We have been seeing a rise in what one might call ‘independent’ - not helmed by a commercial media giant - ventures in the management and logistics sections of the scene over the last few years (more post-pandemic, but there have been a few older ones for a while now). Perhaps some artists feel like the gap between just starting out and ending up at festivals is too wide, or the obvious fact that one needs a sizeable following to be considered for any sort of financial deal by those expecting returns, but whatever the case may be, we are now seeing all kinds of members of the scene doing startup-style organizations working with indie artists to gig, record, market, represent and the rest of it. Bangalore musician Sanoli Chowdhury is at the front of Indie Grrrl, which is one of them. We spoke with her about it.

How did the initial idea to put Indie Grrrl together come about?

Vinod Gadher (my manager) has had this idea brewing for quite some time now. We both have had discussions about starting it for a while now and finally got to it a couple months ago. We were planning my tour and figured we could merge Indie Grrrl gigs and my tour together and curate a showcase instead. Which, as we know, is only the beginning of what Indie Grrrl is and can be.

What does Indie Grrrl do, essentially?

“Indie grrrl” is a term that emerged in the music scene in the US and Europe in the 80s. It is particularly associated with indie rock and punk genres. The term typically refers to female musicians who embrace an ethos, often producing and distributing their music. The term emphasises empowerment and independence within their music and image.

Our aim with this brand is to create an independent female artists movement in India. We will coordinate, share, and help each other further our careers and also learn to lobby our interests with national music organisations. We aim to create self-help with social media platforms that will keep us informed and help us to promote various events, such as all-female tours, one-off concerts, festivals and meetings, workshops, podcasts.

Given your background as a member of the indie scene in various forms, how important did you think your experience as an artist and engineer helped you in the initial stages of setting up the venture?

Quite a bit! It’s given me a pretty good head start, reaching out to professionals in the industry - artists, etc has been quite effortless (so far atleast). Of course, I did not know when I started my career that this is something I would ever do, but happy to be here either way.

Do you think the simple idea of knowing your fellow musicians and members of the scene helps someone like you ‘skip the networking step’ in a sense, given you spent the last how many ever years doing that as part of your creative journey?

Yes and no. I have had to network/build relationship with other professionals in the industry that perhaps I would not have if I was just an engineer and artist. Also a lot of the work is usually taken care of by my manager but building Indie Grrrl, it is important I am the face of it and can help guide us/take reign.

But yes, as I said, reaching out to some people has been quite effortless; some who I have already known and have built a relationship with already.

(Sahana Naresh, Indie Grrrl tour, Bengaluru, 2024)

Just how much specialized technical knowledge do you think you used from your other pursuits in the genesis of Indie Grrrl? Was the process of doing work like management and setting up events already familiar to you, or did you find yourself starting from scratch?

It does sort of feel like starting from scratch. I am new to a lot of the work that I have had to do - setting up gigs, logistics, management etc. But I guess given that I am the kind of person who has always played a leadership role in different aspects of my life, it was not as difficult. Just tiring from time to time, as it is I suppose!

Walk us, in the most basic way, through what ‘setting up a show’ looks like – just from the initial to booking a venue?

Well, I suppose this would depend on the venue/show. For example, since the Bangalore gig was done at The Raft which is more or less a DIY venue, we had a lot of control over the event.

Of course, we start by choosing and booking a venue that would be most suited for our needs along with finalising the artist line up and the date of the show. Then, we get moving on finding a good FOH engineer for the show. We also got videographers and a photographer to capture this event.

Then comes promotion and the infamous social media marketing. It’s just logistics and organising, really.

You seem to have added the role of lineup curation to the list of ‘things you’re doing’ – did you approach making lineups for your last two gigs as a programmer, a listener or some combination of the two?

Perhaps both!? It is important as Indie Grrrl we give opportunity to artists who don’t perform as often as they’d like to along with giving good musicians a platform to showcase their work. It was also very interesting that all three of us for the Bangalore show has very distinct sounds. I was not sure how that would be taken in by the audience but perhaps it worked out better than I expected.

(Yuhina, Indie Grrl tour, Bengaluru, 2024)

How has the response been from both audiences and artists for your first few shows as a collective?

Bangalore was great! It really went smoothly and the response was quite positive. Good feedback and good turn out! Delhi was alright, harder city to crack in the independent scene I suppose. But all the artists have been lovely and very supportive of the community we are trying to build. Which is great because that really is the entire motive, which is to work with each other and make the independent space more accessible as a whole.

What would you say is next, not in the pipeline, but as a person heading this venture to provide a more equitable Indian indie scene for women as artists, managers, engineers, producers and all other roles?

It is a long process and it is something we are also looking at from the long run. Indie Grrrl will hopefully exist even when we don’t. The independent scene in India has tremendous potential and we hope that artists achieve all that they deserve while helping others grow and making an accessible space for all independent artists - not just women!