His heart beats for India. And so do his hands. Immensely talented English percussionist Pete Lockett is back in Mumbai and will once again drum up frenzied applause as he takes to the stage tonight. From the kanjira and mridangam to the djembe and taiko, Pete plays percussion instruments from all over the world and believes his musical education is far from over. “For starters, I was all of 19 when I was introduced to the world of drums. By prodigy standards, that was pretty late. It was a chance advertisement from drumming classes that got me hooked,” says Pete. He may have started out later than geniuses the world over but Pete lost no time in acquiring techniques and knowledge of percussion instruments from a plethora of cultures across continents. Chance has played a major role in shaping his career and the direction it has taken ever since he embarked on this journey of rhythm.

“In the 80s, there was a big cultural festival taking place in London. On one of those nights was a concert featuring Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Zakir Hussain. You can say that I fell in love with the tabla that night and it has been a major part of my percussion romance ever since,” he laughs. His devotion to the tabla took him through a musical quest around India cultures that included learning the mridangam, kanjira and ghatam relating to Carnatic music and dholak, naal and bhangra dhol from the North.

He dabbles with pop, rock, jazz and the classical music with equal ease. From traditional Carnatic and Hindustani music to traditional Japanese taiko drumming, blues and funk drumming, Pete has mastered and blended rhythm from around the world. One of his biggest triumphs has been performing a fundamentally traditional instrument in a nouveau, contemporary setup. “Our personalities are a sum of all our experiences. I think of music in the same way. I don’t think of myself as a strictly classical musician. At the same time I am interested in electronic sounds too. My music is a result of all my influences. As long as the music reflects the cultural integrity of the instrument, then playing a traditional instrument in a contemporary way does not feel like a forced attempt. You have to understand the context of instrument while understanding your own context,” he explains.

It is this deep understanding of the context and the discipline involved in learning an instrument that has piqued his attention the most about India’s rich rhythm heritage. He says, “The instruments of the North and the South have so many things in common, yet they are so different. It is intriguing just how diverse their tonalities are. Do you know that in a study conducted a while back, it was shown that there are more drums in India than in any other country in the world? Each state in the country will have its own sound, own wood to make instruments and own customs that dictate when and how it is used.”

Pete has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the world of music. He has worked with Björk, Peter Gabriel, A.R. Rahman, Robert Plant, Dido, Jeff Beck, Vikku Vinayakram, Selva Ganesh, Ustad Zakir Hussain, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, U. Srinivas, Ronan Keating, Pet Shop Boys, Bikram Ghosh, Amy Winehouse and Sinead O’Conner among others. If that is not exhaustive, take one look at the movies he has been credited in: The Incredible Hulk 2, Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale, Die Another Day, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, City of Angels, Moulin Rouge and Snatch. He has even collaborated with A.R. Rahman for Sivaji and the theme for the Indian Commonwealth Games. He is characteristically humble about working with others and simply says: “I’m just glad I got to work on such exciting projects.”