On June 6 2023, I interviewed Darzi, a genre-fluid, experimental musician producer. Darzi has made a name for himself, especially in the Delhi Independent Music scene. His second album ‘Awaaz’ played commercial club-worthy tunes while the lyrics spoke about domestic violence and other major crimes against women. While talking to all these musicians, I have been realizing one thing again and again that there is a certain class that has the privilege to experiment with their music. I interact with people who are not well-off or homeless or daily-wage workers daily. One kid from a lower-income household came up to me and told me he wanted to work in the music industry. He wanted to be a singer.
I realized that all these musicians that I have been interviewing have belonged to middle-class income households, where they can sustain a few years of financial struggle before their music gets heard. Whereas someone who belongs to a lower-income household is often only tied to conventional dreams of being a singer or a general musician. These structural inequalities decide how unique an artist will develop in a lot of ways.
For my capstone project, I want to talk about how the household environment makes way for the artistic voices in music. In the picture attached, it is Darzi with me at one of his friend’s studios, where I interviewed him. We are drinking cold coffee by the way, that his other artist friend made for us (Baijoo Bawra). I just noticed we also have our dawgs out haha!
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