Sofar Sounds Bombay, a secret concert community, seems to have mastered the art of getting heard by keeping quiet
Musical Secret
Audience sit in rapt attention as a performance is in progress at a Sofar concert in the city. PIC/Sahil Kotwani
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Imagine turning up at a concert doorstep having no idea who’s going to play. Imagine not knowing where to arrive until only two days are left. And imagine being entirely clueless about who you’ll meet in the course of the musical evening. That’s Sofar Sounds for you. If unanswered questions like these are your thing, then funnily enough, this place has all the answers. But this is not a mere gimmick to tease. Spread across 271 cities around the world, Sofar Sounds is a secret gigs community that works with the singular aim of protecting live music from its plaguing distractions — glasses clinking, animated whispers, smart phone intrusions — and keep it just about the music. As an audience, if you are not completely invested in the music, then there’s no place for you in their concerts. And the only way to ensure that, they believe, is by maintaining a certain degree of exclusivity.
Nikhil D’souza
Its Mumbai leg kicked off in May this year and they have held four concerts until now. For musician Nikhil D’Souza, the experience was massively differently from playing at a pub. “In a pub, the audience is more interested in meeting friends and having a good time, while we play in the background. In a Sofar concert, people show up for the music alone. That’s the biggest compliment for an artist — people listening to your music, no matter the size of the stage,” he says.
Typically, a concert accommodates between 40-80 people, handpicked by the organisers. Arul Kacker city leader, Sofar Bombay, says that they try to keep the guest list diverse. “We’ve had people in their 50s and their 20s in the same room. We want to develop a space that’s free of judgment.”
The venue is revealed two days before the concert and the lineup announced once all have assembled at the venue. Natasha Vakil, who runs an Airbnb, hosted a concert in her living room. “I could only fit about 40. As an audience, you don’t feel removed from the musicians. They are like friends performing for you.” Arul adds, “It’s the kind of environment where you don’t want to be the guy whose phone went off in the middle of a concert.”
Also, this is not a ticketed event. At the end of the concert, they pass around a hat for donations. Arul says, “We manage to cover costs, but over and above that, there’s only enough left for a round of beers.” For all its secrecy, this coterie appears to be rapidly growing — they already have over 300 applications for their next gig on September 25. To attend a concert, all you need to do is log on to their website www.sofarsounds.com.
Arul stresses that Sofar is not about independent music, it’s about independent artists. “We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves to our own tastes. We are on the lookout for artists across genres. If we like a particular sound, we approach them while they are, of course, free to approach us.”
And while some extra monetary muscle might surely be of help, they don’t want to get entangled with sponsors. “Essentially, we are music curators. We don’t want to surrender any inch of the curating to others,” Arul says.
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