Top 95 Quotes & Sayings by Anoushka Shankar
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British musician Anoushka Shankar.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
As a disciple of my father's, I was certain I wanted to include one of his own raga creations on 'Home', as they are so beautiful; whilst many of his creations are part of the general classical repertoire for all musicians, many more are only played by those of us who learned from him, and therefore need to be played.
You know, I think becoming a parent has really changed the way that I feel impacted by what's going on in the world around me.
I think sometimes when you speak about something like 'Indian classical music' and 'ragas,' and all of that's new to people, it can be quite intimidating, in the same way that I have sometimes found opera and Wagner intimidating - one doesn't know where to begin sometimes.
But I had a strong reaction to my first three albums and I struggle with them now, as an adult. It's very much the same as looking at your teenage photos in high school.
However, I need to make music that represents my inner truth and inner voice. I've found myself more able to do that within an international space that has an Indianness at its root but branches out to encompass sounds and cultures across borders.
Parenting put music in the right place for me. Touring was always the first priority before, but it isn't any more. And, paradoxically, that has made my ability to make music much easier.
I would say 'Home' is a lot richer and deeper than my earlier classical.
George Harrison became my uncle - not by blood but through love. It's sort of an Indian cultural thing.
I love it that my father is such a classical musician and such a traditionalist, and at the same time has had a wild life and a crazy time.
I think the reason being Ravi Shankar's daughter is not such a pressure to me is that I don't look at myself in that way. Of course, he's the best-known Indian musician there is so, people naturally look to me as the next one, but the truth is there are many other musicians out there as well as other students of my father's.
I feel 'Love Letters' has been part of a longer journey towards a very simple, international sound in which the sitar is no longer exotic or classical, but simply a tool of expression when juxtaposed with the voice and cross-genre elements.
My memories of mealtimes are a real bleed of music and food. Music never really stopped in the music room, because everyone would move out to the table with their sitars.
I hope it isn't exclusively true, but I often find that collaboration is the best way... to reach my highest musical place. Because I get so inspired by another good musician; I feed off that.
I do feel a commitment to this art form and to my father's teaching, and I think the older I get I'm feeling that more and more strongly.
I think it's helped me to have two unconventional parents, who have always encouraged me to be myself.
Occasionally, if I'm in doubt over specific Indian classical or raga-related questions, I'll find myself going back to my lesson tapes or my father's recordings.
In a studio context, the music becomes greater than the sum of its parts. When you have collaboration, you have other people's strengths that I don't share, so my song can get stronger.
I have been given something really, really special and really unique, and it is not just in and of itself having learned from my father, who is the greatest exponent of this musical style. But it is an oral tradition that is only generally passed on in that manner, and so without the people who continue to... learn it and perform it, it dies.
I think all kids are creative, so I wouldn't say my kids are geniuses. But they immediately respond to music. And they've got great rhythm!
Music is my passion, it's my fun - but what's really important are the people I build a family with. That comes first.
Having my own studio at home is a dream, as I have a totally sound-proof room I can escape to when I need to write, and I have an impeccable room to record in.
Not every one knows of the connection between the Indian and the Spanish music, but if they do they seem to have a real reverence for that connection. A love point in music.
I ate Bengali food after my parents married and Dad started living with us, in both Willesden and in Delhi for three years, and then we all moved to California. Dad said he could make a really good dal, but I never saw him cook during the whole time we lived together.
I think we are all individuals at the end of the day. There's nothing about culture that can prescribe who you're meant to be.
I do feel a commitment to this art form and to my father's teachings, and the older I am getting, the more I am feeling it.
My mother is half Malayali and half Tamilian. I can speak Bengali and Tamil, but can't read or write.
My studio was built with a team of experts to record the sitar at the highest level possible, and I'm very happy with the results.
Writing can flow out when I'm feeling something strongly, whether that's joy, pain, fear, desire or anything else. The challenge is actually later, in the second or third or 100th draft of the music, when it can be so easy to cover up the original sentiments by making the music more ornate or cloaked.
I always had musicians in my band having children, and their wives were the ones at home taking care of the kids. So I never thought much of it. And then suddenly I'm the parent, but I'm the woman, and it's like, 'Ah, what happens now?'
Listen with an open ear is the first, most important thing to do. From there, if people feel like learning more, that's when you can kind of go deeper.
Some of the more intensive scrutiny when I was first starting out definitely used to be tough to handle; I was only a teenager, yet was being analysed in newspapers world over, often by people who already had a strong opinion about my privilege before hearing me play.
I think cross-cultural dialogue is something that has hugely impacted the richness of the culture of our world.
When I work on someone else's record, I'm happy to alter the way I approach it, if I happen to like who they are and I'm interested in their music. But I know it's their record.
I live in the modern world, and I appreciate the most cutting-edge parts of it. But I also like to check out as much as I can.
'Acceptance' is a tricky word. Acceptance about what life is bringing us in a spiritual sense is one thing; but acceptance when there's injustice in the world is completely another.
Even though my parents raised me in a very individualistic way, they were also strict and traditional, which was good. It was hard to sneak out! I think I was quite wild, but in some ways quite contained.
On 'Love Letters' I focused exclusively on sung music, creating a collection of songs that directly address heartbreak and its ensuing emotions in a way that instrumental music can only hint at.
On 'Love Letters', I focused exclusively on songs with lyrics, creating a collection of songs that directly address heartbreak and its ensuing emotions in a way that instrumental music can only hint at.
I'm not pretending I can change the world, or to be an expert on social and political affairs. But I certainly have a right to say when something is wrong.
There is no everlasting power in the music of today. Everyone is running after record sales.
The Grammys are very wide-ranging but it's still within the Western world of music. So it would be lovely if that opened up more.
I would write songs, inspired by my baby, but then I could tell that my baby was also responding to the music. It was just kind of an amazing musical experience.
I had multiple circles of friends around the world. Some circles were really wild and I was affectionately known by them as 'the nerdy one.' And, with other friends, I was regarded as the wild one.
Mum's home food was comfy, exquisite and she was also capable of the most wonderful gourmet food. She'd mix the rice and dal with stuff and roll these easy-to-pick-up extra-softened little balls of rice.
I do think evolution is an important aspect of keeping a tradition alive. If it freezes and remains very static in its form, it dies, and so a natural evolution has to occur.
I have that typical girly aspect to me and those domestic ideals. When I cook in my kitchen it's like playing a game because it's not real for me; room service is.
But there was a lot of pressure to achieve and to get things right, whether in school, on stage or with my peers and family.
There's a very primal, emotional response I feel when I hear flamenco.
I listen to many forms of music. And I come from a very particular style and tradition of music, which has certain elements that are absolutely unique and, therefore, important to the world.
My parents were very unusual. They were pro-women and independence and they wanted me to have my own career. And because of my lineage, every door was opened for me.
I try and approach other music with sensitivity. And, if it's music I don't know, I try and work with other people who are well-versed it in, so that it's done sensitively.
I suppose if you make enough money with one album, you can relax the rest of your life. I would rather go for smaller and stronger successes.
I feel a lot closer to music and my relationship with my instrument than I did as a teenager. I have an adult perspective now about getting to do something I love for a living.
I really am a fan of combining worlds in my own life.
As far as using electronics in my music, I have to do that as honestly as possible. Also, I have a broad range of listeners from a classical music base, as well as people, like me, who listen to a lot of different music. So I'm mindful of letting my sitar playing remain at the center of what I do.
There is great strength in vulnerability, as it takes courage to push through the fear and share one's true self with others. In music, that vulnerability really speaks to listeners as it connects with their own hearts.
Alchemy is one of the good quote-unquote south-Asian experiences in that it has a wide variety of classical to experimental music.
It is that kind of space, that little space of longing, whether it is in something like romantic love, or whether it's in something like divine love. You know, that kind of search for something that's not quite in your grasp. It's a very powerful place to explore as an artist, because it's not necessarily sad.
As a musician, it's only natural that my music mirrors my life.
Someone like my father will improvise as much as 90% of the music in concert, but with me it's maybe 10 to 20%. It's sort of the test of how great someone is, the more they can improvise correctly and still be true to the raga they're playing, and still keep it new and fresh the whole time.
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