MUMBAI: DJ Rummy likes to create his own scene. Or his own stage. And then lead it. He does not like to recreate a concept, his every effort inclines towards building a stage. “But if you have to put it in the modest possible way, then yes, I adapt to the scene,” says the Berlin-based India-born musician.
A quick look at the musician’s contribution in the 1990s suggests the DJ can do without a bit of modesty, in this case. DJ Rummy spent the decade educating and acting as the catalyst of the electronic music culture – a community of music that has its roots in Europe – to the unfamiliar audience in India. Rummy may not find himself (quite often) setting up his console and sounds at Indian nightclubs lately, and it does sound like he has a justified reason for the same. “I was one of the firsts to bring the German underground sound to India. In the 1990s, I started investing a lot of money in order to create a culture in India, but then I started losing a lot of money. And I got tired, that one’s completely my fault. India has been a bit late catching it to the trend with underground or techno music,” added Rummy.
But the temporary hiatus from the Indian dance music venues comes to an end. The Delhi ‘scenesters’ remember Rummy for his regular touchdowns at Oasis, MKOP, Djinns, Climax, Orange Room and Blue Bar, and although the upcoming visits to hometown may involve newer names, his music has undergone newer sounds too . For the last released single ‘Meera’, DJ Rummy continued to incorporate Indian sensibilities to his own sound, a sound that he owes to the Berlin’s evolving culture in the mid 90s. “Every new sound, every new gadget now comes under your control. You try to incorporate different sounds from it, and a new style is born,” answered Rummy, when asked about the role of the technology in 2016 music scene.
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‘Meera’
Rummy has acknowledged how the ease in technology towards creating music has opened the doors for artists misleading the culture, and ultimately, the audience. “A lot of crappy musicians have arrived, but a lot of amazing music keeps coming too.” Rummy has shared the stage with several established musicians of the west, but the 2006’s Love Parade in Berlin finally turned out to be a sweet result of helping change the ecosystem of underground music in India. The musician wants to focus on the producer in him right now, and while that would unfold into another chapter, Rummy recently launched the ‘Vinyl Wave Tour’ to express his love for the rejuvenating concept.
“When I started DJing, there was only vinyl. I have a lot of love for vinyl. I can blindly play it. And I hear, the vinyl is making its return to the Indian shores. There’s a clear lack of access to vinyl record players in India that’s stopping it from becoming a bigger scene. Also, from a musician’s perspective, if you are playing a 5-6 hour set, it becomes difficult to carry hundreds of records at the same time.”
The musician concludes with a complaint that has bothered several established acts and affects the emerging promising ones. “People are playing a lot of crap under the name of Techno. We have a third world mentality in a third world economy,” said Rummy, who is not completely rejecting the positive side of the inevitable evolution. “Every venue is Techno these days. In india, it’s still less. The genre, itself, to a certain extent, is like the jazz of electronic music.”
