It is 7.30 pm in the evening and Apache Indian has just woken up. Freshly showered, with long dreadlocks spilling across his back and a pair of amber-tinted shades balanced at the tip of his nose, he is in a mellow mood. His performance, the previous day at the IndiEarth XChange 2017 had been a tremendous success that had his audience gyrating to age-old favourites, and the reggae revolutionary appears content. “Music is a great way to bring people together,” he remarks, sipping freshly brewed masala chai at The Park, Chennai where the third day of festival is in progress.
He should know: the genre of music he pioneered, bhangramuffin — ragamuffin dancehall with Indian influences — is an expression of the ethnic mosaic and diversity he grew up in. Born Steven Kapur, to a UK-based Punjabi family, “I come from Birmingham which is a multi-cultural society,” he says. Home to reggae bands like Steel Pulse and UB40, the Rastafarian culture was an integral part of the Birmingham landscape and, “we grew up with that culture and language all around us,” says Apache, who discovered Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and his ilk in his early teens.
He became a dance hall DJ, recording his first single ‘Movie Over India’ in 1989. The song became hugely popular, going on to top not just the Indian charts but the reggae charts, as well. “I wasn’t really attempting to be an artiste. I just wanted to make a record and put an Indian stamp of it,” laughs the 50-year-old.
The Bob Marley connect
There was no looking back from there. In 1992, he signed a recording contract with Island Records, “the same one that signed Bob Marley”. That took his music to another level, feels Apache. “They sent me straight to Bob Marley’s studio in Jamaica and I recorded Arranged Marriage there,” he says.
The song that talks about finding “one girl and to get marry” because “me wan me arranged marriage from me mum and daddy,” is in typical bhangramuffin style —Jamican Patois peppered with Indian references. But in keeping with the soul of Rasta music, it is also, at one level, a social commentary. The search for that ideal wife, “a gal from Jullender city” and “sweet like jelebee” who will “wear the chunee kurtha pyjama” and “respect apache” comes with a catch. “Me have a problem”, he adds, “when is the right time to tell me gal friend”.
This is a common problem faced by the young Indian Diaspora in the UK , he says, caught between the traditionalism of their origins and the more liberal environment they grow up in. The song went on to feature in the UK Top 40’s, winning an Ivor Novello Award for best contemporary song.
“Music has to be real. It needs to reflect all emotions in life, your language and culture, the things that bother you. Artists should sing about their experiences,” says Apache.
So songs about caste issues, election crisis and HIV AIDS share forum with lighter numbers including his hugely popular ‘Boom-Shack-A-Lack’ that went all the way to Hollywood. Other things he counts as achievements include: seven British top 40’s, multiple world tours, working with AR Rahman, Asha Bhosle and Prabhu Deva, Bollywood, multiple awards and most importantly, the Apache Indian Music Academy at South and City College in Handsworth. “Singing is great but what I’m now doing is putting it in practice. It is the best thing I’ve ever done,” he says.
Looking ahead
He recently celebrated 25 years in the music industry by releasing, In Ja , short form for In Jamaica, his first all-reggae album. “This is the first time I’ve had a pure reggae album. I think in the beginning, it was very important for people to know who I am. So the Indian elements were there but I don’t have to keep proving myself,” he says.
Keeping it current, fresh, original, real — this is what builds legacy, helps longevity, and brings people together. And it is more important to do so now than it was ever before thanks to the all-pervasive presence of the internet. “It was much better before; the internet badly crippled my industry,” he says. For instance, no one makes or buys records anymore, because the Internet has made music so easily accessible. Also, live music being replaced by, “people sitting behind a camera and making YouTube videos” means that you have a generation of people having millions of likes but, “they have no experience of performing”. Lowering the entry barriers may have democratised music but it also impacts its quality. “It is good that there is exposure, that your music can go all over the word but there is also a lot of rubbish out there,” he says.
But for Apache, the show must go on. He has lot of plans: more touring, the new single, “a more Punjabi one” that should be out around Christmas, more Bollywood projects and hopefully a biopic soon. Expanding and building on his academy is big on his list of priorities too. The four-year-old project, offering vocational musical training to anyone interested, is not so much about the music but about bringing people together and making music an economically viable option. “I would like to see more Indian students getting into it. There is a world waiting for them out there,” he says.
