Record companies not willing to invest in Indipop: Lesle Lewis

Feb 26, 2013 IANS

New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Over the years, Indipop has faded away and record companies are unwilling to invest in the genre, composer Lesle Lewis points out.

Lewis, who formed the band Colonial Cousins with ghazal singer Hariharan, says "though there is nothing wrong in increasing popularity of Bollywood music", due to this "the record companies have stopped investing in Indipop music albums".

"They feel such albums won't work anymore, so what is the use of bringing them out anymore," Lewis told IANS.

The 1990s saw an upsurge in private albums by singers like Baba Sehgal, Anamika, Shaan and Jasbir Jassi, but later Bollywood songs elbowed out the genre. Nowadays, more and more item songs are ruling the music charts.

"Even television and radio have stopped promoting Indipop and that's why we have a dearth of such albums," said Lewis who was also part of the robust 1990s when he came out with his first album "Colonial Cousins" with partner Hariharan.

Released in 1996, the fusion album won a string of awards including the MTV Indian Viewers' Choice Award and Billboard Award for the Best Asian Music Group. One of its popular songs was "Sa Ni Dha Pa".

Their other albums were "The Way We Do It" and "Aatma".

He recently released two new albums - one as an individual, titled "Tanha Sa Hun" and the other with Hariharan called "Colonial Cousins: Once More".

After receiving positive response to both his albums, Lewis now plans to collaborate with young artists.

"Whenever my album is launched I don't think about it anymore and get on to think - 'What next?' There are some very talented young artists in our country and now I plan to collaborate with them," said the musician.

What delights the composer is that nowadays the value of music has increased.

"It is really great to see how the value of music has increased so much. Different forms of music have carved a niche for themselves in the Indian music scene. And as the audience begins to accept it, we see so much creative work happening all around."

In fact, Lewis has been instrumental in bringing musical property "Coke Studio" to India.