I've never worked with an alien, says Anoushka Shankar
All music is world music, says the sitar player as she discusses working with Norah Jones, and bringing together the East and the West.
Two years after releasing the Grammy-nominated Traveller, London-based Anoushka Shankar is on a concert tour with her new studio album Traces of You, which also features her half-sister Norah Jones. We caught up with the celebrated sitarist-composer in Delhi. Excerpts from an interview:
Who is the ‘you’ being referred to in ‘Traces of You’?
I am glad you asked me that. The album is not a tribute to my dad, as people keep assuming. It was my last album and sadly for me, my father happened to pass away last year. So obviously, that influenced the music I was making. A lot of the songs on the album are about the loss, about my feelings around my father. But it’s not a tribute. If I were to make a tribute album to my father, it would probably be an album of classical Indian ragas. This is just an album I have made in the year my father passed away.

Zubin and I |
![]() We have named him after Zubin Mehta. Zubin uncle is a close family friend and someone who is world renowned for his art and this was the only name both my husband and I liked. East London is an exciting place to be. It feels like a new young artistic, thriving centre. Since we’ve gotten together, Joe and I have inspired each other. We are both artists. His work is inspired by me and my work is inspired by him and all the other things that our lives are influenced by. Photo credit: Getty Images |