Winning Habits

Musician Ricky Kej says he finds it surreal to think of himself as a two-time Grammy winner

Ricky Kej still remembers the first time he felt the true power of music. “I think

I was listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for the first time in high school, and I had tears in my eyes. It wasn’t like I was sad. Just that I was overwhelmed,” he says. Kej just picked up his second Grammy in the ‘Best New Album’ category for his album Divine Tides, which he composed with American musician Stewart Copeland—best known as the drummer of The Police.

Even though he won his first Grammy for the 2015 album, Winds of Samsara (on which Copeland appeared as a guest artist), Kej still finds it surreal to think of himself as a Grammy winner. “I won the first Grammy when I was 33, I’m 40 today. Winds of Samsara was my 16th album. I had done a lot of work before that. Suddenly, this one did really well on the charts and commercially. I think if you told the 32-year-old me that I would win a Grammy, let alone two, I think I would have laughed at you,” says Kej.

Kej’s father, a doctor by profession, was also a connoisseur of music. He would collect relatively obscure records. “It was music like Ladysmith Black Mambazo and groups from Vietnam, Russia, different parts of Europe and South America. I began to decipher cultures through instruments being used, trying to find their pictures in magazines,” says Kej.

A self-taught musician, Kej staunchly stayed away from popular tunes. Starting off on a guitar and a tiny piano at home, he would always try to come up with something new. “I think I have always been a songwriter in my heart,” he says. Kej looks up to the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Pt Ravi Shankar as role models, not merely for their virtuosity as musicians, but also for the manner in which they handled their careers and broke cultural barriers with music. “I remember going to three Ravi Shankar concerts in the US, and it is always heartwarming to see that the demographic inside the auditorium is representative of the demographic of the city. I don’t mind having a smaller audience, in favour of having a more diverse audience,” says Kej.

Known for the way he integrates his environmental activism into his music, Kej remembers a pep talk by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, coaxing him to focus on the music he wants to make. Around the start of the pandemic, Kej began working on Divine Tides but found it too unidimensional. “Which is when I decided to reach out and ask Stewart if he would like to come on board. He listened to some of the music I had made, and immediately said yes.” After hundreds of phone calls, Zoom meetings and remote recording sessions, the duo finally met for the first time nine days before the Grammy ceremony. “It was so nice to hug him,” Kej says. ■