Pioneering tablatronic musician, DJ, and producer Karsh Kale talks to Mr. Hyphen.
Photo Credits: Danielle at Mizchief Media
Hello Karsh, thanks for taking some time out to talk with Hyphen Magazine. How are you?
Good. Thanks for making this happen.
Let me tell you a bit about the impetus behind writing this article. I am interested in learning more about the intersection of traditional forms of classical Indian music and their convergence with the contemporary, but in a deeper sense…really talking about what goes into learning the music, and what it is like to be someone who is or is not of lineage when approaching these massive art forms. Before we get to that though, I would like to learn more about what you are working on right now.
First of all, I am working on a few different projects. I just released Broken English (Available on Six Degrees Records) and so I am doing live concerts with my band Realize. I am also doing DJ events with Kollective, which is a national DJ collective party that I started last year with a number of resident DJs across the country. We are going to be releasing a CD as well. I am also working on an album with Anoushka Shankar, so all of that is keeping me pretty busy.
How important has being diverse and bringing in diverse instrumentation/influences into your music been?
There is always diversity in my music…being an artist myself growing up in America, it was always important to attract a wider audience…this is something I have always tried to do in my own life as well. I always try to take what I have and where I come from and make that tangible and understandable to everyone in my environment.
Tell me about your childhood, growing up and your early exposure to music.
I always wanted to play music, since I was child. I never imagined it becoming a career though…I never knew what that meant for music to be a career. I just went through life playing music. Reality plays a big role in the music that you make. As a south Asian, I played both Indian music and all styles of western music, as a drummer and a producer and it wasn’t until the last 12 years of my life that I began to incorporate the two into one world.
What kind of support did you have from your family?
I did have a lot of support playing music. My father is very musical as well. He was the one who introduced a lot of music to me growing up. My family has always been very supportive. I am the youngest of three, so my brother and sister got a lot of the brunt of what a lot of older siblings get. It was kind of no question for them [that I pursue my musical passions]…they would have been surprised if I didn’t play music.
Tell me about your father, his influence on you and his connection to music?
He was a doctor, but he had been playing music since he was a child. He probably could have pursued it professionally. At that time for him in India, though, it was the kind of industry that if you weren’t born into the music industry, you didn’t have a chance. So he decided to go into medicine. He would have excelled at anything he got involved with. But once he came to America, music was one of the few things he could really bring with him…of all the family, he has 4 brothers and 1 sister, he was the most musical in the family.
Was your mother influential in your music?
My mother was definitely supportive. She also sings, and my parents would always have music parties in our home…my parents would break out the harmonium, start singing, and I would play tabla. It was a regular thing in my house.
Tell me about your early training in tabla and who you learned from initially.
I studied with three different teachers over a total of 1or 2 years with each teacher…the rest of the time I spent by myself. I spent a lot of time playing with people, accompanying. Because of my father’s involvement with the performing arts in the Indian community and performing arts, there were a lot of musicians coming to our house, so I was playing with a lot people. So, I spent most of my time learning tabla by watching tabla players and learning from them, retaining as much information as I could. I think probably the way I learned tabla was not the right thing to do, but because of the way I learned tabla, what I learned of tabla, I was able to quickly jump into many different worlds… but as an Indian musician, as far as being a proper tabla player, I definitely scattered my brain a little bit.
Do you wish you could focus more on your practice of tabla?
I always do, and now it is a matter of time. The question is, “Do I have the time to stop everything I am doing and devote the time to the study of a craft?” At this point in my life, if I was spend that much time with a Guru, I would probably wind up playing a stringed instrument. I find myself gravitating more towards sarode or sarangi or sitar, and really wanting to study something like that and stopping everything I am doing, as opposed to learning tabla.
For me, it is really about tapping into the source of where this music comes from. That is the reason I perform as a DJ, drummer or tabla player. But when I am in the studio, I am a composer and so I am singing music to artists and musicians, and working with different musicians and instrumentalists, so I want to be able to get to that source, and the source of that music…because I have been working with some great Indian musicians, I am learning the other side of music as well, besides the tabla which I have focused on earlier in my life.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
What is it like learning music here as opposed in India? Can you talk a little bit about what you see in your travels and how you see audiences and performers differ in terms of their approach of understanding and performing music?
At this point, anything that is possible here is possible in India. I have seen parallels to my experiences all over in India or wherever I travel…I think that circumstances for creativity have change dramatically over the last 10 -15 years in India. So as far as classical music, people have changed as well. People are seeing that their own music is being interpreted in these different ways. And they are hearing that it is retaining its essence…so artists like the Midival Punditz get a lot of respect from Indian classical artists as well, because they hear the understanding of the music in the music.
Can you talk about your approach to collaborating with musicians who are classically trained, and those who are not?
I think for musicians to be involved in anything, they need to know that their artform is really understood. Before I was working as a producer with different artists, I was working as a session musician playing tabla and being a drummer on a lot of different albums. Especially as a tabla player or as a drummer focused on Indian music within hip hop, jazz, pop rock or whatever I was doing at the time, I noticed how different artists were aware of what I was bringing to the table…it was a learning process about how to create the right atmosphere for artists when they come to work with me. For instance, I don’t like to put a label on something that I am going to do this kind of track or that kind of track. I see a picture and within that picture I like to play a rhythm and I program it in a particular style depending on the situation. So, when I am playing for an Indian classical musician, I’ll play it on tabla instead of drumset. It might wind up in dadra (6 beat rhythmic cycle) or rupak taal (7 beat rhythmic cycle).
They will understand it, and they will better understand my composition…Once I capture that, I take that to a different realm.
Have you worked with many artists who have a difficult time understanding your approach or your music?
If I gravitate towards an artist it is because we both understood what each other does…I haven’t found myself in situations where people are not understanding…If people are really good at what they do, you will understand far more than that track…Today in the contemporary world of music, everywhere I have gone, especially in India where I have worked with young classical musicians, they hear western chord changes, and they hear attitude changes. It is more than just classical raas that existed for them…There is more to the world and they understand different attitudes in music.
Has the approach to making music in India evolved dramatically over the past 10 – 15 years?
I think it has really evolved, because before there were not a lot of artists, there were a lot more producers…there were definitely a handful of artists, but they were being directed by producers. But what has happened in the last 10 years is that there are a lot of artists who are born out of the sound. There has been an exchange between the creators of the music and the people who are creating the attitude of the music. The DJs, the tastemakers, people who are making the underground club scene happen, and within those clubs, there are kids who are inspired by that music to go home and create their own sound, their own musical persona.
How receptive are audiences in India to your music?
The audiences we have reached in India are very receptive. Reaching a wider audience in India is always challenging…the market is completely saturated by Bollywood, so no matter what you do, whether you are an Indian classical artist or anything, this music is accepted on the same level as Indian classical music or any niche music.
What excites you most about the audiences you reach through your music?
The most exciting thing for me is to see people redefine the stereotype of the modern south Asian…this happens not just with artists, but also those people who attain iconic status, who are being looked at by all angles in society. More south Asians come out who have grown up in different parts of the world, who are incorporating different aspects of world culture into their south Asianness and then projecting that on the world, not just in the musical genre…I see the musical genres as well as splitting off…there are singer songwriters, hard core scratch DJs, tabla players, Indian classical musicians surrounding this music.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
Why did you decide to move to Los Angeles?
I moved to LA almost 2 years ago. I did it when there was a lot of chaos in my life, and I was traveling a lot…New York became the most chaotic stopover in my life, even though it was my home…I needed the change…I came out to LA to still be in the industry, and I had a lot of work on the west coast with Six Degrees Records and more…Also, I came to LA to get a little peace amidst the travel…but to be honest, in the last 2 years of living in LA, I have only spent a total of 3 months here because I have been traveling so much.
Have you noticed any differences in terms of acceptance of your music on the west coast?
There is a wider American acceptance of my music on the west coast…there is of course a huge south Asian infrastructure that has been built for this music to exist. There is on the west coast, a growing number of American people who are getting involved with the music on a deeper level. This is not a foreign music for them; rather, this is music that comes from where they come from.
Do you feel that people accept this music, respect your music?
It is not just about accepting or respecting my music or any music for that matter…it is about people reflecting on the music, and people feeling that the music makes sense to them. People accepting music doesn’t mean they will internalize it. I feel that the relationship people are having to my music is that it helps them make what is foreign seem more local.
Was it beneficial to be out on the west coast, and connect with the west coast crews as well?
Absolutely. I was able to expand the idea of my own party, Kollective, out on the west coast as well. By coming out here, I connected with Janaka of the Dhamaal crew and we worked on a few different events together: Worldly, Kollective, Dhamaal, and Project Ahimsa. I think it is important to be involved and connected to the different crews worldwide and that is keeping this music alive: creating the infrastructure around the country, these local crews holding it up in their own towns.
What is it like seeing these different crews around the world?
At this point, almost everywhere I have gone in the world, I have met people on a level where people are throwing huge weekly events where people are coming down to hear this music, maybe it is two passionate people who throw a small event every month, and we keep on doing it.
Everywhere I go in the world, I see that this music is reaching more people. The difference is, as with any industry, there needs to be a financial push to push it over the edge. All the artists who are working in this industry are working with independent budgets and independent labels, and it is much harder to compete in an industry saturated with pop music where millions of dollars are being funneled in just to market that music.
Is it changing? Is it getting better?
It is not really changing…it would only change if something appears a bit more pop, a bit more palatable for western audiences. Where the change needs to come from is from south Asians, our own community. We are one of the richest minorities in this country, and we need to start supporting our artists. That is what needs to happen. That is what the Latin artists did. They didn’t ask for money, they raised it themselves. They launched the careers of their artists, by spending their own money.
How is this different from India? Are the arts supported there?
I think that it is the same way even in India, where artists aren’t really supported in that communal sort of way. The arts, besides the classical arts, which is somewhat supported by the Government, as far as being a musician or being in a band, there is very little financial support for artists. Culturally, south Asians are deficient in supporting the arts…it used to be the job of the Mughal emperors and the royal courts to support the high arts; Now, society doesn’t really support the artist, we just enjoy it, we pay to hear some songs we like…but the idea of actually supporting an artist to build a career is a wholly western concept. It is becoming harder to convince our own communities to help us out…even in India, the only community that is getting such an influx of funding is Bollywood, because it sells and it is so visible on a mainstream level. It is similar here in America, because if an artist is not proven to sell, the financial risk factor for involved in getting behind an artist that is doing something different has to be something that has to be proven. History has shown that when Asian arts are supported by the west, only then are south Asian much more likely to become involved. But why can’t south Asians wholly support south Asian artists on their own?
How would your life have been different if you hadn’t been living here, performing?
At this point, I could have seen myself traveling the same path having grown up in India, as long as I lived the same lifestyle that I lived here…if I had the same opportunities to be open to all the impulses that I was open to here. As far as doing what I do here, at least for me, it is all because I grew up here. It was the battleground, the place where I had prepared to become myself…when I grew up, it was always about making music and playing it live in America.
Do you believe in lineage?
I don’t really believe in lineage…I think the examples of lineage that we see, people like Zakir Hussain, Alam Khan, Anoushka Shankar, or Aman or Amjad Ali Bangash…they very much deserve to have the spotlight that they do, because they have truly mastered and taken their art form to another level. In general, though, I don’t think there should be a rule for other artists to be excluded because they are not part of the lineage in any art form. But I think what happens is that people create a particular aesthetic around their own family lineage, their gharana, and they create rigid institutions around them and then as an artist you try to are forced to either fit that bill or you create your own. I think that is what people really need to understand and do because now it is possible to really be independent, not being ruled by a lineage system anymore. So what an artist needs to do to be noticed is to be able to create their own aesthetic around their own statement of this art form as opposed to trying to fit into all the institutions that exist.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
What is going on with your music presently?
Well, nowadays I have been writing a lot more, focusing more on songwriting…I have been crafting a lot more composition off the computer, sitting with the guitar, sitting on a piano, sitting on a Fender Rhodes, writing songs, writing full compositions, even within Raags, and singing all different styles of Carnatic music, and doing a lot more human composition, and leaving the technology behind a bit…I’ve spent the last 12 years collaborating with so many different incredible artists, and I haven’t really sat down until recently and just looked at what I have received from all those experiences…Now I am in that kind of discovery mode as an artist, I am creating different music, and it better reflects my own musical path.
Do you feel that your music is an evolution of the Asian Massive movement?
When people talk about a movement, it sounds like such a large kind of thing…I think of hundreds of different incredible artists who are actually very individual…so I don’t really see my music as part of an evolution like that, I really only see the music as a progression for my self. For me, it is really important to be able to make music that is not, that doesn’t find itself in a category. For me, categories are disposable. Even though electronic music and dance music and lounge music wind up becoming cataloged music that ends up on millions of different compilations…those tracks don’t really live the life a song does, and for me that is what my pursuit is…to be able to really produce music that stays timeless in that way, stays with people…in the age of downloading music into iTunes and then to your iPod, it is amazing the amount of music we have access to…but on the other hand we are losing an intimate relationship with music, with the song.
Tell me about your involvement with Artwallah 2006.
I am one of the co-curators with Michael Dana, and we are basically scouting talent to be showcased at the event. I have picked out a few fantastic artists…One of them is a native San Francisco artist, Micropixie…I think Artwallah is great, I think it is important. I wish there was more support when I was a younger artist, when I was trying to get myself noticed…there was much less of that kind of infrastructure, or even a platform for people to come together, and a context as well…I think Artwallah is trying to create a context for artists to create within, because there is such a vastness about how to represent yourself artistically as a fusion of cultures. I think what they are doing is fencing that and letting people sit within that and express themselves…and through whatever medium it may be, film video, poetry or music, it is a grounded place. If artwallah continues, some real success stories are going to come from it.
One of the biggest challenges that artists face, an issue that does get addressed at Artwallah, is funding for artists…there needs to be more money for young artists to apply for grants, to get more support from the community to do what they do…to be a filmmaker, an author, to be any artists shouldn’t mean just paying for it themselves…at least as musician, you can get some gigs to climb that ladder…but there needs to be more support for artistic and business communities to come together to address these issues to sustain art forms. Because, first and foremost, being able to produce great art requires survival and sustainability.
Karsh's latest album Broken English is now available on Six Degrees Records. Check out the latest information on Karsh's music and tourdates at www.karshkale.com.
Check out Karsh's latest album Broken English (Six Degrees Records) as well as his website,
Robin Sukhadia
Mr. Hyphen 2006/2007
Posted by robin at 8:04 PM | Comments (2)
Pioneering tablatronic musician, DJ, and producer Karsh Kale talks to Mr. Hyphen.
Photo Credits: Danielle at Mizchief Media
Hello Karsh, thanks for taking some time out to talk with Hyphen Magazine. How are you?
Good. Thanks for making this happen.
Let me tell you a bit about the impetus behind writing this article. I am interested in learning more about the intersection of traditional forms of classical Indian music and their convergence with the contemporary, but in a deeper sense…really talking about what goes into learning the music, and what it is like to be someone who is or is not of lineage when approaching these massive art forms. Before we get to that though, I would like to learn more about what you are working on right now.
First of all, I am working on a few different projects. I just released Broken English (Available on Six Degrees Records) and so I am doing live concerts with my band Realize. I am also doing DJ events with Kollective, which is a national DJ collective party that I started last year with a number of resident DJs across the country. We are going to be releasing a CD as well. I am also working on an album with Anoushka Shankar, so all of that is keeping me pretty busy.
How important has being diverse and bringing in diverse instrumentation/influences into your music been?
There is always diversity in my music…being an artist myself growing up in America, it was always important to attract a wider audience…this is something I have always tried to do in my own life as well. I always try to take what I have and where I come from and make that tangible and understandable to everyone in my environment.
Tell me about your childhood, growing up and your early exposure to music.
I always wanted to play music, since I was child. I never imagined it becoming a career though…I never knew what that meant for music to be a career. I just went through life playing music. Reality plays a big role in the music that you make. As a south Asian, I played both Indian music and all styles of western music, as a drummer and a producer and it wasn’t until the last 12 years of my life that I began to incorporate the two into one world.
What kind of support did you have from your family?
I did have a lot of support playing music. My father is very musical as well. He was the one who introduced a lot of music to me growing up. My family has always been very supportive. I am the youngest of three, so my brother and sister got a lot of the brunt of what a lot of older siblings get. It was kind of no question for them [that I pursue my musical passions]…they would have been surprised if I didn’t play music.
Tell me about your father, his influence on you and his connection to music?
He was a doctor, but he had been playing music since he was a child. He probably could have pursued it professionally. At that time for him in India, though, it was the kind of industry that if you weren’t born into the music industry, you didn’t have a chance. So he decided to go into medicine. He would have excelled at anything he got involved with. But once he came to America, music was one of the few things he could really bring with him…of all the family, he has 4 brothers and 1 sister, he was the most musical in the family.
Was your mother influential in your music?
My mother was definitely supportive. She also sings, and my parents would always have music parties in our home…my parents would break out the harmonium, start singing, and I would play tabla. It was a regular thing in my house.
Tell me about your early training in tabla and who you learned from initially.
I studied with three different teachers over a total of 1or 2 years with each teacher…the rest of the time I spent by myself. I spent a lot of time playing with people, accompanying. Because of my father’s involvement with the performing arts in the Indian community and performing arts, there were a lot of musicians coming to our house, so I was playing with a lot people. So, I spent most of my time learning tabla by watching tabla players and learning from them, retaining as much information as I could. I think probably the way I learned tabla was not the right thing to do, but because of the way I learned tabla, what I learned of tabla, I was able to quickly jump into many different worlds… but as an Indian musician, as far as being a proper tabla player, I definitely scattered my brain a little bit.
Do you wish you could focus more on your practice of tabla?
I always do, and now it is a matter of time. The question is, “Do I have the time to stop everything I am doing and devote the time to the study of a craft?” At this point in my life, if I was spend that much time with a Guru, I would probably wind up playing a stringed instrument. I find myself gravitating more towards sarode or sarangi or sitar, and really wanting to study something like that and stopping everything I am doing, as opposed to learning tabla.
For me, it is really about tapping into the source of where this music comes from. That is the reason I perform as a DJ, drummer or tabla player. But when I am in the studio, I am a composer and so I am singing music to artists and musicians, and working with different musicians and instrumentalists, so I want to be able to get to that source, and the source of that music…because I have been working with some great Indian musicians, I am learning the other side of music as well, besides the tabla which I have focused on earlier in my life.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
What is it like learning music here as opposed in India? Can you talk a little bit about what you see in your travels and how you see audiences and performers differ in terms of their approach of understanding and performing music?
At this point, anything that is possible here is possible in India. I have seen parallels to my experiences all over in India or wherever I travel…I think that circumstances for creativity have change dramatically over the last 10 -15 years in India. So as far as classical music, people have changed as well. People are seeing that their own music is being interpreted in these different ways. And they are hearing that it is retaining its essence…so artists like the Midival Punditz get a lot of respect from Indian classical artists as well, because they hear the understanding of the music in the music.
Can you talk about your approach to collaborating with musicians who are classically trained, and those who are not?
I think for musicians to be involved in anything, they need to know that their artform is really understood. Before I was working as a producer with different artists, I was working as a session musician playing tabla and being a drummer on a lot of different albums. Especially as a tabla player or as a drummer focused on Indian music within hip hop, jazz, pop rock or whatever I was doing at the time, I noticed how different artists were aware of what I was bringing to the table…it was a learning process about how to create the right atmosphere for artists when they come to work with me. For instance, I don’t like to put a label on something that I am going to do this kind of track or that kind of track. I see a picture and within that picture I like to play a rhythm and I program it in a particular style depending on the situation. So, when I am playing for an Indian classical musician, I’ll play it on tabla instead of drumset. It might wind up in dadra (6 beat rhythmic cycle) or rupak taal (7 beat rhythmic cycle).
They will understand it, and they will better understand my composition…Once I capture that, I take that to a different realm.
Have you worked with many artists who have a difficult time understanding your approach or your music?
If I gravitate towards an artist it is because we both understood what each other does…I haven’t found myself in situations where people are not understanding…If people are really good at what they do, you will understand far more than that track…Today in the contemporary world of music, everywhere I have gone, especially in India where I have worked with young classical musicians, they hear western chord changes, and they hear attitude changes. It is more than just classical raas that existed for them…There is more to the world and they understand different attitudes in music.
Has the approach to making music in India evolved dramatically over the past 10 – 15 years?
I think it has really evolved, because before there were not a lot of artists, there were a lot more producers…there were definitely a handful of artists, but they were being directed by producers. But what has happened in the last 10 years is that there are a lot of artists who are born out of the sound. There has been an exchange between the creators of the music and the people who are creating the attitude of the music. The DJs, the tastemakers, people who are making the underground club scene happen, and within those clubs, there are kids who are inspired by that music to go home and create their own sound, their own musical persona.
How receptive are audiences in India to your music?
The audiences we have reached in India are very receptive. Reaching a wider audience in India is always challenging…the market is completely saturated by Bollywood, so no matter what you do, whether you are an Indian classical artist or anything, this music is accepted on the same level as Indian classical music or any niche music.
What excites you most about the audiences you reach through your music?
The most exciting thing for me is to see people redefine the stereotype of the modern south Asian…this happens not just with artists, but also those people who attain iconic status, who are being looked at by all angles in society. More south Asians come out who have grown up in different parts of the world, who are incorporating different aspects of world culture into their south Asianness and then projecting that on the world, not just in the musical genre…I see the musical genres as well as splitting off…there are singer songwriters, hard core scratch DJs, tabla players, Indian classical musicians surrounding this music.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
Why did you decide to move to Los Angeles?
I moved to LA almost 2 years ago. I did it when there was a lot of chaos in my life, and I was traveling a lot…New York became the most chaotic stopover in my life, even though it was my home…I needed the change…I came out to LA to still be in the industry, and I had a lot of work on the west coast with Six Degrees Records and more…Also, I came to LA to get a little peace amidst the travel…but to be honest, in the last 2 years of living in LA, I have only spent a total of 3 months here because I have been traveling so much.
Have you noticed any differences in terms of acceptance of your music on the west coast?
There is a wider American acceptance of my music on the west coast…there is of course a huge south Asian infrastructure that has been built for this music to exist. There is on the west coast, a growing number of American people who are getting involved with the music on a deeper level. This is not a foreign music for them; rather, this is music that comes from where they come from.
Do you feel that people accept this music, respect your music?
It is not just about accepting or respecting my music or any music for that matter…it is about people reflecting on the music, and people feeling that the music makes sense to them. People accepting music doesn’t mean they will internalize it. I feel that the relationship people are having to my music is that it helps them make what is foreign seem more local.
Was it beneficial to be out on the west coast, and connect with the west coast crews as well?
Absolutely. I was able to expand the idea of my own party, Kollective, out on the west coast as well. By coming out here, I connected with Janaka of the Dhamaal crew and we worked on a few different events together: Worldly, Kollective, Dhamaal, and Project Ahimsa. I think it is important to be involved and connected to the different crews worldwide and that is keeping this music alive: creating the infrastructure around the country, these local crews holding it up in their own towns.
What is it like seeing these different crews around the world?
At this point, almost everywhere I have gone in the world, I have met people on a level where people are throwing huge weekly events where people are coming down to hear this music, maybe it is two passionate people who throw a small event every month, and we keep on doing it.
Everywhere I go in the world, I see that this music is reaching more people. The difference is, as with any industry, there needs to be a financial push to push it over the edge. All the artists who are working in this industry are working with independent budgets and independent labels, and it is much harder to compete in an industry saturated with pop music where millions of dollars are being funneled in just to market that music.
Is it changing? Is it getting better?
It is not really changing…it would only change if something appears a bit more pop, a bit more palatable for western audiences. Where the change needs to come from is from south Asians, our own community. We are one of the richest minorities in this country, and we need to start supporting our artists. That is what needs to happen. That is what the Latin artists did. They didn’t ask for money, they raised it themselves. They launched the careers of their artists, by spending their own money.
How is this different from India? Are the arts supported there?
I think that it is the same way even in India, where artists aren’t really supported in that communal sort of way. The arts, besides the classical arts, which is somewhat supported by the Government, as far as being a musician or being in a band, there is very little financial support for artists. Culturally, south Asians are deficient in supporting the arts…it used to be the job of the Mughal emperors and the royal courts to support the high arts; Now, society doesn’t really support the artist, we just enjoy it, we pay to hear some songs we like…but the idea of actually supporting an artist to build a career is a wholly western concept. It is becoming harder to convince our own communities to help us out…even in India, the only community that is getting such an influx of funding is Bollywood, because it sells and it is so visible on a mainstream level. It is similar here in America, because if an artist is not proven to sell, the financial risk factor for involved in getting behind an artist that is doing something different has to be something that has to be proven. History has shown that when Asian arts are supported by the west, only then are south Asian much more likely to become involved. But why can’t south Asians wholly support south Asian artists on their own?
How would your life have been different if you hadn’t been living here, performing?
At this point, I could have seen myself traveling the same path having grown up in India, as long as I lived the same lifestyle that I lived here…if I had the same opportunities to be open to all the impulses that I was open to here. As far as doing what I do here, at least for me, it is all because I grew up here. It was the battleground, the place where I had prepared to become myself…when I grew up, it was always about making music and playing it live in America.
Do you believe in lineage?
I don’t really believe in lineage…I think the examples of lineage that we see, people like Zakir Hussain, Alam Khan, Anoushka Shankar, or Aman or Amjad Ali Bangash…they very much deserve to have the spotlight that they do, because they have truly mastered and taken their art form to another level. In general, though, I don’t think there should be a rule for other artists to be excluded because they are not part of the lineage in any art form. But I think what happens is that people create a particular aesthetic around their own family lineage, their gharana, and they create rigid institutions around them and then as an artist you try to are forced to either fit that bill or you create your own. I think that is what people really need to understand and do because now it is possible to really be independent, not being ruled by a lineage system anymore. So what an artist needs to do to be noticed is to be able to create their own aesthetic around their own statement of this art form as opposed to trying to fit into all the institutions that exist.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
What is going on with your music presently?
Well, nowadays I have been writing a lot more, focusing more on songwriting…I have been crafting a lot more composition off the computer, sitting with the guitar, sitting on a piano, sitting on a Fender Rhodes, writing songs, writing full compositions, even within Raags, and singing all different styles of Carnatic music, and doing a lot more human composition, and leaving the technology behind a bit…I’ve spent the last 12 years collaborating with so many different incredible artists, and I haven’t really sat down until recently and just looked at what I have received from all those experiences…Now I am in that kind of discovery mode as an artist, I am creating different music, and it better reflects my own musical path.
Do you feel that your music is an evolution of the Asian Massive movement?
When people talk about a movement, it sounds like such a large kind of thing…I think of hundreds of different incredible artists who are actually very individual…so I don’t really see my music as part of an evolution like that, I really only see the music as a progression for my self. For me, it is really important to be able to make music that is not, that doesn’t find itself in a category. For me, categories are disposable. Even though electronic music and dance music and lounge music wind up becoming cataloged music that ends up on millions of different compilations…those tracks don’t really live the life a song does, and for me that is what my pursuit is…to be able to really produce music that stays timeless in that way, stays with people…in the age of downloading music into iTunes and then to your iPod, it is amazing the amount of music we have access to…but on the other hand we are losing an intimate relationship with music, with the song.
Tell me about your involvement with Artwallah 2006.
I am one of the co-curators with Michael Dana, and we are basically scouting talent to be showcased at the event. I have picked out a few fantastic artists…One of them is a native San Francisco artist, Micropixie…I think Artwallah is great, I think it is important. I wish there was more support when I was a younger artist, when I was trying to get myself noticed…there was much less of that kind of infrastructure, or even a platform for people to come together, and a context as well…I think Artwallah is trying to create a context for artists to create within, because there is such a vastness about how to represent yourself artistically as a fusion of cultures. I think what they are doing is fencing that and letting people sit within that and express themselves…and through whatever medium it may be, film video, poetry or music, it is a grounded place. If artwallah continues, some real success stories are going to come from it.
One of the biggest challenges that artists face, an issue that does get addressed at Artwallah, is funding for artists…there needs to be more money for young artists to apply for grants, to get more support from the community to do what they do…to be a filmmaker, an author, to be any artists shouldn’t mean just paying for it themselves…at least as musician, you can get some gigs to climb that ladder…but there needs to be more support for artistic and business communities to come together to address these issues to sustain art forms. Because, first and foremost, being able to produce great art requires survival and sustainability.
Karsh's latest album Broken English is now available on Six Degrees Records. Check out the latest information on Karsh's music and tourdates at www.karshkale.com.
Check out Karsh's latest album Broken English (Six Degrees Records) as well as his website,
Robin Sukhadia
Mr. Hyphen 2006/2007
Posted by robin at 8:04 PM | Comments (2)
Pioneering tablatronic musician, DJ, and producer Karsh Kale talks to Mr. Hyphen.
Photo Credits: Danielle at Mizchief Media
Hello Karsh, thanks for taking some time out to talk with Hyphen Magazine. How are you?
Good. Thanks for making this happen.
Let me tell you a bit about the impetus behind writing this article. I am interested in learning more about the intersection of traditional forms of classical Indian music and their convergence with the contemporary, but in a deeper sensereally talking about what goes into learning the music, and what it is like to be someone who is or is not of lineage when approaching these massive art forms. Before we get to that though, I would like to learn more about what you are working on right now.
First of all, I am working on a few different projects. I just released Broken English (Available on Six Degrees Records) and so I am doing live concerts with my band Realize. I am also doing DJ events with Kollective, which is a national DJ collective party that I started last year with a number of resident DJs across the country. We are going to be releasing a CD as well. I am also working on an album with Anoushka Shankar, so all of that is keeping me pretty busy.
How important has being diverse and bringing in diverse instrumentation/influences into your music been?
There is always diversity in my musicbeing an artist myself growing up in America, it was always important to attract a wider audiencethis is something I have always tried to do in my own life as well. I always try to take what I have and where I come from and make that tangible and understandable to everyone in my environment.
Tell me about your childhood, growing up and your early exposure to music.
I always wanted to play music, since I was child. I never imagined it becoming a career thoughI never knew what that meant for music to be a career. I just went through life playing music. Reality plays a big role in the music that you make. As a south Asian, I played both Indian music and all styles of western music, as a drummer and a producer and it wasnt until the last 12 years of my life that I began to incorporate the two into one world.
What kind of support did you have from your family?
I did have a lot of support playing music. My father is very musical as well. He was the one who introduced a lot of music to me growing up. My family has always been very supportive. I am the youngest of three, so my brother and sister got a lot of the brunt of what a lot of older siblings get. It was kind of no question for them [that I pursue my musical passions]they would have been surprised if I didnt play music.
Tell me about your father, his influence on you and his connection to music?
He was a doctor, but he had been playing music since he was a child. He probably could have pursued it professionally. At that time for him in India, though, it was the kind of industry that if you werent born into the music industry, you didnt have a chance. So he decided to go into medicine. He would have excelled at anything he got involved with. But once he came to America, music was one of the few things he could really bring with himof all the family, he has 4 brothers and 1 sister, he was the most musical in the family.
Was your mother influential in your music?
My mother was definitely supportive. She also sings, and my parents would always have music parties in our homemy parents would break out the harmonium, start singing, and I would play tabla. It was a regular thing in my house.
Tell me about your early training in tabla and who you learned from initially.
I studied with three different teachers over a total of 1or 2 years with each teacherthe rest of the time I spent by myself. I spent a lot of time playing with people, accompanying. Because of my fathers involvement with the performing arts in the Indian community and performing arts, there were a lot of musicians coming to our house, so I was playing with a lot people. So, I spent most of my time learning tabla by watching tabla players and learning from them, retaining as much information as I could. I think probably the way I learned tabla was not the right thing to do, but because of the way I learned tabla, what I learned of tabla, I was able to quickly jump into many different worlds but as an Indian musician, as far as being a proper tabla player, I definitely scattered my brain a little bit.
Do you wish you could focus more on your practice of tabla?
I always do, and now it is a matter of time. The question is, Do I have the time to stop everything I am doing and devote the time to the study of a craft? At this point in my life, if I was spend that much time with a Guru, I would probably wind up playing a stringed instrument. I find myself gravitating more towards sarode or sarangi or sitar, and really wanting to study something like that and stopping everything I am doing, as opposed to learning tabla.
For me, it is really about tapping into the source of where this music comes from. That is the reason I perform as a DJ, drummer or tabla player. But when I am in the studio, I am a composer and so I am singing music to artists and musicians, and working with different musicians and instrumentalists, so I want to be able to get to that source, and the source of that musicbecause I have been working with some great Indian musicians, I am learning the other side of music as well, besides the tabla which I have focused on earlier in my life.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
What is it like learning music here as opposed in India? Can you talk a little bit about what you see in your travels and how you see audiences and performers differ in terms of their approach of understanding and performing music?
At this point, anything that is possible here is possible in India. I have seen parallels to my experiences all over in India or wherever I travelI think that circumstances for creativity have change dramatically over the last 10 -15 years in India. So as far as classical music, people have changed as well. People are seeing that their own music is being interpreted in these different ways. And they are hearing that it is retaining its essenceso artists like the Midival Punditz get a lot of respect from Indian classical artists as well, because they hear the understanding of the music in the music.
Can you talk about your approach to collaborating with musicians who are classically trained, and those who are not?
I think for musicians to be involved in anything, they need to know that their artform is really understood. Before I was working as a producer with different artists, I was working as a session musician playing tabla and being a drummer on a lot of different albums. Especially as a tabla player or as a drummer focused on Indian music within hip hop, jazz, pop rock or whatever I was doing at the time, I noticed how different artists were aware of what I was bringing to the tableit was a learning process about how to create the right atmosphere for artists when they come to work with me. For instance, I dont like to put a label on something that I am going to do this kind of track or that kind of track. I see a picture and within that picture I like to play a rhythm and I program it in a particular style depending on the situation. So, when I am playing for an Indian classical musician, Ill play it on tabla instead of drumset. It might wind up in dadra (6 beat rhythmic cycle) or rupak taal (7 beat rhythmic cycle).
They will understand it, and they will better understand my compositionOnce I capture that, I take that to a different realm.
Have you worked with many artists who have a difficult time understanding your approach or your music?
If I gravitate towards an artist it is because we both understood what each other doesI havent found myself in situations where people are not understandingIf people are really good at what they do, you will understand far more than that trackToday in the contemporary world of music, everywhere I have gone, especially in India where I have worked with young classical musicians, they hear western chord changes, and they hear attitude changes. It is more than just classical raas that existed for themThere is more to the world and they understand different attitudes in music.
Has the approach to making music in India evolved dramatically over the past 10 15 years?
I think it has really evolved, because before there were not a lot of artists, there were a lot more producersthere were definitely a handful of artists, but they were being directed by producers. But what has happened in the last 10 years is that there are a lot of artists who are born out of the sound. There has been an exchange between the creators of the music and the people who are creating the attitude of the music. The DJs, the tastemakers, people who are making the underground club scene happen, and within those clubs, there are kids who are inspired by that music to go home and create their own sound, their own musical persona.
How receptive are audiences in India to your music?
The audiences we have reached in India are very receptive. Reaching a wider audience in India is always challengingthe market is completely saturated by Bollywood, so no matter what you do, whether you are an Indian classical artist or anything, this music is accepted on the same level as Indian classical music or any niche music.
What excites you most about the audiences you reach through your music?
The most exciting thing for me is to see people redefine the stereotype of the modern south Asianthis happens not just with artists, but also those people who attain iconic status, who are being looked at by all angles in society. More south Asians come out who have grown up in different parts of the world, who are incorporating different aspects of world culture into their south Asianness and then projecting that on the world, not just in the musical genreI see the musical genres as well as splitting offthere are singer songwriters, hard core scratch DJs, tabla players, Indian classical musicians surrounding this music.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
Why did you decide to move to Los Angeles?
I moved to LA almost 2 years ago. I did it when there was a lot of chaos in my life, and I was traveling a lotNew York became the most chaotic stopover in my life, even though it was my homeI needed the changeI came out to LA to still be in the industry, and I had a lot of work on the west coast with Six Degrees Records and moreAlso, I came to LA to get a little peace amidst the travelbut to be honest, in the last 2 years of living in LA, I have only spent a total of 3 months here because I have been traveling so much.
Have you noticed any differences in terms of acceptance of your music on the west coast?
There is a wider American acceptance of my music on the west coastthere is of course a huge south Asian infrastructure that has been built for this music to exist. There is on the west coast, a growing number of American people who are getting involved with the music on a deeper level. This is not a foreign music for them; rather, this is music that comes from where they come from.
Do you feel that people accept this music, respect your music?
It is not just about accepting or respecting my music or any music for that matterit is about people reflecting on the music, and people feeling that the music makes sense to them. People accepting music doesnt mean they will internalize it. I feel that the relationship people are having to my music is that it helps them make what is foreign seem more local.
Was it beneficial to be out on the west coast, and connect with the west coast crews as well?
Absolutely. I was able to expand the idea of my own party, Kollective, out on the west coast as well. By coming out here, I connected with Janaka of the Dhamaal crew and we worked on a few different events together: Worldly, Kollective, Dhamaal, and Project Ahimsa. I think it is important to be involved and connected to the different crews worldwide and that is keeping this music alive: creating the infrastructure around the country, these local crews holding it up in their own towns.
What is it like seeing these different crews around the world?
At this point, almost everywhere I have gone in the world, I have met people on a level where people are throwing huge weekly events where people are coming down to hear this music, maybe it is two passionate people who throw a small event every month, and we keep on doing it.
Everywhere I go in the world, I see that this music is reaching more people. The difference is, as with any industry, there needs to be a financial push to push it over the edge. All the artists who are working in this industry are working with independent budgets and independent labels, and it is much harder to compete in an industry saturated with pop music where millions of dollars are being funneled in just to market that music.
Is it changing? Is it getting better?
It is not really changingit would only change if something appears a bit more pop, a bit more palatable for western audiences. Where the change needs to come from is from south Asians, our own community. We are one of the richest minorities in this country, and we need to start supporting our artists. That is what needs to happen. That is what the Latin artists did. They didnt ask for money, they raised it themselves. They launched the careers of their artists, by spending their own money.
How is this different from India? Are the arts supported there?
I think that it is the same way even in India, where artists arent really supported in that communal sort of way. The arts, besides the classical arts, which is somewhat supported by the Government, as far as being a musician or being in a band, there is very little financial support for artists. Culturally, south Asians are deficient in supporting the artsit used to be the job of the Mughal emperors and the royal courts to support the high arts; Now, society doesnt really support the artist, we just enjoy it, we pay to hear some songs we likebut the idea of actually supporting an artist to build a career is a wholly western concept. It is becoming harder to convince our own communities to help us outeven in India, the only community that is getting such an influx of funding is Bollywood, because it sells and it is so visible on a mainstream level. It is similar here in America, because if an artist is not proven to sell, the financial risk factor for involved in getting behind an artist that is doing something different has to be something that has to be proven. History has shown that when Asian arts are supported by the west, only then are south Asian much more likely to become involved. But why cant south Asians wholly support south Asian artists on their own?
How would your life have been different if you hadnt been living here, performing?
At this point, I could have seen myself traveling the same path having grown up in India, as long as I lived the same lifestyle that I lived hereif I had the same opportunities to be open to all the impulses that I was open to here. As far as doing what I do here, at least for me, it is all because I grew up here. It was the battleground, the place where I had prepared to become myselfwhen I grew up, it was always about making music and playing it live in America.
Do you believe in lineage?
I dont really believe in lineageI think the examples of lineage that we see, people like Zakir Hussain, Alam Khan, Anoushka Shankar, or Aman or Amjad Ali Bangashthey very much deserve to have the spotlight that they do, because they have truly mastered and taken their art form to another level. In general, though, I dont think there should be a rule for other artists to be excluded because they are not part of the lineage in any art form. But I think what happens is that people create a particular aesthetic around their own family lineage, their gharana, and they create rigid institutions around them and then as an artist you try to are forced to either fit that bill or you create your own. I think that is what people really need to understand and do because now it is possible to really be independent, not being ruled by a lineage system anymore. So what an artist needs to do to be noticed is to be able to create their own aesthetic around their own statement of this art form as opposed to trying to fit into all the institutions that exist.
Karsh at the Project Ahimsa Global Sight & Sound 2003 Photo Credit: Danielle at Mizchief Media
What is going on with your music presently?
Well, nowadays I have been writing a lot more, focusing more on songwritingI have been crafting a lot more composition off the computer, sitting with the guitar, sitting on a piano, sitting on a Fender Rhodes, writing songs, writing full compositions, even within Raags, and singing all different styles of Carnatic music, and doing a lot more human composition, and leaving the technology behind a bitIve spent the last 12 years collaborating with so many different incredible artists, and I havent really sat down until recently and just looked at what I have received from all those experiencesNow I am in that kind of discovery mode as an artist, I am creating different music, and it better reflects my own musical path.
Do you feel that your music is an evolution of the Asian Massive movement?
When people talk about a movement, it sounds like such a large kind of thingI think of hundreds of different incredible artists who are actually very individualso I dont really see my music as part of an evolution like that, I really only see the music as a progression for my self. For me, it is really important to be able to make music that is not, that doesnt find itself in a category. For me, categories are disposable. Even though electronic music and dance music and lounge music wind up becoming cataloged music that ends up on millions of different compilationsthose tracks dont really live the life a song does, and for me that is what my pursuit isto be able to really produce music that stays timeless in that way, stays with peoplein the age of downloading music into iTunes and then to your iPod, it is amazing the amount of music we have access tobut on the other hand we are losing an intimate relationship with music, with the song.
Tell me about your involvement with Artwallah 2006.
I am one of the co-curators with Michael Dana, and we are basically scouting talent to be showcased at the event. I have picked out a few fantastic artistsOne of them is a native San Francisco artist, MicropixieI think Artwallah is great, I think it is important. I wish there was more support when I was a younger artist, when I was trying to get myself noticedthere was much less of that kind of infrastructure, or even a platform for people to come together, and a context as wellI think Artwallah is trying to create a context for artists to create within, because there is such a vastness about how to represent yourself artistically as a fusion of cultures. I think what they are doing is fencing that and letting people sit within that and express themselvesand through whatever medium it may be, film video, poetry or music, it is a grounded place. If artwallah continues, some real success stories are going to come from it.
One of the biggest challenges that artists face, an issue that does get addressed at Artwallah, is funding for artiststhere needs to be more money for young artists to apply for grants, to get more support from the community to do what they doto be a filmmaker, an author, to be any artists shouldnt mean just paying for it themselvesat least as musician, you can get some gigs to climb that ladderbut there needs to be more support for artistic and business communities to come together to address these issues to sustain art forms. Because, first and foremost, being able to produce great art requires survival and sustainability.
Karsh's latest album Broken English is now available on Six Degrees Records. Check out the latest information on Karsh's music and tourdates at www.karshkale.com.
Check out Karsh's latest album Broken English (Six Degrees Records) as well as his website,
Robin Sukhadia
Mr. Hyphen 2006/2007
Posted by robin at 8:04 PM | Comments (1)
Don't forget, there's a Hyphen party tonight to celebrate the release of the Faith Issue. Yes, it's been out for more than a month already, but I'm sure you won't mind that we're using our latest issue as an excuse to throw a party.
Here are the details:
Faith Issue Release Party! DJs will be spinning everything from soulful hip hop to dancefloor classics. Taking place TONIGHT, Friday, April 27th, 10pm-2am at Poleng Lounge (1751 Fulton St, San Francisco)
Cost is $10, or $20, which gets you a 4-issue subscription too. (That's 50% off list price!).
Remember, all the money we get at the door goes towards the print-run costs of the next issue. So, you can help us keep publishing by partying. Not bad, eh?
And now something for you New Yorkers: West 32nd, directed by Michael Kang, has its world premiere this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's a gritty, gangster flick in which John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle) plays an attorney investigating a homicide case in the New York City Korean underworld. It also stars Grace Park of the Sci-Fi Channel television show Battlestar Galactica.
First screening is tomorrow night at 7:30 at the AMC 34th Street Theater 13. Better get your tickets pronto. More info here on other screenings. I've been keeping an eye on Kang since I first saw a great little short he made called A Waiter Tomorrow, which borrows the stylings of John Woo to smash some Asian stereotypes. If his name sounds familiar, he also directed The Motel. (P.S. We've got an interview with Kang in the works, coming out in the summer issue of Hyphen.)
Posted by Melissa at 4:13 PM | Comments (1)
Don't forget, there's a Hyphen party tonight to celebrate the release of the Faith Issue. Yes, it's been out for more than a month already, but I'm sure you won't mind that we're using our latest issue as an excuse to throw a party.
Here are the details:
Faith Issue Release Party! DJs will be spinning everything from soulful hip hop to dancefloor classics. Taking place TONIGHT, Friday, April 27th, 10pm-2am at Poleng Lounge (1751 Fulton St, San Francisco)
Cost is $10, or $20, which gets you a 4-issue subscription too. (That's 50% off list price!).
Remember, all the money we get at the door goes towards the print-run costs of the next issue. So, you can help us keep publishing by partying. Not bad, eh?
And now something for you New Yorkers: West 32nd, directed by Michael Kang, has its world premiere this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's a gritty, gangster flick in which John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle) plays an attorney investigating a homicide case in the New York City Korean underworld. It also stars Grace Park of the Sci-Fi Channel television show Battlestar Galactica.
First screening is tomorrow night at 7:30 at the AMC 34th Street Theater 13. Better get your tickets pronto. More info here on other screenings. I've been keeping an eye on Kang since I first saw a great little short he made called A Waiter Tomorrow, which borrows the stylings of John Woo to smash some Asian stereotypes. If his name sounds familiar, he also directed The Motel. (P.S. We've got an interview with Kang in the works, coming out in the summer issue of Hyphen.)
Posted by Melissa at 4:13 PM | Comments (1)
Don't forget, there's a Hyphen party tonight to celebrate the release of the Faith Issue. Yes, it's been out for more than a month already, but I'm sure you won't mind that we're using our latest issue as an excuse to throw a party.
Here are the details:
Faith Issue Release Party! DJs will be spinning everything from soulful hip hop to dancefloor classics. Taking place TONIGHT, Friday, April 27th, 10pm-2am at Poleng Lounge (1751 Fulton St, San Francisco)
Cost is $10, or $20, which gets you a 4-issue subscription too. (That's 50% off list price!).
Remember, all the money we get at the door goes towards the print-run costs of the next issue. So, you can help us keep publishing by partying. Not bad, eh?
And now something for you New Yorkers: West 32nd, directed by Michael Kang, has its world premiere this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's a gritty, gangster flick in which John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle) plays an attorney investigating a homicide case in the New York City Korean underworld. It also stars Grace Park of the Sci-Fi Channel television show Battlestar Galactica.
First screening is tomorrow night at 7:30 at the AMC 34th Street Theater 13. Better get your tickets pronto. More info here on other screenings. I've been keeping an eye on Kang since I first saw a great little short he made called A Waiter Tomorrow, which borrows the stylings of John Woo to smash some Asian stereotypes. If his name sounds familiar, he also directed The Motel. (P.S. We've got an interview with Kang in the works, coming out in the summer issue of Hyphen.)
Posted by Melissa at 4:13 PM | Comments (1)
It was pointed out to me the other night that I’m a living, breathing embodiment of the stereotypical quiet Asian.
I was among a few friends and some friends of friends in the bar at AT&T Park prior to a San Francisco Giants game. I was the only Asian American male in the group, but there was a loud, gregarious Asian American woman. The two Asians in the group seemed to be polar opposites, something that was apparent to everyone at the bar. I’ve been thinking about expectations and stereotypes since news broke that the gunman in the Virginia Tech killings was Korean American. My evening at the bar made me ponder it some more.
Everyone else was more than a few drinks ahead of me, and I had driven to the ballpark, so I was nursing a beer. I was also concentrating on the game, which had started and was being shown on the bar’s TVs, though this is no excuse for being withdrawn when among friends, and even friends of friends.
It didn’t go unnoticed by the others, who gave me a few jabs about being so quiet and that I should “keep it down.” It was also very apparent that Unusually Loud Asian Woman, who I didn’t know, was no quiet Asian. So much so that I was told to stand next to her so “osmosis” would quiet her down. After taking a place next to Unusually Loud Asian Woman and seemingly calming her down, a Friend and Friend of Friend asked me, “have you ever met a Chinese woman who’s like this?”
So on the one hand, I’m quiet so I’m Walking Stereotype, but on the other hand, Unusually Loud Asian Woman is just having a good time at a bar, but there seems to be something out of place with that as well.
The comments and events I describe were all in good fun. We’re all aware of our differences and perceived differences. It’s what you do with that knowledge that can cause problems. There was no malice that night. I did start thinking more about stereotypes afterward. Reading Jeff Yang’s analysis of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho’s race in Salon.com gave me more food for thought. The article really hit home on the effect stereotypes can have.
Yang’s story and many others since the shooting also talk about the collective gasp that many Asian Americans let out when news broke that the killer was Korean American. As a journalist, I worried that the media would focus on Cho’s race without any context, as Thomas Huang writes about at Poynter.org. Many Korean Americans felt a collective sense of guilt, as did many people in South Korea, even though Cho hadn’t lived there since he was a boy.
Emerson College journalism Professor Paul Niwa, quoted in Yang’s article, has a viable explanation:
Most of the perpetrators of mass school killings have been white. After those shootings, do you think white people felt guilty that the shooter was white? Do you think white people felt that since the shooter was white, that the shooter would give society a bad impression of whites? A shooter can be white and nobody thinks that race played a part in the crime. But when someone nonwhite commits a crime, this society makes the person's race partially at fault.
I don’t mean to belittle the killings at Virginia Tech by drawing an analogy to my night at the bar, but I think some of what Niwa says is at play. Sometimes I can have the personality of a cardboard box, so I’m Walking Stereotype, but for non-Asians who are socially awkward, they’re just quiet. And Unusually Loud Asian Woman can’t be herself, either, without being, well, Unusually Loud Asian Woman.
There is nothing innate to being “quiet” and being Asian American. I know plenty of Asian Americans who are more like Unusually Loud Asian Woman, and at times envy them for their ease around people. But I am who I am. The cardboard box that once held the really quiet, painfully shy kid is open. I’ve been making my way out. Unfortunately, it appears that whatever was holding back Seung-Hui Cho burst to tragic results.
Posted by harry at 10:07 AM | Comments (2)
It was pointed out to me the other night that I’m a living, breathing embodiment of the stereotypical quiet Asian.
I was among a few friends and some friends of friends in the bar at AT&T Park prior to a San Francisco Giants game. I was the only Asian American male in the group, but there was a loud, gregarious Asian American woman. The two Asians in the group seemed to be polar opposites, something that was apparent to everyone at the bar. I’ve been thinking about expectations and stereotypes since news broke that the gunman in the Virginia Tech killings was Korean American. My evening at the bar made me ponder it some more.
Everyone else was more than a few drinks ahead of me, and I had driven to the ballpark, so I was nursing a beer. I was also concentrating on the game, which had started and was being shown on the bar’s TVs, though this is no excuse for being withdrawn when among friends, and even friends of friends.
It didn’t go unnoticed by the others, who gave me a few jabs about being so quiet and that I should “keep it down.” It was also very apparent that Unusually Loud Asian Woman, who I didn’t know, was no quiet Asian. So much so that I was told to stand next to her so “osmosis” would quiet her down. After taking a place next to Unusually Loud Asian Woman and seemingly calming her down, a Friend and Friend of Friend asked me, “have you ever met a Chinese woman who’s like this?”
So on the one hand, I’m quiet so I’m Walking Stereotype, but on the other hand, Unusually Loud Asian Woman is just having a good time at a bar, but there seems to be something out of place with that as well.
The comments and events I describe were all in good fun. We’re all aware of our differences and perceived differences. It’s what you do with that knowledge that can cause problems. There was no malice that night. I did start thinking more about stereotypes afterward. Reading Jeff Yang’s analysis of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho’s race in Salon.com gave me more food for thought. The article really hit home on the effect stereotypes can have.
Yang’s story and many others since the shooting also talk about the collective gasp that many Asian Americans let out when news broke that the killer was Korean American. As a journalist, I worried that the media would focus on Cho’s race without any context, as Thomas Huang writes about at Poynter.org. Many Korean Americans felt a collective sense of guilt, as did many people in South Korea, even though Cho hadn’t lived there since he was a boy.
Emerson College journalism Professor Paul Niwa, quoted in Yang’s article, has a viable explanation:
Most of the perpetrators of mass school killings have been white. After those shootings, do you think white people felt guilty that the shooter was white? Do you think white people felt that since the shooter was white, that the shooter would give society a bad impression of whites? A shooter can be white and nobody thinks that race played a part in the crime. But when someone nonwhite commits a crime, this society makes the person's race partially at fault.
I don’t mean to belittle the killings at Virginia Tech by drawing an analogy to my night at the bar, but I think some of what Niwa says is at play. Sometimes I can have the personality of a cardboard box, so I’m Walking Stereotype, but for non-Asians who are socially awkward, they’re just quiet. And Unusually Loud Asian Woman can’t be herself, either, without being, well, Unusually Loud Asian Woman.
There is nothing innate to being “quiet” and being Asian American. I know plenty of Asian Americans who are more like Unusually Loud Asian Woman, and at times envy them for their ease around people. But I am who I am. The cardboard box that once held the really quiet, painfully shy kid is open. I’ve been making my way out. Unfortunately, it appears that whatever was holding back Seung-Hui Cho burst to tragic results.
Posted by harry at 10:07 AM | Comments (2)
It was pointed out to me the other night that Im a living, breathing embodiment of the stereotypical quiet Asian.
I was among a few friends and some friends of friends in the bar at AT&T Park prior to a San Francisco Giants game. I was the only Asian American male in the group, but there was a loud, gregarious Asian American woman. The two Asians in the group seemed to be polar opposites, something that was apparent to everyone at the bar. Ive been thinking about expectations and stereotypes since news broke that the gunman in the Virginia Tech killings was Korean American. My evening at the bar made me ponder it some more.
Everyone else was more than a few drinks ahead of me, and I had driven to the ballpark, so I was nursing a beer. I was also concentrating on the game, which had started and was being shown on the bars TVs, though this is no excuse for being withdrawn when among friends, and even friends of friends.
It didnt go unnoticed by the others, who gave me a few jabs about being so quiet and that I should keep it down. It was also very apparent that Unusually Loud Asian Woman, who I didnt know, was no quiet Asian. So much so that I was told to stand next to her so osmosis would quiet her down. After taking a place next to Unusually Loud Asian Woman and seemingly calming her down, a Friend and Friend of Friend asked me, have you ever met a Chinese woman whos like this?
So on the one hand, Im quiet so Im Walking Stereotype, but on the other hand, Unusually Loud Asian Woman is just having a good time at a bar, but there seems to be something out of place with that as well.
The comments and events I describe were all in good fun. Were all aware of our differences and perceived differences. Its what you do with that knowledge that can cause problems. There was no malice that night. I did start thinking more about stereotypes afterward. Reading Jeff Yangs analysis of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Chos race in Salon.com gave me more food for thought. The article really hit home on the effect stereotypes can have.
Yangs story and many others since the shooting also talk about the collective gasp that many Asian Americans let out when news broke that the killer was Korean American. As a journalist, I worried that the media would focus on Chos race without any context, as Thomas Huang writes about at Poynter.org. Many Korean Americans felt a collective sense of guilt, as did many people in South Korea, even though Cho hadnt lived there since he was a boy.
Emerson College journalism Professor Paul Niwa, quoted in Yangs article, has a viable explanation:
Most of the perpetrators of mass school killings have been white. After those shootings, do you think white people felt guilty that the shooter was white? Do you think white people felt that since the shooter was white, that the shooter would give society a bad impression of whites? A shooter can be white and nobody thinks that race played a part in the crime. But when someone nonwhite commits a crime, this society makes the person's race partially at fault.
I dont mean to belittle the killings at Virginia Tech by drawing an analogy to my night at the bar, but I think some of what Niwa says is at play. Sometimes I can have the personality of a cardboard box, so Im Walking Stereotype, but for non-Asians who are socially awkward, theyre just quiet. And Unusually Loud Asian Woman cant be herself, either, without being, well, Unusually Loud Asian Woman.
There is nothing innate to being quiet and being Asian American. I know plenty of Asian Americans who are more like Unusually Loud Asian Woman, and at times envy them for their ease around people. But I am who I am. The cardboard box that once held the really quiet, painfully shy kid is open. Ive been making my way out. Unfortunately, it appears that whatever was holding back Seung-Hui Cho burst to tragic results.
Posted by harry at 10:07 AM | Comments (2)
More links to articles about the Virigina Tech shooting:
A few lines from the story:
When race enters the equation -- when the perpetrator of a crime of this type is black, like "Beltway Snipers" John Allen Muhammad and his ward Lee Boyd Malvo, or Asian, like Cho -- it rises to the surface and stays there, prompting inevitable discussions about whether "black rage" or "immigrant alienation" were somehow to blame; whether in some fundamental fashion, color of skin, shape of eye, or nation of origin lie at the seething, secret heart of such tragedies.
But the actions of Cho Seung Hui are no more the fault of Korean Americans than the actions of the Washington area snipers were the fault of African Americans. Just as those crimes were committed by deranged individuals acting on their own initiative, and not because of any ethnic grievance or agenda, these were isolated acts by an individual, not a reflection of a community.Further, it is inappropriate for the Korean ambassador to the United States to apologize on behalf of Korean Americans and speak of the need to work toward being accepted as a "worthwhile minority" in this nation. While the Korean ambassador represents the interests of Korean nationals in the United States, and the interests of the Republic of Korea, he does not speak for naturalized Koreans here.
Posted by Melissa at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)
More links to articles about the Virigina Tech shooting:
A few lines from the story:
When race enters the equation -- when the perpetrator of a crime of this type is black, like "Beltway Snipers" John Allen Muhammad and his ward Lee Boyd Malvo, or Asian, like Cho -- it rises to the surface and stays there, prompting inevitable discussions about whether "black rage" or "immigrant alienation" were somehow to blame; whether in some fundamental fashion, color of skin, shape of eye, or nation of origin lie at the seething, secret heart of such tragedies.
But the actions of Cho Seung Hui are no more the fault of Korean Americans than the actions of the Washington area snipers were the fault of African Americans. Just as those crimes were committed by deranged individuals acting on their own initiative, and not because of any ethnic grievance or agenda, these were isolated acts by an individual, not a reflection of a community.Further, it is inappropriate for the Korean ambassador to the United States to apologize on behalf of Korean Americans and speak of the need to work toward being accepted as a "worthwhile minority" in this nation. While the Korean ambassador represents the interests of Korean nationals in the United States, and the interests of the Republic of Korea, he does not speak for naturalized Koreans here.
Posted by Melissa at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)
More links to articles about the Virigina Tech shooting:
A few lines from the story:
When race enters the equation -- when the perpetrator of a crime of this type is black, like "Beltway Snipers" John Allen Muhammad and his ward Lee Boyd Malvo, or Asian, like Cho -- it rises to the surface and stays there, prompting inevitable discussions about whether "black rage" or "immigrant alienation" were somehow to blame; whether in some fundamental fashion, color of skin, shape of eye, or nation of origin lie at the seething, secret heart of such tragedies.
But the actions of Cho Seung Hui are no more the fault of Korean Americans than the actions of the Washington area snipers were the fault of African Americans. Just as those crimes were committed by deranged individuals acting on their own initiative, and not because of any ethnic grievance or agenda, these were isolated acts by an individual, not a reflection of a community.Further, it is inappropriate for the Korean ambassador to the United States to apologize on behalf of Korean Americans and speak of the need to work toward being accepted as a "worthwhile minority" in this nation. While the Korean ambassador represents the interests of Korean nationals in the United States, and the interests of the Republic of Korea, he does not speak for naturalized Koreans here.
Posted by Melissa at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)
G.V. Loganathan cared for 'students as if they were his own children'
I read this, and it humbled me.
POSTED: 7:28 p.m. EDT, April 19, 2007
CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/19/vtech.loganathan/index.html
Story Highlights
• G.V. Loganathan was a civil and environmental engineer
• He cared for students as if they were his own children, his wife says
• She noted his sense of humility, saying he kept awards in a closet
• Loganathan was among those killed in Virginia Tech shooting
By Ashley Fantz
CNN
BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- He was the professor who loved debating an equation with his students for hours. A civil and environmental engineer regarded as brilliant, his humility defined him. He once told his wife, "There are people who are better than me," as he tucked his prestigious awards inside his closet.
While most students could find him in his office, working past midnight, unraveling the puzzles of how water travels around the globe, he understood that the mind needed rest. In those moments, he stole away to watch one of his favorite "Star Trek" movies.
The friends, students and family of G.V. Loganathan, 51, want the world to know he was more than just one among the 32 killed during a rampage at Virginia Tech. Right until the moment when Cho Seung-Hui burst through Loganathan's classroom door, the professor was spending extra time tutoring a struggling graduate student. (Students pay tribute to "quite possibly the best professor I ever had")
"He cared about his students as if they were his own children, fretting about their grades, making sure they understood the concepts," said Loganathan's wife, Usha, her voice breaking. "To the last minute, he loved teaching."
As the carnage at Virginia Tech played out on television on Monday, the couple's eldest daughter Uma, 21, watched the news.
"I told her what was happening as I knew it myself," Usha said.
But of the couple's 13-year-old daughter Abhi, "I didn't know how to tell her.
"How do you do such a thing? How can you explain this?"
Kaelie Altizer, a neighborhood friend, said Abhi "was really sad" when she found out about her father's death Monday.
Calming influence
One of Loganathan's former students, Ken Ying of North Carolina, heard the news of the shooting Monday while he was working on a project in Florida.
An accomplished engineer, Ying always kept his former professor in mind when he was out in the field tackling a challenging job.
He was a Ph.D. student in the early 1980s and Loganathan had just started his Virginia Tech career as an assistant professor when the two became close, spending hours going over engineering puzzles together.
"The thing that was amazing to me is that you could debate [and] argue with him all day and night and you [could] never get him angry, not at all," Ying said. "He just gave you a calm feeling."
In the world of academic engineering, proving another engineer wrong while not offending them or losing your cool when they identify your missteps is a rare talent.
Nicholas Young, an environmental engineering student, said Loganathan would exaggerate his thick Indian accent for a laugh. "Some of the subjects could be boring," the 22-year-old said. "And he was trying to get us to have fun."
Young replaced his Facebook picture with a picture of his professor. "I will miss him a lot. Everybody is going to miss him."
When Ying heard about Loganathan's death, he remembered what his friend usually said in the middle of a heated hydrology debate.
"He would say, 'Don't worry about the mistakes you make. It's all right. Things can be corrected,' " Ying said.
And in the mid-1980s, when his eldest daughter was born, Loganathan seemed to take his own advice.
"We -- myself and another student -- went up to him after his daughter was born and asked him what it was like to be a father," Ying recalled. "He just paused and didn't say anything. I think he was thinking of an answer."
From that day on, they noticed Loganathan stopped spending all his free time in his office.
"He was spending time with his wife and daughter," Ying said.
'He was brilliant'
Usha Loganathan met her husband for the first time during their wedding. The arranged marriage happened near his hometown in the southern Indian city of Chennai. He was quiet with her at first.
"But he was brilliant," she said. "I could tell right away."
She lived with his parents for a year in India after the wedding because she co