Photography Anirudh Voleti
After a nine-year hiatus, Karsh Kale is back. The tabla virtuoso, producer, and one of India’s most inventive voices in indie music returns with DUST, a genre-bending cinematic project that marks a subtle shift: this time, he’s doing most of the singing himself. Known for shape-shifting between roles and leaning on guest vocalists, Karsh has kept his own voice understated and textural, serving the layered soundscapes rather than leading them. On the opening track Night Turns, distorted tabla and guitar-laden grooves meet a vocal delivery that’s unmistakably his. We caught up with him to tap into this lesser-known side.
Why do you do what you do?
It’s the best way I have found to express the inexpressible.
First job you were hired for.
Table washer at a food court at a local shopping mall when I was fifteen. Only lasted a day.
Describe your new music in one word.
Therapy.
What is the one cure you swear by to overcome a creative block?
Listen to the right music.
What are three things people would be surprised to know about you?
I paint. I make amazing scrambled eggs and omelettes. I’ve been living in Goa for the past six years.
What is the soundtrack of your life?
That would have to be a carefully curated playlist of too much music to list. My own albums have certainly been a diary and a timeline of my own life’s trajectory.
Can you give me a blurb on your new album, DUST in your own words?
From dust to DUST.
Is there a song you wish you had written or created?
So many, but if I had to choose Mad About You by Sting.
Do you have a ritual before you go on stage?
Not really, mainly because I perform in different avatars; a DJ set is different from getting on stage with Amjad Ali Khan Sahab. Getting on stage with my Collective, I do like to gather our energies and acknowledge everyone with a virtual ‘let’s do this’ before we go on stage.
A film you never get tired of watching?
Stand By Me.
Three artists from any genre you would love to collaborate with?
Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and Brian Eno.
What has been your deepest learning?
Life is unpredictable and can always change on a dime.
What is your greatest achievement so far?
There are many achievements that ‘look good on paper’, but for me, moments when fans let me know how my music has been a part of their lives and has sometimes helped them through some of the most trying times. When my music connects the way it was intended, is when I feel like I have accomplished something.
One lesson in life you learned and want to pass on?
Be your own shaman on your own vision quest.
This is an excerpt from Platform's May Bookazine. For more such stories, grab a copy here.
Words Hansika Lohani
Date 22.8.2026