Rishu Singh, Indian Indie’s Most Passionate Promoter, Dead at 41

Rishu Singh, the founder of independent music label ennui.BOMB, passed away earlier today after battling prolonged poor health. Friends of Singh, who turned 41 on March 30th, confirmed that the promoter and entrepreneur died due to a severe bout of jaundice.

Hailed as a permanent fixture in the indie and punk rock scene of the country, Singh worked with several companies including Rolling Stone India and Sony Music India to provide a platform for artists to be heard. Working from Mumbai since the early 2000s, Singh founded his company ennui.BOMB in 2004 to host gigs at local venue Razzberry Rhinoceros with Aditi Ghosalkar.

Over the years, Singh introduced several events and artists to the small but dedicated indie scene. From the launch of compilation series We Are the Scene (2004) and Stupiditties (2006), Singh was co-founder of crowdfunded gig series Control ALT Delete and managed bands ranging from alt-punk act BLEK to punk rock bands like The Lightyears Explode, The Riot Peddlers and The Vinyl Records.

In early 2013, ennui.BOMB launched their new gig series Bomb Thursdays, which hosted artists across genres and regions in suburban Mumbai. The inaugural edition was attended by American label head Seymour Stein, who championed punk and new wave in the Seventies. In 2014, Singh and his team of volunteers put together the first edition of the New Wave Asia Musicfest. While attendance remained an issue, the festival traveled from Goa to Bengaluru to New Delhi and Mumbai, while its forthcoming edition was being planned for somewhere in North East India.

In between, Singh hosted numerous gigs throughout the years at venues big and small. Where ennui.BOMB was first tagged as an “un-metal” label, Singh opened doors to all genres, from electronica to death metal. He briefly hosted his own show on short-lived music channel Pepsi MTV Indies, called The Ride, where he interviewed everyone from actor Kalki Koechlin to folk singer Papon.