MUMBAI: With influences ranging from The Beatles to Kishore Kumar, the Indian born singer and Goldspot frontman Siddhartha Khosla has created a unique, unheard and crossbreed sound which can be described as something which draws influences from the popular music cultures of both east and west.
If you thought Goldspot was a band – it’s not, and nor does it have any set number of musicians It’s more likely, a collaboration project on which singer Siddhartha Khosla writes and collaborates with different musicians. Presently, Goldspot vocalist Siddhartha Khosla is on a five city India tour as a part of Vh1 Global Express Initiative
As a kid, Khosla was exposed to bollywood music of artistes like Kishore Kumar, Md Rafi, R D Burman and S D Burman to name a few. “My mom would write the lyrics and give it to me and ask me to sing in front of friends and family. At that time I really hated it, but in retrospect, I really feel it taught me music and taught me how to sing,” he says.
Songs by this Indian born singer are easily distinguishable, at least to the Indian ears since it draws references from the 60’s bollywood era. About creating the unique sound, Khosla says, “What would Kishore Kumar sound like if he had a Hindi rock band?” Leaving the rest to imagination, he further adds, “It’s just evoking that 60’s era.”
Though artistes in the past have done this intentionally to bank on the names of the yesteryear legends, Khosla’s musical interpretation is something unheard of and has never been done before. As far as the instrumentation and arrangement goes, all songs have chorus, symphony parts and some trade mark musical interludes. On being asked, if creating that sound was intentional, Khosla says, “Yes, it was intentional, but in a sense that it was very natural for me to do it. It’s not difficult to me.”
On the other hand, he is quite clear about he wants to achieve with his unique sound, “When some one in the west hears my music, they find it’s pretty cool and to the eastern or Indian audiences it feels like 60’s Indian music – that’s exactly what I want. I want people to be able to recognize it. And those who don’t should find it ‘cool’. What I don’t want the music to ever sound is like world music.”
After the success of his album Tally of the yes men, the song writer is almost ready with a new album; however, he is not considering signing onto any label, “We are doing the new album independently unless the right opportunity comes. It has 12 tracks and is in post-production.” He adds, “It’s definitely more the sound that I always wanted to do musically, its song driven and soulful.”