Photograph courtesy: The Raghu Dixit Project

His powerful voice carries the lure of a folk troubadour and his music, the exuberance of a groovy rock number. And whether he sings Hey Bhagwan in Hindi or Gudugudiya Sedi Nodo in Kannada, the language hardly seems to matter when his music fills the air. No wonder, Raghu Dixit, the guitar-strumming folk rock singer from Mysore has fans around the world grooving to his distinctive mix of folk and Carnatic and rock and blues and reggae.

Dixit, who cuts a striking figure in his colourful lungi and ghunghroos, is hitting all the high notes these days. He’s the first indie musician from India to make a serious bid for the international stage. His songs are topping international music charts and crowds from small-town India to prestigious music festivals abroad are all swinging to the electrifying music of his band The Raghu Dixit Project.

“He’s India’s biggest musical export next to Rahman today,” says Vishal Dadlani of rock band Pentagram and composers Vishal-Shekhar fame. The duo launched Dixit’s first album in India in 2007. “Raghu’s been a game-changer from the beginning when he became a hit singing in a regional language. Now he’s making his way to an international career, which no Indian artist has done before,” adds Vijay Nair, director, Only Much Louder, an indie artiste-management-to-record-label firm.

Dixit (right) and his band-mate, Carnatic violinist Karthik Iyer, mix it up during a gig in south India

Consider this. Dixit’s songs have twice topped the iTunes World Music charts in UK in the last six months. In April, he won the prestigious Songlines award for Best Newcomer in the World Music category. And he’s sharing the stage with international stars too. In December, he performed his groovy No Man’s Gonna Love You Like I Do on BBC2’s rocking Later With Jools Holland show, which has featured heavyweights like Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Metallica. Dixit shared the stage with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame and gospel singer Mavis Staples, among others. And he’s now collaborating with popular British folk band Bellowhead.

“The last couple of months have been incredible. It’s a good kickstart to an international career,” says Dixit.

The beat has picked up at home too. He’s set to appear on Coke Studio@MTV, the iconic music show that’s launching on MTV India on June 17. And he’s scoring music for Hindi films too starting with Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge being made by Y Films, the new banner from Yashraj Films.

“I’m in a very happy place right now where opportunities of disparate kinds are coming and I’m getting to experience the flavour of each one,” says Dixit.

Dixit’s songs in Kannada have made him a known face in rural Karnataka even as he wins fans across the globe. Photograph courtesy: The Raghu Dixit Project

The Raghu Dixit Project’s wooing fans with its distinctive sound. At its heart lies Dixit’s “huge” powerhouse voice. “His voice has an incredible magical quality and he conveys emotions in such a pure way that it’s untouched by anything material,” says Dadlani. Then, there’s the immense energy the band brings on stage. “Put him in front of any audience and Raghu will always electrify them,” says Nair.

Dixit, who’s not a trained singer, sings only “joyful” songs. His lyrics are simple but often profound like when he sings the verse of the 18th century Kannada mystic poet Shishunala Sharif. “My music is very much because of my own connection with myself. That’s why I can’t open my eyes and sing,” says the intense singer. As for the band’s mix of folk, blues, rock, funk, reggae and Latin sound, Dixit says: “The concept is to truly represent what India is today, which is being deeply rooted in our culture and yet being very global.”

For now, Dixit’s musical scale is on an international ascent — he’s the first Indian musician to hire an international manager. Consider this. Last year, his band played 45 gigs abroad. This summer alone, it’s doing 30 gigs in the UK. The venues are getting bigger and more prestigious too. Most Indian artistes perform sporadically abroad or else play chiefly for NRIs. “But Raghu’s playing for a Western audience,” says Nair.

Photograph courtesy: The Raghu Dixit Project

Dixit realised that “my music deserves to be heard by the rest of the world” after he performed at UK’s Lovebox Festival in 2008 — it led to a performance at the Womad fest too. “We started the Lovebox show with just two people in the audience. But halfway through the first song, people were running from the main stage to our stage. And by the end, we had about 3,500 people dancing and singing with us. That affirmed my faith,” says Dixit.

On returning home, he realised that “maybe I should try for an international career”. So he decided to get a professional manager in 2009. Event manager Paul Knowles, who’d seen Dixit perform in UK, offered to take up the job along with entertainment lawyer Robert Horsfall. They’ve been strategically charting Dixit’s career since last year.

The Raghu Dixit Project has built a huge global fan base with its electrifying performances at international music festivals such as this one at the Larmer Tree Festival in UK in 2010 Photograph courtesy: The Raghu Dixit Project

For instance, they split the band’s 2010 tour of UK — the band invested Rs 40 lakh on it, even incurring a loss of Rs 29 lakh — into three phases. In the first 22-day phase, the band only did showcase performances for the music industry. “Once the buzz started in the industry, we began getting festival invitations and when that happened, we began developing the labels,” says Dixit. In September, British label Wrasse Records distributed the band’s first album, which had already released in India, abroad. Soon afterwards, the band went back abroad to promote the album — that was the third phase of the international build-up.

But the big leap forward came after the band appeared on the Jools Holland show. Dixit was only given a four-minute acoustic slot on the repeat show of 2010’s last episode actually. “It looked like a raw deal and I was reluctant. But I’m glad my managers forced me to go because it just augmented all the effort that had gone before,” says Dixit.

In the event, it turned out to be “one of those just-too-good-to-be-true moments” what with “Robert Plant performing on one side, and Arcade Fire playing and Mavis Staples behind me and Adele right in front”. “It was an incredible line-up,” says Dixit. And it got the band immense traction. Some 150,000 people watched them on TV and within a week, their album zoomed to the iTunes top spot. “Suddenly strangers from all over England and Europe were writing saying how they loved the songs,” says Dixit.

It’s also led to collaborations like the one with Bellowhead and Kathak dancer Gauri Sharma Tripathi, initiated by the British Council and the Southbank Centre in England. Bellowhead and Dixit already shared the stage at the Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival in London this April. Over the next year, the trio will convert an Indian folktale into a screenplay with songs, which Tripathi will represent as a dance drama. “We’ll test it at the Alchemy Festival next year,” says Dixit.

Dixit’s making a foray into Hindi films as a composer for Y Films’ forthcoming Mujhse Fraandship Karoge; (below) UK label Wrasse Records released Dixit’s first album internationally last year

Dixit’s musical journey is constantly hitting new notes but how did it begin? He grew up in Mysore and trained as a Bharata Natyam dancer for 17 years. Singing only happened at 18, when a second-year BSc classmate challenged him to take up a more “manly” pursuit like learning the guitar in two months. “In those two months, I realised what an amazing joy it is to play the guitar and sing along,” says Dixit. Like most teenagers, though, Dixit initially felt that “it was cool to sing only in English”. So he wrote songs like Like Cocaine and did the college band thing.

He only discovered his own sound at 24-25, when he used a recording studio owned by two heavy metal musicians in Bangalore. He’d started working with SmithKline Beecham’s (SKB) vaccine division after his MSc by then. “These guys heard me hum Mysore Se Aayi, which was only a melody then. But they said it’s so authentic, why are you faking yourself singing in English,” recalls Dixit. That got him thinking about “who I am and where I’m coming from”.

Yet, music only became a career after SKB posted him to Belgium in 2000 and after his landlord there heard him sing and sent a demo CD to a radio station. The 15-minute slot on which Dixit sang Mysore Se Aayi got a huge response. “The station head told me if you get this response here, imagine what you can do in your own country. Within a week, I quit my job and came back to become a musician,” says Dixit. But he discovered that the record labels were only interested in the Bollywood sound.

Nevertheless, Dixit formed a band, Antaragini — and also worked as a technical writer in a software firm. Around the time, he began composing jingles for FM radio too. His band remained “a college band unfortunately” and with “no visible success moment”, members began to quit. So he dissolved it in 2005, and soon launched the Raghu Dixit Project with the idea that he’d “only work with musicians who wanted to work with me”.

The band began with small gigs. Then, Dixit met Vishal-Shekhar in 2005, which led to his first album in 2007. After initial distribution hitches, it grew to become the highest-selling non-film album in 2009. “And we started clocking almost 80 gigs a year, which was incredible for an indie band,” says Dixit.

Gaurav Vaz, the band’s bass guitarist and manager, says they’re doing 100 gigs a year today. And the stage has got bigger too. For instance, in UK this summer, they’ll play at the big Glastonbury Festival and on one of its three biggest stages, the John Peel Stage, where all the to-watch-out-for acts perform. Then, they’ll be one of the main bands at the Rhythms of the World festival besides performing at the Latitude and Standon Calling fests too. His managers are also penetrating other markets. In March, Dixit did shows for the industry in the US in a repeat of the UK strategy. “The idea is to create a long-term career as international performers,” he says.

Meanwhile, back home, the band’s burning the rubber from Calcutta to Tumkur. And Dixit’s doing music for Hindi films like Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge too. He’s composed five tracks for it ranging from a pure rock song to a south Indian street-rhythm-based song in English. “I’m completely excited about it,” says Dixit. He’s hoping that just like his music for Kannada films made him a household name there, the Hindi film score too will help expand the band’s fan-base. Meanwhile, lovers of the Raghu Dixit sound can look forward to his second album releasing later this year.

“It will make or break us,” admits Dixit. But he’s not nervous. “We’re a nice object of curiosity right now,” he says. He knows the “onus” is on him to scale fresh musical peaks. His fans though are sure that he’ll continue to rock the world with his one-of-a-kind voice.