Home Grammy Awards New Interview with Ricky Kej

New Interview with Ricky Kej

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New Age music Grammy winner Ricky Kej says to LiveMint.com that Indian artists only have two options; to find audiences abroad or join the Hindi film industry.

The interview goes like this:

Ricky Kej studied to be a dentist but went on to win a Grammy instead. This apparent dichotomy defines his music as well. The 33-year-old Bengalurean’s album, Winds Of Samsara, co-produced with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman, won the Grammy this year in the “new-age music” category. Kej describes new-age music as “the sum of all the winners and nominees of the category over the years, including Enya, Enigma, and Peter Gabriel to name a few”.

With sounds inspired by India and Africa, Winds Of Samsara, Kej’s 14th album, competed against the likes of Paul Avgerinos, Peter Kater and Kitaro. Kej spoke about his musical influences, which range from Peter Gabriel to Pandit Ravi Shankar, and why Bollywood doesn’t interest him.

How did ‘Winds Of Samsara’, your Grammy-winning album, happen? What made you collaborate with Kellerman?

I met Wouter in 2011 in Los Angeles. While I am a huge fan of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas of peace, Wouter is a follower of Nelson Mandela. He had already written a song on Nelson Mandela’s life and I had written music about Gandhi. We started working on these two pieces and discussed other compositions. For two years, we travelled around the world and worked with over 120 musicians in five continents.

Read the complete interview here.