The Musician: Karsh Kale
Sexiest Qualities: Visionary and Intense

”A visionary producer and composer...” says Billboard Magazine. ”Suave, International...and unmistakably Indian,” raves The New York Times. These are just a few of the industry’s compliments used to describe London-born and New York-raised producer, composer, tabla player, DJ, percussionist, singer-songwriter and remix artist Karsh Kale. He is a fearless entertainer who is taking the music world by storm. Truly a renaissance man, over the past few years Kale has been crafting and perfecting his unique sound--a special blend of Indian music, rock ‘n’ roll, hip hop and atmospheric pop--in order to as he says, “Create a sonic identity for my generation.”

And that he has, making his mark already by collaborating with the likes of Sting, Norah Jones, Chaka Khan and Anushka Shankar. Kale credits Ravi Shankar and Bob Marley as an enormous influence on his own work, guiding him on his musical journey. As he states, one of his goals on this voyage is to ”change the rules to create something new.”

Although he hasn’t lived in India, Kale remembers the first time he visited the homeland, when he was only three. While he was there, he recalls meeting and spending time with relations and being given the opportunity to touch tablas for the first time. Kale also has warm memories of listening to Indian music (both classical and film) during his youth because of his parent’s fondness of their culture. He recalls, ”I remember listening to Indian music during both my waking and sleeping hours.”

Women agree, Kale is sexiest when he is performing. Onstage, he feels that he shows the most honest side of himself, a side that he doesn’t often get a chance to share in everyday life. When asked what he thinks of this newly bestowed honor of ”Sexy Man ” he responds, ”It makes me giggle. I take it with a grain of salt. It only represents an edited version of who I really am. ” Sorry ladies, Karsh Kale is already spoken for. When asked what his model-turned-filmmaker girlfriend thinks of her partner’s new title, he adds, ”It makes her giggle too. ” In his leisure time, Kale spends time with his family and young daughter.

In the music scene since 1998, Karsh Kale’s most recent album ”Broken English” was released in 2006. He only just returned from India where he scored the film Ode based on the novel ”Ode To Lata,” which is due out in Fall 2007.

The future is bright for this gifted and creative artiste. He has many projects that are in the works and burgeoning by the day. One ambition that he hopes to achieve in the near-term is, ”taking this language [Indian Music] and bringing it into the modern world of music in a new context.” It is an aspiration that surprisingly he may not even have noticed that he has already achieved.