The prowess in music of the people from the North Eastern states of India is not a hidden secret. Many successful bands have featured members from the region while a few of the regional brands have gained popularity pan India, like Soulmate from Shillong or Tetseo Sisters from Kohima.
However the fact remains that while being notable, these are far and few in between. It has been a decade and more since Nagaland decided to take the initiative to treat Music as an industry. Under its aegis, a department was set up to focus on the growth of the music & arts industry. The Hornbill Festival, possibly India's largest cultural festival held annually in the month of December, created a new segment, the Hornbill International Music Festival which has become the most rewarding competition for bands in India. It is acknowledged by many as the mother of all rock competitions. But this was just the beginning of the story.
The business has changed so much that they're able - we're able these days in the music industry to be able to control our own destiny- Bobby Brown
The Hornbill Festival and other state initiatives like the Handshake Concerts, helped showcase talent from the state. Bands and artists like Alobo Naga, Tetseo Sisters and others got platforms to reach newer audiences. Bands from outside the North East also got a chance to come and perform at such platforms and collaborate.
The Handshake Concert after being held at Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore moved to different cities across Asia. It travelled across countries like Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, China and more.
During the Hornbill Festival, a special Handshake Concert Raj Bhavan Edition is held at the Governor's House.
A catalyst and a driving force. Ah yes, also a Van Gogh & Bono fan!
Every story has a cast, and there are some who quietly and passionately help build it. Theja Meru, a music icon from the state has been a catalyst and passionate supporter of the cause. He started the Handshake Concerts in Guwahati in 2008 and then took it across the country over the the following years. Rolling Stone helped produce the shows at all the locations. Theja has been a passionate storyteller for Nagaland and has helped build infrastructural support for the music fraternity in the state.
The Handshake Concerts present an amazing potpourri of artists from Nagaland and other North Eastern states. It helped showcase and highlight many talents which were hitherto hidden away. Last year he took over as Advisor of the Task Force for Music & Arts and has since, been a force of change and good while creating opportunities for musicians and artists to benefit through his network and ideas.
Bringing in the professionals. Building for the future.
Arpito Gope, Venture Designer and Partner at NYUCT Design Labs, had already worked closely with Theja Meru and Nagaland Government in his earlier avatar as the Group Director for Rolling Stone.
Now, as the Chief Consultant to TaFMA he has set about design thinking & consulting the team on building the enterprise around music and arts. Arpito brings to the circle, his vast experience in building IPs, brand communities and media properties for some of the most well known global brands like Harley Davidson, Rayban, Jack Daniel's, Raymond, Hornbill on Tour and the Taj Group. Arpito as part of NYUCT Design Labs has also been a co-founder of Immersion - India's First International Platform for XR & Immersive Technology.
The first IP he conceived and designed for TaFMA was Thinkfest, a property around the Business of Music. Thinkfest is a series of interactive workshops held over a cluster of days and hosted periodically. The first edition took place in September 2019 in Kohima and the second one was held at Dimapur in December as part of the Hornbill Festival 2019.
Thinkfest brings together practicing professionals from across the country to hold engaging, knowledge workshops to skill young musicians. The content of the workshops is woven around IP rights, integrated marketing & branding, recording, producing albums and more.
Thinkfest consciously sets itself apart from music conferences, by being a practising platform. It focuses on workshops and interactive sessions which impart direct knowledge and skills to the attendees. The IP is focused on capacitation building and skilling musicians in not only professionalising but also venture design & entrepreneurship.
During Hornbill this year, the second edition of Thinkfest took place at Dimapur and brought in a suite of workshops. The India Head of cdbaby held a session on monetizing and distributing music. The guitarist of Folk Rock band Swarathma, Varun Murali spoke on the nuances of producing an album and Arpito Gope, Partner at NYUCT Design Labs and the Chief Consultant to TaFMA spoke about the digital landscape of music.
It takes a real soldier to stay in the music industry and live off the things that have been put before me and be able to survive all this time because it has not been easy - Chubby Checker
There are also extremely positive changes and formats being introduced in the Hornbill Festival. The Hornbill Festival is the biggest in the whole country and attracts nearly 500,000 visitors, of which nearly half come from outside the state. TaFMA is responsible for everything to do with music during the festival. This not only includes curating, producing the curtain raiser and the closing ceremony but also programming & producing the massive 10 day music festival which happens in Dimapur simultaneously.
Turning on the experience gear
One of the strategic moves was to replace the band competition in the Hornbill festival with an experiential festival. With over a decade of band competitions, the Hornbill Music Festival was restricting itself to a corner as just a band competition and it was felt that this had outlived its initial objective.
So, from 2019 the Hornbill Music Festival in Dimapur became a full fledged experiential festival where more than 50 bands including international and domestic artists performed. Bands like Indus Creed, Swarathma, K-POP band MustB, and Indonesian DJ Kiran Kartika performed live at Dimapur.
The experience design included culinary and merchandise sections which allowed attendees to have a more intimate experience of the state and its culture, making it truly memorable.
Another extremely interesting addition to this year's edition was The Big Stage. This was held over three days and featured not only bands representing every district of Nagaland, but also three bands from the rest of India. The curation and sourcing of these artists from across Nagaland & other states was facilitated with the other IP which was conceived by Arpito - Ticket to Hornbill.
Ticket to Hornbill is a platform for upcoming artists to win a chance to perform at the Big Stage at the Hornbill festival. A call-out was made to all bands and artists to submit their tracks for the competition. Four shortlisted bands played live at Hard rock cafe to a live jury and the winner won a slot to perform at the Hornbill Festival. Competitions were held in every district and across the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
The audience and the artists who come for the regional finales get exposed to information about TaFMA, Nagaland and Hornbill. This helped socializing the brands, thus compounding the cycle of good.
Ticket to Hornbill received hundreds of entries for the Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai regional finals. Entries came from not only regional bands but also from Bhutan and other neighbouring countries. The idea is to take it to the ASEAN countries in the coming years.
Content design and social media outreach
Another focus area for TaFMA was to bring some order to design and content. Social Media outreach had been missing all these years. TaFMA moved quickly to have channels on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, take out interesting content and news in inventive formats. A lot of effort has gone into curating and designing the content being put out. It was a very challenging task given that this was being done while prepping for the mammoth ten day festival of Hornbill which sees numerous dignitaries, union ministers, artists that are international, domestic and local and thousands of volunteers.
TaFMA had an extensive, amplified social media presence that started right with Ticket to Hornbill all the way till the final act of Hornbill festival. There are many more miles to cover, many new initiatives to unveil and much to be done. But for sure, a beginning was made.
Discovering the land of festivals through music
Nagaland has a very small population and limited resources. However it is rich in culture, heritage, organic produce, is home to a bamboo industry, and has a talented musical populace and educated youth. The obvious focus becomes soft capital and tourism which the government encourages wholeheartedly. However the tourism numbers are also largely led by Hornbill, which is the flagship IP for the state. While that grows, a steady tourism inflow will help the Naga economy. The idea is to leverage such branded properties and cultural assets to make Nagaland a more considered choice for travellers.
Given that music & culture are the biggest draws, it becomes important that they be used as lead domains to introduce and spread the word about the beauty and natural bounties of Nagaland.
It was felt that Hornbill is a great opportunity to capture the colours and vibrant lifestyle, culture and heritage of the Naga people and take it to every corner of India. The challenge was how does one distribute this at scale. Going virtual helps.
Making the experience immersive with VR
Pictures, films, stories, conversations, social content and more, all matter and grow the story. Theja and Arpito also led the initiative to make Hornbill completely immersive as an experience. The festival was shot in the 360 format and the plan is to take this content through Virtual Reality headsets and make people, travellers and others experience the colours and sounds of Hornbill as immersively as possible.
The VR content would be taken to airports and other relevant places where travellers, families and young adventure seekers can get an immersive experience of Nagaland.
Digital agility
Even during the pandemic TaFMA has been very active in the digital space and has hosted online interactions, performances of local professional artists as well as those from the rest of India and abroad. There have also been interactive forums hosted on Instalive where viewers get a chance to interact and ask questions.
And more exciting stuff to come in the coming years
"As Chief Consultant to TaFMA my role is to help create and build intellectual & cultural properties for the Government, facilitate conversations with various organisations, brands, music groups and changemakers. The idea is to create more opportunities and enterprise for the artists and musicians of Nagaland. My experience with the first set of IPs - Thinkfest & the Business of Music, Ticket to Hornbill and helping build The Big Stage at Hornbill Festival - keeps me excited for the times to come. There are several collaboration talks that are ongoing with business houses and other entities. Some promising projects around music, art and fashion are soon to be announced" - Arpito Gope.
Credits:
Created with an image by Hammer & Tusk - "untitled image"