Shankar Tucker: Weaving India and the West Together with Filament

Some things in life seem to be decreed by fate. When he was young, Shankar Tucker wanted to play the saxophone. But since his grandfather could teach him, his parents pushed him toward clarinet, not realizing that they’d start him on a path where he’d help Indian and Western cultures join souls. Along the way he’s managed to become a YouTube star, crossed back and forth between continents, and emerged with his remarkable debut album, Filament (released July 28, 2015 on Shrutibox Music Records).

“I had heard Indian music before, but I didn't consider it as a musical path until I was at the New England Conservatory,” Tucker explains. “I was into jazz, but I would always struggle to be heard in an ensemble, my instrument just didn't have enough volume. I wanted something where I could improvise and be heard, and I found Shakti.”

That ‘70s group, formed by guitarist John McLaughlin and violin player L. Shankar, offered Tucker a way into something new and different. Very quickly Indian music captured his heart as he began to learn more about it.

“Every morning at college, all of us in the orchestra would arrive 15 minutes before rehearsal to warm up our instruments,” Tucker recalls. “While the others were busy practicing their excerpts I’d be going through the Hindustani composition I was learning and dream of India.”

That dream became a reality after graduation, when a grant enabled him to go and study with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia in Mumbai. During that time abroad, Tucker’s YouTube channel, The Shrutibox was born, catapulting him to surprising Internet stardom.

Links

• Official Website
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Twitter

“I was looking for performance opportunities while I was over there,” Tucker says. “I took my inspiration from other YouTube artists, as well as the music itself and the medium. I’d gone to India to learn classical music, but being in Mumbai, I was also surrounded by Bollywood music. I became fascinated by the parallels between Indian Classical music and the Popular music genres, and the places where they overlap. That's what I tried to capture in my videos.”

Viewed more than 30 million times, and with over 100,000 fans, Tucker’s clarinet playing and the channel quickly became known, featured on MTV India and hitting YouTube’s front page. It was a running start, but what he needed after that was a flying leap. With Filament he’s achieved it.

“I wanted to find a balance between Indian Classical music and Western music,” Tucker states. "But not a fusion of technical compositions, or an overly intellectual approach. This is about songwriting, composition, and having fun with a jam session on a tune. Listeners don’t have to know the music to appreciate it.”

read more: https://www.storyamp.com/dispatch/15157/9NBloqWFV_ud81-exbeu2A?storyamp_track=5967

Publicist

Garrett Baker

garrett@flipswitchpr.com