Music has no boundaries for Rishab Rikhiram Sharma, who doesn’t discriminate against genres or styles. When asked what he listens to, he says, without missing a beat, “Absolutely everything.” From ragas to rap, jazz clubs to rock arenas, his playlists are a heady mix of every genre you can think of.
As a sitar player navigating a global soundscape, he studies artistes around the world with equal reverence. Here are five artists he looks upto for inspiration.
Pandit Ravi Shankar remains one of the most influential ambassadors of Indian classical music. Through collaborations with Western musicians and global performances throughout the 20th century, he introduced the sitar to audiences around the world.
“He brought Indian classical music to the West through East-meets-West collaborations. I think Bollywood sounds the way it does today partly because of him; his impact is undeniable,” says Sharma.
“I study Michael Jackson like a subject — what made him ‘MJ’? He was everything an artiste needs to be, the biggest star on the planet,” says Sharma about the King of Pop. From groundbreaking music videos to record-breaking performances, even today, Jackson continues to inspire artistes across genres, including musicians far removed from pop’s traditional boundaries.
Few artistes have bent culture to their will the way Kanye West has. Emerging as a producer in the early 2000s, he quickly became one of hip-hop’s most influential voices with albums that pushed sonic boundaries.
“He shaped culture — not just through music, but fashion and business as well. Building something like Yeezy is creating an entire ecosystem around your art. He’s built such a powerful business machinery,” says Sharma.
“I love his arrangements,” says Sharma. “When he adds vocals at the end, it’s beautiful — I aspire to be like Chet Baker.” A defining figure of West Coast jazz, Baker was known for both his lyrical trumpet playing and his soft, intimate singing voice.
Rising to prominence in the 1950s, his recordings balanced technical precision with emotional vulnerability.
Carti’s music sits at the experimental edge of modern hip-hop. Known for unconventional vocal textures, ad-libs and minimalistic production, Carti uses his voice like an instrument — stretching it, distorting it, modulating it into texture and rhythm.
“The first time I heard his music, I thought it was funny,” Sharma says, “because he’s singing in a baby voice. But using your voice like an instrument, making sounds and modulating it, is really interesting to me.”