India, Nov. 28 -- British musician Jacob Collier, who will be flying to India later this month with shows in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurugram - a circuit he has now completed multiple times and continues to call one of the most meaningful parts of his touring schedule. The seven-time Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist says the country remains a major creative anchor, both for its audiences and its musical history. "India is one of my favourite places in the world. It's the people, the flavour, the colour, the energy - every show I've played here has been life-changing," he says. Jacob's relationship with India is driven as much by the environment as by the music. He describes his creative process as a constantly switched-on antenna, picking up ideas from the places he travels through. "My mind never turns off. India has its musical traditions, but also the sounds of life that are inspiring," he says. Indian artists shaped his musical imagination early on. Late Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain influenced his understanding of rhythm, while British musician Anushka Shankar's command over microtonal tunings shaped how he thinks about tuning systems and melodic structure. Both ideas have filtered into his albums, especially Djesse Vol. 4, which featured Shankar and Varijashree Venugopal for the song, A Rock Somewhere. Recording these sounds, he explains, often comes with technical challenges - especially with instruments like the sitar. "It's not one thing - it's resonant, percussive, and difficult to capture. Even choosing microphones was a challenge," he says. Jacob's approach is to combine sounds that don't traditionally sit together and then shape them into a coherent, unified arrangement. What keeps him returning, however, is the audience. He believes Indian listeners bring a deep musical awareness to concerts because of the country's long lineage of classical and folk traditions....