together with Bernie Marsden. He suggested we name it Terra Rosa and so the gypsies who were playing in Terra Rosa became the Terra Rosa Gypsies.”

Is there any advice for the budding bands? Sharma shares, “One should be patient and believe in one’s own thoughts, melodies, compositions, poetry and arrangements. Do not drift based on what people and critics have to say. It is a personal journey. A true band is the one that sticks together and generates energy by dipping into each others’ capabilities. A band helps independent musicians to come together, relate to each other, combine the strengths and culminate in wonderful compositions.”

He further adds, “Time at the studios is extremely important, taking a trek, spending sometime in the mountains or on an island is extremely inspiring and that’s where most of the music comes from.”

Having performed across many cities and towns, he says, “The difference in tier 1 or tier 2 cities is not a lot. Music lovers are pretty much the same across the world. In India, you could say a tier 1 city offers great auditoriums such as Siri Fort or other places where audiences are used to seeing concerts, theatres, dance dramas. Spectators come with an expectation and they are aware of the music around the world. When we look at tier 2, we see a whole lot of aspirations. In tier 2 cities such concerts are less but with the internet revolution, diverse music is being consumed. Their excitement is much higher and they are the best audience.”