Raghu Dixit is arguably, one of India's most successful indie act, globetrotting with his band and creating music which is a mix of Indian folk, Sufi and classical music to dish out what is often described as indo-world-folk-rock. Having created curiosity all around the world with his sound, the musician recently finished the first leg of an extensive 15-concert tour from May to July in the UK already gearing up for the second edition.

Last year has been good for the musician who bagged various international projects including a deal signed on by Wrasse records which will release his first worldwide album. Wrasse is the home to legends like Fela Kuti and Khaled.

In an interview with Radioandmusic.com's Harpreet Khokhar, Raghu Dixit gives a lowdown on his tour, how it has opened the gates to international music and strengthen the possibility of a crossover triumph.

You had a massive UK tour lined up. Tell us more about it.

The tour was a result of planning for almost a year now! We toured the UK in the summer of 2009 and that was when we got some very nice reviews and had Robert, Paul and the team from Jenral / Sound Advice come forward and offer to manage us. Over the year, we were in discussions about the management and future tours of the UK and Europe to start with and the rest of the world as we go along, and this is the first of such tours!

So you can say this was a very well planned and executed tour aimed at specifically increasing our audience base and catching the attention of the right people in the UK and Europe. In fact, after a very successful first leg, we have received some very interesting offers for gigs during the rest of the year and also for next year.

There is always that chance of Westerners thinking of your music as East meets West. How do you make them realise otherwise? There is more to Indian music than the sitar or the tabla.

Our music has a very contemporary arrangement and also draws a lot of influences from western rhythms and concepts of music like harmonies so though the music is largely unknown, they hear things they are familiar with.

The lyrics are simple and speak about simple but interesting things, sometimes even profound, but in a very simple language. We make sure we try to keep the music simple and easy to understand, so it's not about technical wizardry or complicated arrangements, it's all about the song and the melody that gets you hooked!

You sing in a language that most of the crowd abroad doesn't follow. Does it in anyway restrict the turnout?

When we started, we were not sure how people would react to songs in a language they don't understand. If I had to generalize, crowds in Europe are a lot more open to new music and sounds than those in India. You should realize that for a band like ours, that sings in Hindi and Kannada largely, and uses very Indian melodies in arrangements that the western world is familiar with, there is always going to be unfamiliarity.

Instead of just walking away from that and looking for something familiar, we have found that they stay and listen and enjoy themselves. We've had great shows in places like Caceres in Spain where about 10% of the audience even spoke English, let alone Hindi or Kannada but they had a total blast!

Considering that a large part of audience would be new to your music, how do you find this audience responding to your music and the unique stage act?

The audience loves it as far as we can tell! We've been hearing great things and people really liking our music and wanting to do a lot more. We had instances of people hiring a bus and driving all the way from Birmingham to London to come watch us perform, and things like that are really overwhelming for us. But these are all clear signs that we are on the right path with our music here.

And the stage show is quite a hit as well, we're getting people in the audience to jump along to say, 'Mysore Se Aayi' and then learn and sing some Kannada lines in one of our newer songs 'Lokada Kalaji', right down to tapping their foreheads for one section of the verse!

You have a huge fan following in UK and one of the few Indian artiste widely recognised there. Have you composed anything special for your upcoming tour?

The songs keep coming! We've been writing new songs and trying them out slowly in our live set every time we play. Atleast we try to include as many new songs as possible. So while we haven't made anything in particular for the tour, we're trying a bunch of new songs while we are on tour.

Digital medium is now the way to go and webcerts is a new phenomenon in the country. How do you foresee it going?

The idea itself is great, it gives people anywhere in the world a chance to watch a concert by their favourite artists and its great that it's just started to kick off in India. Also, it's great that these new ideas are being tried out here in India. I think these ideas have great potential but still have a long way to go before they become mainstream.

How do you as an artiste plan to explore the digital medium?

There are a bunch of ideas we are putting together in the new version of our website that is currently under development. I've always believed that the best way to use the digital medium is to combine it effectively with the offline medium, be it gigs, or other packages we come up with for fans, and that is precisely what we plan to do. But I would like users to keep an eye on our website at http://raghudixit.com and watch what we attempt to do online!

Can you tell us more about the deal with Sony ATV.

The Sony ATV deal is probably the most interesting deal, because nobody has got a deal like this from India, atleast when it comes to independent artists. Artists like AR Rahman sir have already got it but it's the first time an independent artist has got signed up by a publishing company. Sony ATV has signed me on as their first Indian artist for worldwide publishing. It is a huge deal!

In India, it is only Bollywood music that sells. What is your take on the sorry state of non-film music here?

The Indian indie music scene is very nascent and is definitely on its way to many big things. While we have some great talent and very interesting music coming out of various parts of the country, we do not yet have the infrastructure to grow it to where it should be heading. I've seen how things work in various parts of the world and while we are doing some things right, a lot of other things need to catch up!

Most of live music that happens in India is indie and not mainstream, but there is no culture of going out for a show in India and that needs to be inculcated in our audience. And when they do come out, we need to give them an experience that they will love and want more of! This is where we fall short.

That being said, there are many bands that are finally making quality music and are truly original. That was one of the biggest missing links in the Indian indie scene, the fact that we were not putting too much emphasis on being original. But, that's happening now and as a clear result you see so many bands from India starting to make a mark outside India as well!

Would we see you compose for Bollywood or films in future?

Absolutely! I would love to be involved in a Bollywood project when it comes my way. I've been making music for the Kannada film industry for the past couple of years now and my music score for my first two movies have been received extremely well. In fact, a song from my second movie, received the highest rotation by an FM station in a month ever! So I'm not new to films and would definitely love to get into Bollywood.

What are your future Projects? When will your next studio album be out?

There is a lot more touring in the offing - this year will see us visit the US, Scandinavia, Australia and even the Gulf for various performances.

As for our next album, the material is ready and being road tested right now. Its just that we've put over 12 years of effort into the first album and I would really like to ensure we have done all that we can to promote it tour with it before we put something new out there. That said you can expect to hear some good news on the album front by the end of this year!