Being a part of band Shakti is a learning experience for me: V Selvaganesh

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. 2024 will go down as a special year for kanjira exponent V. Selvaganesh.

In February, Shakti, the (regrouped) world music band he’s a member of – along with John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan and Ganesh Rajagopalan – won the Grammy for Best Global Music Album for their album, This Moment. This was the first Grammy win for the band for the first studio album they’ve released in 46 years. There were some memorable concerts - at NMACC and the Mahindra Percussion Festival – that saw him perform along with his father, ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram, his brother V Umashankar, and son Swaminathan Selvaganesh as part of the family ensemble, Ghatam Symphony.

As the year draws to close, Selvaganesh's keeping the good vibes flowing by performing at Bandland 2024, an all-out rock music festival organised by Bookmyshow Live. “I know that Bandland is a rock music festival and everyone must be wondering what a classical musician like me is going to do there. That is the challenge, but my son (Swaminathan Selvaganesh) and I have created some electronic stuff that we’ll be trying out there.

I am really excited about it," says the 57-year-old Carnatic percussionist. In this email interview with Lounge ahead of the concert, he also speaks about his “big responsibility" to make kanjira more popular, the cities he likes to perform in and that one time he had to borrow a kurta from band member and mentor, Ustad Zakir Hussain. Edited excerpts: As a member of Shakti, winning the Grammy made me so happy.