Ricky Kej tackles the questions we pose to him with words that we can hear, and a mental background score that only he can hear. This isn't a fable that we're fabricating, but precisely what the musician tells us when we discuss which role he plays first — that of a musician, or an environmentalist — when creating songs on pressing issues. "A background score is always being composed in my mind, regardless of the situation," he says, adding that as he moves from country to country, experiencing, sensing, and learning about the damage caused to the environment, his music continues to reinvent itself.

It was on two specific occasions that he felt a profound harmony between his music and his emotional state. "I visited the Kiribati islands in the South Pacific when the United Nations intergovernmental panel declared that it would eventually be submerged due to climate changes. It struck me that this country, for no fault of its own, would be submerged because [other countries continue] to throw fossil fuels into the atmosphere, and cause global warming. During the three weeks that I spent there, I fell in love with their culture and traditions, and [it ached to learn] that in 30 to 40 years, the 21 islands would be evacuated. So, I made the song Samsara for them, and got the President [of] India to tell our politicians that the policies [they] make here, will affect those across the border."