Dear Offbeat listener,
As we head towards a new year, a new decade, I want to tell you a few things. Why? Because I feel that since you have taken the trouble to listen to my little radio show by tuning your dial to 103.2 Dublin City FM, downloading a podcast, or subscribing to the show (for free, of course), you might want to know a bit about why OFFBEAT came into existence and why I will continue to make the program as long as I am able.
Karishmeh interviews Karishmeh about “OFFBEAT with Karishmeh”
kf: So, interviewing yourself about something you yourself are a part of….isn’t that a bit strange? Egoistical?
KF: Not really. It’s just an excuse to confuse a few people, and another way to talk about the things I feel strongly about.
kf: Right. Okay, so where shall we begin?
KF: Lets start at the very beginning…a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with A..B..C…
kf: (interrupting) Very funny! Sound of Music! I get it – a great film.
KF: There’s nothing to “get” – really. But yes, that is a great film. In fact, one that I saw so many times by the time I was eight years old, that had my written skills been up to it, I could have written the script from memory!
kf: Really? What did you like so much about “The Sound of Music?”
KF: I don’t know – singing nuns? Disobedient children? Mountains? Exquisite songs and singing….what didn’t I like? Though for a long time I thought that the song “you are sixteen” was very scandalous – dancing with a boy at night, in the rain and all that!!
kf: I never thought of that song as being scandalous, but then again I was probably exposed to far more grown up things than you were, at that age. Which brings me to my next question. Do you have any early musical memories that connect specifically to the radio?
KF: Oh, the radio! Yes, you are supposed to be asking me questions about the radio, sorry for digressing! Let me see – well I never grew up with the television. I did not have one till I was about sixteen I think, so it was just radio and cassettes that I grew up listening to. I had a walkman that also came with a radio, and for about two hours every night I would listen to the English programs on local radio. I also remember listening to BBC World service on the radio – my mum was and is obsessed with the BBC and she would have it on all the time.
kf: But what sort of music radio could you possibly have on a local radio station in Poona? Weren’t all the stations playing Indian music?
KF: Well, I don’t know – I simply could not listen to the radio until just before bedtime. I was too busy with piano practice, school work and playing with cats and dogs. So the only time I would listen would be at night – though the program only played pop tunes..English ones.
kf: Like what?
KF: Oh shut up. Lets just say I wasn’t listening to Classical FM or whatever it’s called.
kf: Like what?
KF: Are you deaf? Or are you just trying to get me to tell you what kind of music I listened to for hours on my walkman radio?
kf: The latter of course! I think it’s fascinating and extremely relevant to our conversation about Offbeat.
KF: Chart music, I guess. Plus whatever the Radio Jockey felt like playing. The odd request from some lovesick fellow – the usual stuff.
kf: Like what?
KF: Pop music? Let me see – stuff like Nirvana, Ace of Base, Boys II Men, Brian Adams, Aerosmith….
kf: Okay, so I’m guessing that’s early to mid 90s chart music?
KF: I guess so. Though she (the RJ) sometimes played older stuff too – like AHA and Springsteen. It got a lot worse by the late 90s, I remember turning it off one night after listening to Spice Girls, B*Witched and some other nonsense. Have you ever heard of B*witched?
kf: No, I’m afraid. But I don’t listen to much pop music – and the only radio I listen to is BBC Radio 3.
KF: Well, good for you! I’ll spare you a detailed historical background on B*witched then. They’re Irish you know? It’s relevant given that Offbeat originated on Dublin City FM! You should know that B*Witched are responsible for ensuring I did something else at night – read a book, write, anything but listen to the radio! Though I loved the RJ, a very enthusiastic, charismatic well spoken girl called Jackie.
kf: So when you left India, did you ever get a chance to listen to Western Art Music on radio?
KF: Yes, of course. Once I left India I discovered (nothing to do with the internet back then) that there were radio stations devoted entirely to western classical music. I was thrilled – for a while anyway!
kf: Are you referring to American radio? Or British or Irish?
KF: American, first. NPR and one of the local radio stations that played classical music in Ohio. Once again I was tuning in through my walkman…or was it a discman by then? We’re still talking about a time well before streaming and podcasting.
kf: What did you think of classical music radio? Did you ever want to have your own radio program way back then?
KF: No, of course not. I wondered – who listens to the radio anyway? By then, Television was everywhere, and I was no exception. I loved TV, though I still never had one of my own. But moving to Ireland, I discovered amazing TV programs – Alan Partridge being one of them. Until then my favourite TV had always been the old English comedies that I saw at my grandmother’s house in India. Allo Allo, Mind your language, Are you being served. So no – radio was never on my mind at that stage.
kf: Should a self confessed radio geek really admit to watching television?
KF: It’s still a form of new media! While I don’t have television (apart from 2 channels that you get if you stick a clothes hanger into the back of the telly), I still enjoy watching good TV shows, but on DVD. I’m impatient and hate sitting through ads. Plus I don’t want to see Simon Cowell on every channel.
kf: What about radio? Do you listen to the radio at all?
KF: Yes, but only certain programs on BBC Radio 3, a fair bit of Dublin City FM and the odd independent classic rock station that I find online.
kf: So tell me about Offbeat – why did you decide to do it?
KF: Well, the original idea stemmed from a meeting I had with the top producers of the country’s mainstream classical station. I’m not naming the country, or the station because that will give them additional importance. Suffice to say that I was basically asked to present one of the generic, bland crappy programs that they churn out, and when I suggested adding a piece by Scriabin to the mix, they did not have it in their library! Imagine that – in this day and age, a major classical music radio station does not have a single recording of Scriabin’s music. So I turned down their offer of work, which is moronic given that I’ve been broke for a few years, and approached Mick Hanley at Dublin City FM with the idea for Offbeat! And that’s how the show came to be.
kf: That’s great, in a way. Not the part about you being broke though. What do you think is the point of making a show like Offbeat? When you compare it to the mainstream classical music station in Ireland, Classic FM UK or even the CBC Radio 2 in Canada.
KF: Obviously there’s a huge difference between what CBC Radio 2 does and BBC Radio 3. CBC Radio 2 was home to Glenn Gould’s incredible radio work. It was home to programs that were so brilliant, so ahead of their time – in many ways a lot like the BBC. Now though, CBC Radio 2 is basically identical to the lite-classical radio stations with their overhaul. I hate the saccharine, patronizing nature of commercial classical radio stations which use a generic database of classical recordings and shuffle them around for different presenters to introduce. I nearly ended up presenting for one, except that at the very last second I backed out of the job because I couldn’t introduce the same pieces over and over. With Offbeat, I know I don’t have the same facilities as the large radio stations, but really who cares? In this day and age, I can make a really good program sitting in a village in India or at a studio in Dublin, and enough people enjoy it and download it, so that’s all that matters.
kf: When you say you “make” a program – how much of it do you actually do?
KF: At the beginning, I was totally freaked out at the idea of doing all the writing, research, editing, and actually doing the tech stuff myself. Thanks to a patient saint, the patron saint of Dublin City FM – a Scottish girl by the name of Heather MacLeod, I learnt to work quickly, and figure out the tech stuff myself. When I did short features for RTE Radio 1 and later for CBC Radio 2, I realized that there was so much ego over people putting together what nearly anyone with a decent quality microphone and good recording equipment and software can do. So now, I’ve stopped pitching ideas to mainstream radio stations, because I would rather not listen to a “suit” tell me how to turn a good, simple, effective idea into some irritating dirge with a zillion sound effects and zero substance. With Offbeat, I sit with my loose leaf book, and write and write and write. Ideas for programs, stuff about composers and pieces, possible interviews and guests for the program.
kf: Speaking about the people you’ve interviewed? You must be proud to have spoken to so many incredible musicians, but were there any highlights?
KF: Yes, of course. I can never choose which interview was a personal highlight – Marni Nixon, Zakir Hussain, David Harrington, Leon Fleisher, these are all people I have thought of so highly from the time I was a child. And like true musicians, they were all so humble and gracious – and so funny too! I loved the conversation I had with Max Gershunoff, it felt timeless, like we would have talked for hours if the program didn’t have a time constraint. That’s the reason I abandoned the idea of adding musical examples to that conversation – I think it’s the only time I’ve devoted an entire program to just one conversation. Sometimes just listening to two people speak is enough – you don’t need endless sound effects and samples. He’s a total legend in every way!
kf: You both agreed on a lot of things from the word go! And speaking of legends..do you have any idols? Any radio presenters or radio programs you look up to?
KF: I told you before, Alan Partridge! Whenever I’m in the studio, I picture myself as Alan – except that he was working with cassette tapes on his program for Norwich radio.
I know there are people making good radio programs – but like Alan, I’m making a good radio program for community radio, without the gadgets and gizmos and gazillion researches and tech people! He’s my hero. Now all I need to start doing is to open up a phone line during Offbeat……watch the crazies come out to play!
kf: Ha, would you actually do that? Take requests on Offbeat?
KF: I don’t know many people, especially in Dublin, who want to dedicate Charles Ives’ 3rd Symphony to the love of their life. I normally read particularly interesting emails, and if someone has asked to hear a piece of music that isn’t Pachebels Canon, then yeah, I’d try and add it to a program.
kf: How can you justify playing Steely Dan or The Kinks on a classical music radio program?
KF: How can you NOT play this music. Good music is good music – it transcends the totally ridiculous barriers of art, pop, rock, folk and world. A great Kinks song like Waterloo Sunset has as much of a place on Offbeat as a Schubert Lieder. It’s like saying, if Offbeat was a radio show made in 1880, would it only play Bach Cantatas? Of course not – it would feature the music of traveling minstrels, lute songs, Brahms, Mozart and Victorian music hall, slave songs and lots more. I don’t play a lot of the current chart music on Offbeat because in my own opinion, most of it is dirge. And there are enough radio stations that do play it.
kf: Point taken. So, what’s the future of Offbeat? And the future of Classical Music Radio?
KF: I don’t know what the future of classical music radio is. Lite-classical will hopefully disappear once and for all, because I personally don’t want to listen to Myleene Klass (reality tv star) or Marty Whelan (no comment) introduce Mozart. As for the other stuff – I’m sure it has a future, as long as it maintains decent ratings. The future of Offbeat – once I’m back to full health, I want to add more options for streaming on the website, introduce an interactive forum, but knowing my luck it will be taken over by spammers selling Viagra and begging Offbeat listeners to open bank accounts in Africa.
kf: All the best, whatever you decide to do with the program. It’s been great talking to you, if a little confusing….
KF: No problem – a pleasure talking to you (or should I say, me!) Just make sure you edit our conversation so I don’t end up sounding like a cynical, people hating, arrogant jerk! And don’t delete the part about Alan Partridge being my idol either!
GLENN GOULD - on recording, technology, giving up live concerts and damning the virtuoso tradition.
WANDA LANDOWSKA
NAIDA COLE
December 2008 marked the centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen, undoubtedly one of the great musical figures of the 20th century. To celebrate, the acclaimed Dublin-born pianist Isabelle O'Connell and American pianist Laura
Eric Zuber
EMMANUEL CHRISTIEN
I was going to write a really long, rambling blog post on Canadian-Polish pianist Daniel Wnukowski - instead I'll just say that talking to him, and continuing on from the Radio Special with Leon Fleisher, was one of the most rewarding interviews (if I can call it that, it was simply a conversation) I have had the pleasure of conducting for the program.
Its 5.30 a.m. and I'm very excited. I will be talking to the legendary pianist Leon Fleisher in a couple of weeks, for a special on Offbeat. As some may already know, Fleisher was one of the few pianists who was a contemporary of Glenn Gould, and one that Gould really admired. Fleisher is, of course, one of the last legendary living pianists left, he was a pupil of Artur Schnabel before losing the use of his right hand due to focal dystonia at the height of his career. When this happened, Glenn Gould wrote to him recommending particular medication and suggesting specialists (Gould, of course was no stranger to medication, aches and pains and doctors!). Fleisher continued performing the left-handed repertoire until he quite recently regained the use of his right hand through a combination of massage and botox injections. My own memory of Fleisher is that I was utterly humbled, completely awestruck when i was at a masterclass he taught at many, many years ago.Life has a strange way of working out - just a couple of days ago I wrote a blog mentioning that I'll be interviewing the pianist Louis Lortie, who is one of Fleisher's most renowned students. Then a day ago, I said I'll be playing the Ravel G major concerto on the program this week - the pianist I've chosen for the recording is also another of Fleisher's students - Helene Grimaud. MANY thanks to Frank Salomon and Widya Widjaja for co-ordinating this and being so kind and gracious.
How to be a world class musician and have a great personality! 
