SOUVIK CHAKRABORT Y
Anish Sood
ARTIST OF THE MONTH
How did the idea come about?
I moved to LA for a month last year to work with some great
songwriters and really had no idea what I intended to do with
the music. Once the sessions were wrapped I came back with
about 20 finished demos. I sat down, put them together and
realised that an album would be the best format to showcase all
of this music since the styles and vibe varied so much.
Does the whole album fit into a particular musical genre, or does it
borrow from multiple forms? Can you spot key influences? What is
most original about the music?
The album draws heavily from my teenage years when I
was listening to a lot of jazz, rock and pop. When I decided
it was finally time to write an album I wanted a fresh
unique sound and exceptional songwriting. Hence I
temporarily moved base to Los Angeles with absolutely
no expectations or pre-conceived ideas. I then got to work
with some of the best talent and I’m really happy with the
end result. While the primary genre is house, the album
also embraces pop, funk, disco and techno elements. I’d
have to say the most stand out aspect is the use of a lot of live
instruments on a predominantly electronic album.
What's your take on the Independent scene in India? Is it evolving?
Absolutely. I think independent songwriters and musicians are
now in a really strong place and we definitely don’t need major
labels to put out music anymore. Future Perfect is completed
self-funded and released via my own label, Class Action.
Do you detect any clear purpose in the way the album is structured?
Is there a sense of progression or grouping?
Yeah absolutely. The album starts with Starry Night which is
a fairly down tempo track for me at 110bpm. The next set of
tracks gradually up the bpm as well as energy, venturing into
the deep/progressive house space until we arrive at Castles
which is number 6. There’s another fairly high energy big
room track after Castles and the last couple of tracks are deeper
again, bordering towards techno.
What DAW do you use for your
production? Which are your favourite
plug-ins?
I write, produce and mix in Logic
Pro 9. I use a lot of Kontakt for
sampled instruments, Sylenth
and Repro-1 for synth and
bass sounds and Native
Instruments’ Maschine for
drums. I also extensively use
UAD plugins for mixing along
with some stuff from Waves.
My go to compressor is the
Cytomic Glue and for limiting I
use the FabFilter Pro-L.
What are the 3 things you want to tell people about your album?
I think my primary objective with this album is to try
and sound fresh. Over the past few years electronic
music has become extremely formulaic and I want to
break all the rules and preconceptions that a listener
might have with electronic music. I also want this to
crossover to new audiences who don’t necessarily
listen to dance music and that’s what we have tried
to achieve with the collaborations on the album.
Lastly, I really want people to connect with the
music. There are a few feel good tracks and there’s
a bunch of melancholic stuff on there too so I’m
really excited to see how people will relate to it.
Is there a consistent lyrical style in your album?
Since almost every track on the album is written
by a different songwriter, there isn’t a consistent
lyrical style. But I’ve tried my best to maintain a
musical flow throughout so you can listen to it
from start to finish.
32
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
Photograph by Priysha Rajvanshi