3 . Take us through the process . What are the “ archives ” you ’ re talking about ?
I head out to find the records , buy them , clean them , and store them . Whenever time allows , I digitise them and share it with the world on my social media platforms . The archives are long lost musical pieces from India and around the world , many of which have no information about them on the internet .
4 . So , crate digging . What is it and why is it so significant ?
Crate digging is the act of digging for records through crates at a record shop . I think crate digging is an integral part of finding and discovering new music . You don ’ t know what you ’ ll find , and it ’ s such a great and organic way to discover new music . It feels very natural and wholesome . It ’ s also a great way to find inspiration if you ’ re a musician , or to find musical samples if you ’ re a beat maker .
5 . Tell us about some of the rare albums you ’ ve held in your hands .
I ’ ve had the pleasure of finding and buying some of the hardest to find Indian records . A few good examples are “ Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat ” by Charanjit Singh , “ Disco Jazz ” by Rupa , and “ Explorations ” by Braz Gonsalves .
6 . Can you tell us about the actual process of music archiving ? Like , how do you source the albums , do you digitize the music off vinyl , etc .?
The process of archiving starts with hunting for physical formats of music . In India it ’ s not the same as the west where there is an abundance of record stores and the vinyl market is still omnipresent . For example , Delhi being a city populated with 3 crore plus people has not more 2 or 3 record stores . So for finding records one has to go much deeper and make much more effort .
I digitize my records through my turntable which ( thankfully ) connects directly to my laptop . There ’ s still a massive chunk of my collection that needs to be digitized , but I do as much as I can with the time I have . It ’ s very time consuming but totally worth it .
7 . There isn ’ t much conversation around archiving / preserving music in India . How do you figure we can start to address this gap ?
I think there could be more organisations who focus just on preserving the physical formats of music . There could be grants as well allotted to people who are interested in the same .
8 . What ’ s your home studio like ? Anything you ’ d like to mention for the audiophiles reading this interview ?
My home studio consists of an Audio Technica LP120 and Monkey Banana monitors . I honestly wouldn ’ t call myself an audiophile , as I don ’ t really own “ high end ” gear .
9 . What ’ s the purpose of what you do , be it listening sessions , archiving , professionally working as a music selector , etc .?
I didn ’ t set out with any particular goal but kind of found a responsibility somewhere along the way to unearth more and more Indian musical gems that have been lost over time . I would say shedding a light on those pieces of music and their creators is
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