Artists can be at forefront of change, so they should speak up: Palash Sen

Bengaluru: "I’m surprised that artists of this country are not really speaking up. Throughout time, artists – whether they were musicians or painters or writers – were always at the forefront of all changes," says Palash Sen, the leadman of Euphoria, one of India’s oldest indie bands, which has thrived for nearly 35 years and counting.

Sen is on an eight-city tour to celebrate the silver jubilee of his debut album, ‘Dhoom’. He will be performing this evening at Forum South Bangalore in Konanakunte.

So far, Euphoria has performed in Pune, Indore and Jaipur. After Bengaluru, the band members will be heading to Lucknow on December 23.

Sen, who is also professionally trained to be a doctor, but chose to be a musician, says one of the biggest disappointments in his music career is that artists often only speak about love and romance. But the singer says there are other socio-political issues out there that should be written about.

"I personally feel music and literature can bring about a change if people are committed to it. And I feel that today’s generation is intelligent enough, aware enough and hungry enough to know about these things. They don't only want love and romance," says the singer.

According to him, Euphoria always looked to address the burning issues of the time.

"We had an album called ‘Item’ where every song was addressing something or the other that was socio-political. Even our love song, ‘Jaane Khuda’ is a story between two people from different religions, with two different ideologies and perspectives of life, falling in love," says Sen.

He says despite not playing by the rule book, Euphoria survived 35 years primarily because people realised the earnestness of their brand of music. "And they call us to do gigs – that has been the whole journey." Also, the fact that the band is flexible enough to explore different avenues helped. "The only place we still are not playing at are marriage halls. That’s the only industry we have not tapped. Otherwise, colleges, public concerts, corporate events… we have done them all," he says.

The singer says he was so open that when it became clear at some point during the Covid lockdowns that getting online was unavoidable, he did that too. "I actually got on to social media because of the Covid. Otherwise, I was never on social media." For someone so reluctant, he embraced the band’s social media outings, Euphoric Wednesdays – which saw them stripping down the songs to its acoustic version – with real ease.

"We were all sitting at home during Covid and there was no work. So then I thought why not do these concerts. It was an extreme exercise but I’m proud of it," he says.

The singer also says the way people listen to music is evolving.

"Definitely, digital platforms have shaken things up. But it is not enough. Even now, a lot of things are being controlled by labels. I think change is coming though. People will listen to music independently, and there’ll be more and more independent artists in this country. It’s a very, very happy change," says Sen.

Performing in Bengaluru always perks him up, says the musician.

"Bengaluru has the most evolved music listening audience in this country. Pune, Kolkata and Mumbai are good too, but Bengaluru has a very, very accepting and aware audience. All international acts when they come to India, definitely come to Bengaluru because it literally accepts all kinds of music," says Sen.

Once the tour is over, it's back to business again. "We are re-recording our first two albums in a completely new way. They will be coming out by January or February. We are also in the midst of a brand new album, hopefully, it comes out by April or May. We have a short film, shot in Turkey, in English and Hindi and it’s called, which means a beautiful girl in Turkish," says Sen.

Although Sen acknowledges that 35 years is a long time, he says he doesn’t think too much about the impact of Euphoria on people, particularly musicians.

"I just want to set an example for whoever is coming into the music field – if we could do it our way without any help from the so-called industry, then anybody can do it," adds Sen.