Ricky Kej on being the face of Earth Hour India 2023: I’ve always identified myself as a musician and an environmentalist

“Even though my music has been reflecting my thoughts on environment for many years, it was some eight years back that I decided that every single piece of music that I will make is going to be about environment or areas concerning it,” says Kej, adding that he realised, “If I’m not going to make music about things that I’m passionate about (environment in this case), then what’s the point of making music at all?”

Earth Hour to be held on March 25 at 8.30 pm aims to mobilise people around the world to give an hour for Earth. Kej, who has been working with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) for almost five years now, goes on to share the reason behind him being so passionate about environment and being the torchbearer of the campaign this year.

“According to me, the biggest problem on our planet is over consumption (of everything), and every other issue branches out from there. So campaigns likes the Earth Hour will not just be a step to save energy, but also an opportunity for humans to introspect our consumption habits and think about creating a cyclable economy,” he elaborates.

Committing his music to nature and creating melodies that just talk about a specific subject (environment) has been no less than a challenge for Kej. Tagging these challenges as one of the reasons why most artistes opt for mainstream music, he shares, “When you are into this kind of music, you have to find your audience because not everyone is going to like your music. It’s a struggle to stick to making music that you are passionate about and finding audience that would agree with you. That’s the case with all non-mainstream music. Whether it’s jazz, techno, classical, folk, heavy metal,, it’s all about finding your audience.”

Despite everything, Kej is happy to work on “niche music and create melodies that comes directly from my heart”.