It all started when friends, Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale decided to explore their musical talents together in New York. That they both shared an amazing musical chemistry became pretty apparent and their intense acoustic guitar jamming and writing sessions snowballed into an album of epic proportions. Breathing Under Water took them two years to complete. “We really thought out of the box and pushed boundaries with this one. Anoushka is known primarily as a sitar player. Not many know how much she likes electronic music or that I love classical. This album gave us the chance to be completely creative,” says Karsh. Hand-picking the best singers for their compositions, they managed to rope in artistes like Norah Jones, Sunidhi Chauhan, Midival Punditz, Shankar Mahadevan, and of course, Pandit Ravi Shankar. They even pulled off Sting who rarely agrees to sing other people’s songs. So what’s the key to musical success? “Don’t try too hard to make a statement. You have to keep it real and just play from your heart,” says Anoushka. For Karsh, music is his best friend, religion and family. “It’s about being a hundred per cent honest!”