KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — Despite having spent almost seven decades in the music industry, Indian classical music legend and world music icon L.Shankar said he still feels like a 26-year-old.

In an interview with Malay Mail, the Grammy-winning artiste revealed that his secret to longevity is music.

“Because music is my life, it is what I breathe, the day I stop playing music is when I die.

“I still feel the exact same passion I had during my very first show in Sri Lanka as a seven-year-old, it never fades out.

“It is like a light, if the light goes out then I’m gone. Hopefully, it will not be for another long time,” he said.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Throughout his illustrious career, Shankar, now 76, has left his mark on the music industry, from collaborating with global music icons such as Frank Zappa and Bruce Springsteen to performing several benefit concerts for the late Nelson Mandela and inventing the 10-string Double Violin.

Despite his age, Shankar is still actively working on music and performing shows around the world. He also revealed that he has made Kuala Lumpur his second home, spending time here between tours for more than two years.

“One of my bases is here in KL, and I travel a lot between America, India, and Europe, but whenever I have a break, I come back here.

“Because I have my portable studio, I’ve been working on many Original Soundtracks (OSTs) and making albums across different genres like rock, pop, and world music.

“This is a great hub for me and the people here are amazing—Malay, Chinese, and Indian, it’s a wonderful mix of culture,” he said.

Shankar has also been working closely with several Malaysian talents as he prepares for his upcoming collaborative concert, Beyond Words, alongside Malaysia’s Sultan of Sitar, Samuel J. Dass, at Istana Budaya on Aug 22.

Apart from Shankar and Samuel, the Beyond Words ensemble also features Malaysian musical talents including Prakash Kandasamy (tabla virtuoso), Shawalnaz Hussin (composer, arranger and keyboardist), Muhardiman Ismail (seruling maestro), Hadi Maswardi (bassist and composer), Paavendran Langkadran (percussionist and programmer), and guitarists Eliezer Enan and Marco Alonso.

The concert will also mark Shankar’s first performance in Malaysia since his nationwide tour here in 1962, when he was just 12 years old.

According to Shankar, he has been actively preparing for the concert since last year, producing and rehearsing new music with students from the Swara Community Arts Centre, which was founded by Samuel.

“Beyond Words is for everybody and we all have to do things beyond words sometimes and try our best.

“Music is all about collaboration and community and sharing our love and understanding especially with what’s going on around the world now, it is really important for us to feed a lot of love, positivity and unity,” he said.

Following the concert announcement last week, Shankar admitted that he had received offers from several agents across the US and Europe, who were already asking him to bring the concert on tour.

He also revealed that Orchestra Traditional Malaysia had offered him a collaborative show. Although he welcomed the offers, he chose to focus on the concert first before deciding on the next steps.

“Maybe next year we might collaborate with them because performing with an orchestra is a whole different thing.

“It involves many musicians and it takes more time to do the arrangements and so on.

“But there’s a lot of possibilities, this is just the beginning,” he said.