Brick by brick

What Brass is also hoping to do is to introduce Indian influences to his music. “I think the values that country songs represent, are quite similar to what we see here in India, like the hark-back to simple life, family, your roots. So, I feel it would be quite easy to incorporate both the worlds. At the same time, I’d want my compositions to have parallels to the Indian way of life,” he says. Brass says that the most clichéd example would be John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads, where the singer talks about “West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.” “Most Indians love this song, but do we really know about this river, Shenandoah?” he asks. “I’d like to talk about Old Monk rum, our real world that we here, as Indians can relate to. I also hope to incorporate Indian instruments in my songs.” Most country musicians use a pedal steel guitar, which produces a weeping sound. “I think the sarangi is similar sounding, and will be a good replacement.”   

As part of the crowdfunding initiative, one which he says, he was most reluctant about doing until before the second wave hit, Brass has been encouraging fans to buy a “virtual brick”, each costing about Rs 2,000. He has a target of collecting 3,750 of them, which he says, will help cover his accommodation, food, sessions with musicians, studio hire, mixing and mastering, album design, and marketing. Supporters will also get private and personalised online shows, depending on the number of bricks they buy. “When this dream becomes a reality and when I build a studio in Nashville, I will have a wall with all the names of the people who supported my journey there.”