SINGAPORE — This Friday will see Vasantham Live kick off its third edition at the Esplanade. While such concerts are welcomed by home-grown Indian artistes, they say more can be done for the burgeoning scene here.

Popular singer-songwriter and Vasantham Star winner Shabir pointed out that the local Indian music industry needs “new energy” and “new talent” to keep growing.

“Because we are a community that is constantly influenced by Tamil films, I think this is also a great time for us to break away from that cycle, really go independent and discover ourselves to create music that can be a little more original, and not constantly mimicking what’s going on in Tamil films,” said Shabir, who is currently working on scoring his second Indian movie.

“We hear bands do some originals and a lot of covers, and the soundtracks on Vasantham are definitely propelling this scene. But I am also concerned — are we reaching (a) plateau?” he continued.

Regardless, he added that he is optimistic that there will soon be more artistes here creating original music.

“I am also hoping that gigs like Vasantham Live will continue to showcase songs so that they can serve as a platform and launchpad for artistes to be inspired to create original songs in Singapore.”

Indeed, the organisers of Vasantham Live are promising a music extravaganza that will thrill music fans, following two sold-out concerts in 2013 and 2014.

Titled Samarpanam (Tribute), this year’s concert will feature performances by the Vasantham Boys, Shabir and rapper-singer Lady Kash. They will perform covers of songs by legendary Indian musicians, popular hits from local drama soundtracks, as well as tunes produced by Singaporean artistes for the Indian film industry.

The concert will also celebrate 40 years of the Vasantham Boys, which comprises frontman Mohamed Raffee, his two brothers Mohamed Bashir and Mohamed Noor, as well as their friend Daniel Sitranen.

Raffee said his band will be playing hits from the 1960s and 1980s, adding that Singapore musicians have plenty to offer fans of Indian music.

“We have something a little new, because we are influenced by a lot of music here — Chinese, Malay, American, European — and sometimes the Indian songs that come out here are a little different,” he said. “Indian music has always been very experimental, and these days the fusion work is much better than it was years before. We were like the pioneers because we were so involved in recording in other languages; when we played our own Tamil songs, we sounded different.”

He continued: “We were quite ahead of our time doing things, but audiences were not ready. Today, audiences in India are ready for that, they are coming into jazz-fusion, pop-fusion and blues-fusion, and it’s something we very comfortably do.”

Raffee, who has written scores for films made here and in India, as well as soundtracks for local drama series, also said Indian musicians here should listen and play all kinds of music, to reach a broader audience.

“I appreciate Chinese songs a lot, (and I listen to them), but a lot of Indian musicians don’t do that, and I think you should do that, being here in Singapore,” he said, adding that he often engages musicians of other races to play with his band.

“The compositions should be done so other people can accept them — like cooking Indian food. I have a friend who has a biryani restaurant with lots of Chinese customers, and you don’t use a lot of chili there because they don’t like that. It’s more favourably spicy, more palatable. (That’s like music), they might not like the deep classical stuff, but pop can go easily with a lot of people.”

Vasantham Live will be held on Nov 18 at the Esplanade Theatre. Tickets from S$25 and S$40 available at Sistic.