Tell us about your music & your set list at Live Arena
this year
Selva Ganesh
Usually people expect fusion when they see instruments
like drums. We essentially play classical but with a different
dimension. We don’t fix any piece of music. We just discuss
the raag and taal, and play whatever comes naturally on stage.
The sitar is by itself a classical instrument, and the idea is that
the kanjira should sound more like a tabla than a drum set,
with a Carnatic vocabulary.
Rhythm Shaw
I’ve worked on some finger-style acoustic guitar music and
some rock, funk, jazz and varied combinations. I’m glad
to have made friends here and found the industry’s top
musicians to help me express my music and play my parts.
Sivamani
A.R Rahman gifted me a Continuum that I was very glad to
have, and there were a lot of smaller additional percussive
instruments that I couldn’t play last year. I just like to try
new sounds. Playing with Rhythm Shaw was also great cause
it reminded me of my old days of playing with a rock band
(laughs).
Anand Bhaskar Collective
We’re an alternative rock act and write our lyrics in Hindi,
and we have influences of classical, Carnatic elements mostly
brought through by the vocals and violin. The music itself
can be put under the heavy, alternative rock category. Our
melodies are pop and our themes are inspired by everything
around us.
We interacted with a host of
different artists and bands
playing in the Harman Live
Arena at this year’s Palm
Expo, and we’ve compiled
their thoughts and views into
a few broad categories.
Tejas Menon
We played some songs that were written from my 2014 album,
and a couple that are from my upcoming album. I’m trying to
walk the fine line between contemporary stuff and the classic,
analog sounds. I have members in my band who are into the
classic Simon and Garfunkel kind of stuff as well as those who
listen to Ceili Mor and Vulfpek, and I personally also listen to
a lot of electronic music and so we do tend to incorporate both
elements into our music.
The Kush Upadhyay Group
As a band we started writing together 3 years ago and put out
two EPs. The music we played was really fresh and written
like a month ago and we wanted to see what people thought of
it.
What do you think about the Harman Live arena and the
sound on stage?
Selva Ganesh
It sounded great! We’re trying hard to bring out classical
sounds in ways that rock or pop would, and the sound on this
stage definitely helps achieve that.
Rhythm Shaw
It was perfect actually. We didn’t sound check together
(with Sivamani) on stage, but I loved the sound. It was really
enjoyable.
32
The
Score Magazine
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