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Taken from Rolling Stone India (May 22, 2026)
Karsh Kale: ‘I Had All But Stopped Making Music’
After nearly a decade without a solo album, Karsh Kale returns with ‘Dust’, a record shaped by grief, healing, creativity and starting over
by Anand 'Andizzy' Nanivadekar
Photo: Courtesy of the artist |
Arguably one of the most accomplished and experienced independent artists in India, Karsh Kale returns with a new album, Dust, after nine years.
The Indian-American multi-instrumentalist and producer, who shaped the east-west sound over two decades ago, and collaborated with the likes of Zakir Hussain, Anoushka Shankar, Sting, and U2 in the process, took a pause, went back to the drawing board, and took to painting as a way to start creating music again.
He turns into a singer-storyteller for the first time, and unlike his earlier pure electronic or fusion-driven albums, brings a unique mix of high energy and mellow contemplation with a modern touch.
Dust is Kale’s attempt to reconfigure and reboot himself, returning emphatically with an album that comes cascading down with emotions. And just like a waterfall, it needed to find its way through an arduous mountain.
Through a series of conversations over the past year as he put the final touches on the album, we unlock the deep personal story behind it.
Your first album Realize, came out in 2001. 25 years on, we have Dust. How different is it releasing an album – then and now?
It is quite different from my first 25 years ago, and the many in between. The industry is completely different now, and my challenge is to keep the focus on the album listening experience in a singles-driven ecosystem.
Dust is most certainly created and meant to be consumed as a full-length listening experience, as it plays more like a film rather than separate episodes. I was a very different artist while making Realize. This time, I finally focused a bit more on my own singing and songwriting, along with everything else I do to create an album experience.
What’s the core emotion of this album? Or are there several ones you tackle through the album?
I would have to say that if there is an overarching emotion or a theme to this album, it’s about healing oneself with truth, finding our way out of despair, and redefining the very things that break us. Each song on the album, while inspired by the many specific challenges I was facing in real time, is written to be open to one’s personal interpretation.
Surrendering to the inevitable end of an 8-year-long relationship led me to write songs like “Dust” and “The Maze”. The untimely passing of mentors and musical heroes like Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ozzy Osbourne were the inspirations for the tracks “Tabla Beat Scientist” and “Heroes”. “Stranger Than Darkness”, “In An Hour,” and “Lift Me Up” all deal with different stages of depression, anxiety, addiction and gaining control through inner strength. “The Nest” was literally inspired by me watching 2 robins make a nest on my balcony in Goa and seeing the babies hatch and eventually fly off to begin a new adventure. “Night Turns” and “Time Stretcher” are moments of celebration. The idea of Dust is that it represents an inevitable end as well as the ash heap from where life may begin again.
You have mentioned a contemplative phase before this album? Walk us through that and how it shows up in the album.
I had all but stopped making music for about 6 months. I didn’t want to look at a screen and start up a Logic session. I had become quite disillusioned by the music industry. I didn’t feel inspired to add anything to the musical ecosystem.
I did, however, want to reconnect to a child-like creativity that I felt had been lost along the way. I started painting instead, unlocking new and old pathways to trust the process of creation.
Within this time of creative freedom, my life began to present challenges in ways that literally stopped me in my tracks. I began composing abstract landscapes on the piano and started writing lyrics as little journal entries, more as a way to cope in real time with what was happening in my life.
This album began from a very organic and personal space. I took my time through each phase of creation because I knew this time that the best part of this entire process is the process of creation itself.
Has this phase also led to more vocal-driven tracks as a way to express the story?
Though I have been singing for years, Dust is the first album where I finally focused on my own vocals as the main storytelling voice on the album. After having worked with some of the greatest vocalists on the planet, it had taken me quite some time to arrive at the fact that I should sing the songs that I am writing for this album.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist |
Collaborations have been a key feature of your work. Any collaboration that felt unique and novel to you on the album?
It is always amazing to work with Salim Merchant, who I’ve been collaborating with since 2003, as he takes an idea and elevates it to a place only he can. We got to work with the Budapest Symphonic Orchestra as well. My two main collaborators as co-producers were Gaurav Raina and Neel Adhikari. With such starkly different styles and approaches to music, Neel and G became like bookends for me to be able to create within a much larger landscape and palette.
Compared to Up, there are fewer classical vocal collabs; this is more of an electro-pop album at times. Was that a planned effort?
Not really planned, much of this album began with English lyrics that I’d written, so the story of Dust is predominantly in English. So there is no Hindi or Urdu on this album, unlike my previous work.
“Tabla Beat Scientist” has Zakir Hussain’s voiceover, and your Lollapalooza Mumbai show saw you pay a tribute to him as well. Take us behind the scenes of the tabla beat science movement a bit.
The track “Tabla Beat Scientist” is a tribute to the original Tabla Scientist, the late Ustad Zakir Hussain. Back in 2000, I was fortunate to be a part of the band called Tabla Beat Science alongside Zakir Bhai, Bill Laswell and the late Ustad Sultan Khan. This was the beginning of a movement that carries on to this day, and was a moment where my own career was launched with the blessing of the master. The track is a humble acknowledgment of how he was not only a guide and mentor but the ultimate teacher as well.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist |
How have you moved with styles and sound? Is there any particular one in this album?
For me, styles and genres become colours on a palette from which I can choose the parts of something I would like to draw inspiration from. There is no particular genre or style I have used on this album. It is about as wide as my own 30-year journey in the music industry as a drummer, tabla player, DJ, composer, guitar player, pianist, singer, songwriter, and producer.
Painting helped you create again. How can we see those paintings?
I will eventually release a book of prints from the source collection of Dust paintings.
One of the paintings Kale created while working on Dust. Photo: Courtesy of the artist |
What are people feeling after listening to this album? What are the first reactions you have gathered?
It seems that people are truly connecting to the album on a deeper level. That was my intention and certainly created an album that is layered so that for those searching for something within the music, it reveals itself to those who need it.
What’s next? Are we going to see you perform live more?
I am already working on a follow-up to Dust. Also, some new versions and reinterpretations of the songs from Dust are in the works. Of course, live shows are also in the works.
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