#SABARTOURUSA

In the beginning, it was just a small idea – one that felt far too risky to execute, but too incredible to dismiss. So step-by-step we worked on it. And that’s how we made our debut USA tour happen.

We were invited to perform at The Learn Quest Music Conference, an Indian classical concert festival in Boston. To learn that we were the first contemporary – classical artist on the lineup of the festival was amazing. To learn that we would be opening for Bombay Jayshree ji was phenomenal. All in all, our main aim was to create a full tour rather than a single one off performance. Then began the most tedious and stressful three months of our lives.

At a time Anindo and I were working on the release of our third studio album ‘Sabar’ through Saavn’s Artist Originals, planning and formalizing our six-city India tour, creating social media and editorial plans for the launch, applying for artist Visas, while reaching out to completely unknown but inspiring avenues in the United States of America. Almost each day we spent, either felt never – ending, or too short to get things done.

Tensions were running high, but we had our (various) goals in mind and we pushed through. Some of the high points of the tour were the Berklee Indian Ensemble inviting us to be visiting artists for their Spring semester (which included a collaborative performance, a video of one of our compositions with the ensemble, and a master class we took for the students); the opportunity to do a show in collaboration (Brooklyn Raga Massive) with our dear friend Karsh Kale (who in turn invited his dear friend Anoushka Shankar to come for the performance); an invitation to play as part of the Eye on India festival in Chicago; and a performance at a beautiful piano store (where we played the set on a Steinway Grand and undoubtedly, Anindo had the time of his life). It was a welcome change for us to have a listening and attentive audience in each and every concert - a similar listening culture is what we aim to inculcate and promote back home in India.

Most of the challenges and struggles we faced for the USA tour can be summed up in three horrifying words – WAIT FOR VISA. It was touch and go for us, till almost three hours before our flight, so much

so that it was only while waiting to board the flight that we finally came up with #sabartourusa. I personally struggled a lot with the unpredictable but mostly cold weather (thanks climate change!). And posting updates each day on social media was another massive challenge. Having to commit to our listeners and well wishers on Instagram and Facebook, no matter how amazing or horrible our day was, was definitely a burden. We are glad that we posted so much information, but the whole process has definitely changed us as human beings. We also seem to take a lot for granted here, in terms of sound equipment and support. That is something we learnt the hard way (read - the most tedious load ins, where we also carried entire PA systems for some concerts).

We initially declared it a tour with 6 shows lined up across a month and a half, giving us a lot of hope to do sight seeing and explore the city. But once we got there, people loved the music, and we immediately started making additions to the tour poster. We regularly updated this development and finally ended up with 15 concerts spanning the east and west coast, on #sabartourusa. As incredible as this was, what we gave up in return was 45 days of sleep, our mental and emotional sanity, and Anindo’s serious dreams of being a tourist on an album launch tour.

What we got in return though, was priceless – listening lovable audience members, who looked us up in detail before attending the concerts, supportive fans who made concerts happen even when we considered them logistical nightmares, kind loving hosts who offered us their homes and hearts, every concert organizer who was determined to make the shows worth everyone’s time. It was quite a mammoth task to put together, but all of those struggles have all melted away now, when we look back at what we have achieved.