Band of the month
Thayir Sadam Project
Let’s start with the clichéd question of how the name came about
Bindu: Curd rice, or thayir sadam as it’s called in Tamil, is a
favourite South Indian comfort food.
Thayir Sadam is integral to our identity in more ways than one.
We believe that what’s traditional is cool, and we bring that
element into every piece we write. We embrace musical styles
from around the world while staying rooted in Indian classical
music. And yes, we love our thayir sadam. We wanted to wear
this identity on our sleeve, and so we decided to call ourselves
The Thayir Sadam Project.
The band consists of very popular and talented musicians.How did you all
meet and come together?
Ambi: It was actually a few things that happened in parallel. I
first found Mahesh’s cover of Adele’s Hello – it was amazing and
I just had to share it online. Around that time, our friend from
BBC, Ashanti Omkar, also suggested we collaborate with him.
Gayatri, the Trichur Brothers, and others. They are all talented
artists and wonderful people – and have really taught us to
explore newer creative paths for ourselves, musically.
Ambi: I’ve always believed in the power of exploring different
elements of music. In collaborating with some of the music
industry’s biggest legends, I saw this idea coming to life. I’ve
been blown away by the way these different styles of music came
together – and this was because every musician we’ve worked
with is overwhelmingly talented and very open-minded.
Mahesh: For me, the biggest learning was to work with multiple
artists from diverse musical backgrounds for one common
vision. I can safely say it’s been one of the most rewarding
experiences we’ve had.
Tell us about your typical jam session and how long you guys jam for
Ambi: Honestly, we don’t really clock it. We meet very often, and
end up jamming together all day.
Mahesh: Our first song together was an Indian mix of Something
Just Like This by Coldplay and The Chainsmokers. We recorded
it remotely between Dubai and Bangalore! The first time we met
in person, it was midnight and we had to shoot the video at four
in the morning. Akshay: We don’t keep them very structured. Sometimes we
spend time discussing and coming up with ideas, sometimes
we’re just in the flow of making music so we allow it to take its
own direction. Because of that, we don’t usually have a typical
amount of time that we plan to set aside.
Bindu: We were having a great time working together and
wanted to collaborate together, but we felt like we needed to add
another musician to this mix. That’s when Akshay came in. Take us through your tech set up of making music
Akshay: Mahesh and I had collaborated before, so he introduced
me to Bindu and Ambi. Just like that, we were meeting
more frequently to create new content, and traveling for live
performances. It’s so hard to believe it’s been over a year since
we’ve been doing this!
You guys collaborate with legendary musicians in the industry. What has
been your biggest learning experience through this?
Bindu: We’ve been extremely fortunate to have collaborated
with some amazing musicians – Aruna Sairam ji, Ranjani-
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Mahesh: We produce and record all of our music on Logic Pro,
using a UA Apollo Twin as our interface. On stage, apart from
acoustic instruments, we run our backing tracks and loops
through Ableton. We use it to trigger different sections of the
songs we play.
Upcoming projects
Bindu: We have a few new releases in the pipeline. We love
working with kids, so we will continue doing that. Apart from
that, we’re also very excited about our upcoming US tour
next year!