Mudgal provides melody and a percussive rhythm with the guitar, accompanied by a secondary beat devised by tying a ghungroo

The classical tabla student, who started learning at the age of three, would have remained so had it not been for sheer accident, says Mudgal. "I was a tabla player for the college music society, but the instrument got destroyed in the monsoon. The choir needed a musician to keep the beat. Someone suggested I give the choir the beat with a guitar that had been around," Mudgal recalls. He dusted off the cobwebs and picked up a few chords on day one itself. The rest is history. There was no stopping him as he picked up the ghungroo, which can be counted as one of the 13 instruments he now plays including the drums, piano, conga didgeridoo, bongo and marimba. "I try to see the different polyrhythms — following multiple rhythms at the same time — on different instruments as one unit, and then work on making it sound like one," he tells us about his unique ability to play multiple instruments at once.

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His education in Berklee College of Music, where he went after he won the AR Rahman scholarship — a hundred cent scholarship for one Indian student — in 2016, was the boost that paved the path for a musical a career. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I feared my Indian classical background and zero western music knowledge would be a setback. But I treated the audition like I treat any other performance — as a conversation with my guitar, Santiago," he reveals.

Place an Indian classical trained musician in a western classical session and you get somebody who understands the term fusion, a stark contrast to the bastardised meaning of it in India today. "Fusion is not putting a Sufi vocalist and drums together. It has to have more flavour. You can't just say things in Hindi and English and say it's fusion. You need more local flavours, like putting in some Malayalam, and getting the accent and slang right," he explains.

So, Delhi to New York, does he feel like he's made it? "As a kid I wanted to live in New York and now I am. I'm doing what I love, recently released my EP Urge and will soon be collaborating with Carnatic vocalist Chandana Balakalyan. I feel blessed," Mudgal concludes.

On July 7, 7 pm onwards
At 603 Coworking Place, Marathon Innova Corporate Centre, 101, C Wing, Lower Parel.
Call 9136036603
Log on to gigmouselive.com
Cost Rs 400

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