Ankur Tewari in America
After a successful SXSW debut in Austin, Texas, March this year, award-winning singer-songwriter and entrepreneur, Ankur Tewari, heads to North America for his first-ever tour of the United States and Canada. Ankur will travel the length and breadth of the continent with gigs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Seattle, Vancouver, and Toronto. Ahead of his U.S. tour, he spoke to India Currents about his new show, record label, and his first performance at SXSW.
India Currents: Tell our readers about your first-ever 7-city U.S. and Canada tour in April.
Ankur Tewari: We’re doing a 7-city tour of the U.S. We land in Los Angeles, then we head to San Francisco, Seattle, then to Vancouver, Toronto, New York, and Boston. We’re playing at some really interesting iconic venues – a lot of amazing artists have played there before, so we’re excited to play there. We’ve been getting an overwhelming response to the tour; the ticket sales are encouraging. It’s going to be a completely new audience that I have never sung live to before. Very exciting and can’t wait for it!
IC: You will be playing music from your album Akela. Tell our readers more about it.
AT: There will be songs from my full catalog – my earlier songs from my early albums all the way through to Akela. We might be singing some of the songs featured in movies as well. It’s a mix of pretty much all the repertoire of my music. We might even be singing a new song that I’ve never performed before. In addition, we might even collaborate with local artists. Some very interesting artists are opening for us as well.
IC: Currently, you are working on a show that you’re writing, show-running, and co-directing for Prime. Give us more details.
AT: Bandwaale is a show that I have been working on for a while. My co-writer, Swanand Kirkire, and I started writing it a bunch of years ago. It will air on Prime Video. It features Shalini Pandey, Zahan Kapoor, and Swanand Kirkire. Akshat Verma has directed some episodes. I have directed an episode as well. There is a lot of exciting music by Yashraj Mukhate, Swanand Kirkire, and me that has been featured on the show. Sid Shirodkar has done the score and a lot of exciting things have gone into the making of this show. There’s poetry, there is music, and folk music.
IC: How was your first-ever performance at SXSW 2024 in March?
AT: SXSW was extremely amazing. I played in a church full of people from all over, from different parts of the world. People had driven all the way from Dallas and Houston. It was a really nice intimate setting, and I loved playing the set. At the end of it, everyone was singing along, and it felt like a dream.
IC: Last year, you launched a new record label, Tiger Baby Records, with friends and Bollywood directors Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. Tell us more.
AT: We’ve just about started with Tiger Baby Records. Zoya, Reema, and I have been plotting new works. We have released two albums till now. The first was Aaja Nindiya, a lullaby album for kids, and the second was a hip-hop album for kids called Baccha Kis Ko Bol Raha Hai with Saniya MQ and Kavikaar.
We are working on a lot more children’s albums. We feel that it’s one area where not enough people are making music in our country. So, there are a few more children’s albums that are in the works and they will be dropping very soon.
IC: You also served as the Creative Architect of the newly relaunched Coke Studio Bharat. Tell us more about it.
AT: The idea with Coke Studio Bharat Season One was to have more regional representation in music or turn the spotlight on young exciting musicians, composers, lyricists, and singers, and try to break boundaries and have different people collaborate who would have not otherwise collaborated. We did Kannada songs, Gujarati songs, Kashmiri songs, Punjabi songs. Overall, it was an exciting palette of sounds, and we are very happy that it worked well.
IC: What else can fans expect from you this year?
AT: Currently, I am working on Coke Studio Bharat Season Two. Apart from that, Bandwaale will be on Prime Video later this year. I’m concentrating on some exciting new work for Tiger Baby Records.