Artist-Producer Avijit ‘Avi’ Misra tastefully spices bluesy grooves with Indian sonic flavours and electronic experiments to paint a musical world that's human yet contemporary. His songs are vivid and whimsical- mixing social commentary with hymnic, oft surreal meditations delivered in his signature rich baritone voice.
Avi's digital music lives exclusively on this website.
His production ethos is refreshingly organic with Misra jamming out guitar, synthesizer and finger drumming performances on his records to retain a live feel emulating the raw expression of Woodstock era records while using the freshest tools in music production.
Starting out as a folk rock balladeer in India's rock music scene more than a decade and a half ago, Misra shared the stage with a motley crew of musos that played festivals like NH7 Weekender, Ziro Festival Of Music, MTV Indies Ragasthan, Delhi Celebrates 100 Years, Gulmarg Winter Festival as Avi And The Uprising - morphing from a heavy blues rock band in their early days to a Hindustani tinged psychedelic folk rock outfit that tracked on the record . His album 'Eyes On The Radio' was released in 2014 to critical acclaim and the band hit the road for a 3 city tour partnered with MTV Indies.
Misra first toured Australia in 2012 and then migrated to the land down under in 2015 and immediately made a mark on the Aussie music scene with nationwide radio airplay and a reputation for powerful live shows along the East Coast from The Tote to The Brisbane Powerhouse and playing music festivals like Nimbin Mardi Grass, Brisbane Fringe, Wonderland Festival, Grounded Festival and The Singers Festival.
His discography captures a time and place in song and can be divided into two phases. First, through the eyes of a young urban Indian navigating an era of profound socio-economic change and the second, through the lens of a migrant in an equally rapidly changing modern Australia. By progressively embracing diverse musical styles and evolving audio technologies across these chapters, Misra’s work stands as a definitive product of the early 21st century—a sonic narrative that could not have been conceived in any other era.
Avijit released a retrospective solo acoustic live CD 'New Delhi Blues (2008-2011)' in 2018 and his Rajasthani folk tinged electronica concept album 'Usha' - (spiced with samples taken from a jam with Bheel and Manganiyar musicians in 2013) with a six city India-Australia Tour in 2019.
He released his Melbourne themed darkwave album 'Sketches By The Birrarung' (his only purely synth based record) at The Tote in February 2020 right before the pandemic hit and returned to an Electronic Rock sound with his fifth album 'Nostalgia' released in 2023 - fashioned from iconic analog synths from the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio Collection and lockdown reflections.
Other notable achievements include teaching at The Delhi School Of Music, performing as an opera soloist in Giuseppe Verdi's official Indo-Italian bicentenary celebrations, working as an advertising copywriter for agencies like Saatchi, Lowe Lintas, and the BBC World Service Trust, and engaging with the Australian community arts sector with organizations like Multicultural Arts Victoria, Wild At Heart and The Boite.
Though perpetually under the radar, Misra's innovative collage of songwriting and production ideas have been described as breaking new ground and have inspired the creative direction of many.