SLY
In conversation with
a.k.a Sylvester Pradeep
How did your journey as
a musician begin?
I was first introduced to music by
my father, who was a fabulous
gospel singer. I eventually ended
up playing the keys regularly
for him at church. But I really
felt the power of music when I
was introduced to the guitar. It
was love at first sight. I started a
band in college, started writing
original music and also played
as a session musician with many
local and international artists. I
gradually developed my own style.
Tell us your songwriting process
Having written close to 40
songs, I feel that the process
keeps evolving, according to
the need of the emotion to be
expressed. I draw inspiration
from daily experiences that
have an impact on me. I
write music that is easily
relatable to listeners, but I
don’t compromise on artistic
expression and complexity.
I make sure to stretch my
music sensibilities as much as
possible, experimenting with
challenging styles of music in
my original compositions.
Name some musicians you’d
love to collaborate with and why
I’ve had the privilege of
sharing the stage with
many of my musical
heroes like Brucelee
Mani, Triprithi,
Monica Dogra, Jeoraj
Stanley George and many
other fabulous musicians
from India and around the
world. In the future, I would
really love to collaborate with
Karsh Kale and Warren.
I love their music, which
is very different from
my style, so it would be
a juicy challenge.
20
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
Tell us about your
upcoming projects
I’m very excited that my band,
The Sylvester Trio, will be
touring to share our debut album titled
‘There Will Be More’ with the world. We
have also started preliminary work on
our second album. Some of our music
videos are in pre-production too.
I am also happy to announce my new
project ‘Slyfly and The Blues Company’
- a nine piece Blues band – has kicked
off. I have composed, written and
arranged all the songs and we will
be putting our music out there soon.
Finally, I am composing music for
short films and feature length films.
Which has been your best
performance till date and why?
I believe the best is yet to come, but
so far, my favorite performance was
for the launch of The Sylvester Trio’s
debut album – ‘There Will Be More’.
We had a young, new crowd singing
with us and we loved that our music
was reaching newer audiences. The
idea of your music being relevant
to all ages is quite satisfying.
What are some guitar techniques
you’ve acquired recently and
can you talk more about it?
I concentrate on blending my guitar
playing for the song, as I believe
that “the song is the winner”. At the
same time, I push my guitar style
with interesting licks and moving
chord-works strongly based on jazz
and funk while singing over them,
to make build a more interesting
and full sound. I blend Blues roots
with contemporary melody lines to
make my guitar solos more relatable,
bold and well-articulated. I am also
experimenting with fusion and rock
fusion guitar styles. Most importantly,
I always focus on my original sound
and style, to make it unique.
Tell us about the gear you own / use
I AM A FENDER BOY! I custom-
built my guitar from a vintage Sunn
Mustang Strat body and placed
vintage Fender hardware and Fat50
pickups. I also use a Fender Deluxe
Player’s Strat. I use Dunlop wah,
visual sound comp 66 compressor,
OCD and super badass distortion as
my primary drives, DD7 delay and
line 6 M9 as my FX unit. I run them
all through a Fender Hotrod Deluxe.