Farhan Akhtar to Perform His Lesser-Known English Album ‘Echoes’ In Mumbai

At the recent return of Independence Rock in Mumbai in November, New Delhi rock veterans Parikrama called on actor-musician Farhan Akhtar to cap off their headline set on day two of the festival. A mainstay for all things rock in India ever since he acted and sang in Bollywood movie Rock On!! in 2008, Akhtar came on to perform his English song “Pain or Pleasure,” taken from his 2019 album Echoes.

If some of this information surprises you, it rightly should, because Echoes is an 11-track full-length album that was recorded in Milan with Italian producer Tommaso Colliva (who has worked as an engineer on albums by Muse, among others). It appears on streaming platforms under the name Farhan, which separates it from his singing work in Indian movie soundtracks. Akhtar says over the phone about the album, “I actually look back with really good memories about making the album. There’s also a little bit of sorrow that all the plans we had to play it live the following year were canceled because of the pandemic.”

With the pandemic having mostly subsided and live music returning with a vengeance, Akhtar is now changing that by performing Echoes in full at an exclusive English rock performance at Phoenix Palladium in Mumbai on December 2nd. “I’m really glad that we’re getting around to now starting to play it live. I’m excited to play it in Mumbai,” he says.

With the boundaries between what is considered independent, commercial and Bollywood music all dissolving over the last few years, it’s been artists who have had to take it upon themselves to demarcate their separate projects and personas in India.

We’ve seen Armaan Malik perform film music across languages but also head out on tour with his pop songs. Sid Sriram makes it a point to communicate to his fans about which of his concerts are fully Carnatic, which ones will include film songs and which shows are fully dedicated to music from his genre-defying solo material.

Akhtar, who has been performing for decades now, is also beginning to take that route over and above his existing stage projects, including Farhan Live. He says it’s intentional that Echoes appears under a different artist name on streaming platforms. “This kind of music, this kind of songwriting… the identity that I’m working towards creating as a singer-songwriter and artist, it needed a space of its own,” he says.

Ahead of his performance in Mumbai, Akhtar looks back at the making of Echoes, his live band for the show, new English material and more. Excerpts:

The album Echoes lends itself to a very specific performance, requiring them to be performed on their own and not with any Bollywood material. Would you agree?

I love doing the Bollywood set, there’s so much joy in doing it. I see what it does for the audiences that come in. I mean, it’s a great party for them and a great celebration for them. But this music, it’s personal and it has a place of its own. And hopefully, as an artist, there will be a journey that’s completely different from the journey that the Bollywood set provides. And I’d like to grow in this. So this has to be removed from there and as an artist you want to be recognized for the work you create for your thoughts, your words, and which is why it has to be kept separate from the Bollywood set.

You’re also going to perform new material in addition to songs from Echoes in Mumbai. What can you tell me about that?

There are two-three new tracks that are unreleased and we will be releasing in the months to come. We will be introducing these songs in this live set. Some people who heard Echoes will be familiar with the songs that we play from there, but there are about three new songs, so I’m really looking forward to playing it for an audience for the very first time.

I wrote one of the songs post Echoes. Two of the songs were roundabout the time that I was writing Echoes. When I sat with Tommaso, the sound engineer, we were going through the list of songs that we should have on the album and the set that we eventually ended up putting on the album, which had some kind of synergy and a story to it. That is why we kept these two songs out. And now we will be putting these songs out as singles.

What is it going to be like expecting audiences to dive right into this material at this gig? Are you thinking about that?

Honestly, I’m not. What’s important is for us – that’s me and my band – just to share the music on the day. People will take what they have to from it. I heard from Anurag my manager and BookMyShow that a nice sale of tickets has happened and they expect a lot of people to come. If they’re coming, I’m assuming they know it’s an English set. They know that there’s no Bollywood music on that day. We’re going to be playing it with a  lot of love for them and hopefully that’s what they recognize.

What kind of changes, if any, have you had to make to the songs off Echoes to perform them live?

I think maybe five of the tracks that we’re doing are very true to what’s happened on the album. There are two other tracks which we’re rehearsing, which we felt might work better if we do different types of production for [the] live [performance]. [Guitarist] Kalyan Baruah has produced the set for live and we’ve got a great batch of musicians – Darshan [Doshi] is going to be there, Rinku is on keys. Sarosh [Izedyar] and Kalyan will be on guitars. I’ll be playing acoustic on a few songs. Should be fun.

Is this also a road test for the songs and are there going to be more shows where you’ll perform Echoes exclusively?

I’m actually really happy to be starting in Mumbai. You know, the weird part is that for the longest time, I’ve been speaking to my management because very few Bollywood shows happen in Mumbai, actually. One of the last ones that we did I think was, if I’m not mistaken, on the steps of Asiatic Library… the Kala Ghoda Festival. Since then, we haven’t really done a public gig. We did a gig for Rock On 2 to promote the music release. But it’s very few and far between. I’ve been speaking to these guys, and I’m like, ‘Guys, let’s get something going in Mumbai.’ And it’s finally happening. I’m so amazed that it happened to be the English set. So happy to be playing here, man.

Farhan Akhtar performs ‘Echoes’ live on December 2nd at Musical Weekender at Phoenix Palladium, Mumbai. Get tickets here.