MUKESH AMARAN
TRIGGERPUNKTE
One might think that the music scene comprises only of musicians, some solo and others as a band. One could not have been more wrong. The music scene, apart from the obvious, the musicians, has people like the sound engineers that set up for a great gig, awesome lighting technicians who elevate the live experience by tingling your visual senses, the photographers who make sure that the people who couldn’ t make it to the shows, get a peek into what went down at the gig, the visual artists with their insane visuals to take you on a journey along with the music, the artists who design the entire stage and sometimes even the entire festival grounds for us to have the most amazing festivalgoing experience. The album artists who give you a visual summary of what to expect in the album. I’ m sure we’ ve all checked out albums on Ok Listen! for the very fact that it had cool album art. This is the music scene, the music fraternity. We’ d like to dedicate this page to pay homage and display our admiration for the artists in the scene.
When we delve into the world of Indian music and album artwork, one creative group in particular, keeps popping up with some outstanding work. Blankfound, comprised of four people: Sachin and Sanjana Bhatt who are the visual artists across mediums, Abheet Anand is the inhouse photographer and Anand Vijayasimha is a writer, motorcycle enthusiast and a podcaster. All of them are talented musicians and music nerds, a versatile bunch. The members of Blankfound have been ardently involved in the independent music scene in our country, as musicians and fans first, before involving themselves further by contributing their skills as artists to other musicians and festivals.
Triggerpunkte, an album by the Madras / Bangalore based dance punk band, The F16s, was the first time Blankfound had lent their creative powers. The result was a
phenomenal album art that was highly punk, just like the album. But this was just the genesis of what was yet to come. " We’ re doing concept photoshoots, designing for festivals, and building other amazing secret stuff that should be out soon” they said, casually throwing us into a frenzy of expectations of what those secrets could be. By the looks of it, they enjoy every bit of their creations and are as excited as us while looking at them.
Asking what role music plays in the group ' s life wasn’ t exactly the right question. Should’ ve known better than to ask a bunch of classically trained and self taught musicians this, of all the run-of-the-mill questions. " It plays the biggest role you can think of. All our personalities have been shaped by the music we listen to.” said the group, a little amused by my question.
From what is told, having been pretty close to the band, they had a sense of freedom and an elevated level of understanding to create the artwork. " Triggerpunkte was an album that had a lot of love and hard work put into it. We completely understood where the band was coming from with this album, and we put the same feelings into the artwork”, they said. The group also tells us about the alternate artwork that they all loved, but didn’ t make the cut. I don’ t think I’ d say no to T-Rex, Harshan’ s dog that’ s on the cover of the album. The group says that T-Rex is like the spirit animal of the band.
Picture creating something for someone and they absolutely love it. The satisfaction of nailing something and having an audience for it. The bands’ reaction is the ultimate gratification for the artwork. " They love seeing visual interpretations of the music they’ ve worked so hard to create”, they said. Furthermore, what is art without validation?
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