For Ricky Kej , the excitement of making music lies in not knowing exactly how he is going to pull it off. The Grammy-winning composer, who has spent years taking Indian sounds to global audiences, is now preparing to enter a different musical landscape with filmmaker Sagar Puranik’s upcoming Kannada film, rooted in cultures of North Karnataka. In a chat with Bangalore Times, he talks about his fascination with folk traditions, the responsibility of telling stories through music and why he continues to seek out projects that challenge him
Because an audience demands it from me, that is not exciting, “For me, if I’m doing something just for the money, or.
If I start a project and I’m not really scared about how I’m going to pull it off, then I feel it’s not a project worth doing for me,” he says. But I have an absolute thirst to learn about it,” he says. Even if an audience knows nothing about a particular musical form, they will subconsciously recognise when something does not feel authentic,” he says. I want to constantly challenge myself,” he says.
Ricky is clear about what draws him to a project. It is rarely the prospect of commercial success or the expectation of an audience. I always want to push the boundaries of what music can do. Every project I do has to include something completely new that I have never done before. That uncertainty is part of what excites him about the upcoming Kannada film. “I’m not an expert when it comes to folk music from North Karnataka. More importantly, he does not intend to simply collect sounds and recreate them in the studio. “I would love to collaborate with musicians who have been practising this music their entire lives and come from a lineage of that tradition. It’s not about me learning everything and doing it myself. I want to work with them,” he shares. ‘Music can change how you see something’ Ricky’s approach to film scoring is shaped by a question that goes beyond melody: what does the music make the audience feel about what they are watching? “Music highlights emotions. Sometimes it is not even heard consciously, but it is felt. Ricky is far from slowing down elsewhere While the film marks an interesting new direction. His India tour, meanwhile, has been postponed amid security concerns and uncertainty surrounding protests and permissions. For an artist who moves between orchestral compositions, collaborations and culturally rooted projects, the variety seems to be the point rather than a balancing act. “I love experimenting with music and collaborating with people.