How would you describe your sound?
Rooted in its Indianness but also
very modern and futuristic.
How did Ta Dhom project come about?
So, Ta Dhom Project was a
personal journey of a different
kind for me. I think, classical
music for years has been
restricted within a certain
boundary if I may say so.
Artist of the Month:
VIVEICK
RAJAGOPALAN
I started teaching rhythm,
konnakol to young rappers who
rap in their native languages.
They had never heard carnatic
music before and it was quite
a journey of sharing this
traditional knowledge of rhythm
with them. There are more kids
who are keen to learn and its
the love with which they learn
that makes it all worth it.
I have always believed that
to be original you just need
to be "you" and don't have to
copy the west or the east or
anyone else for that matter.
If the rappers learnt the Indian
system of rhythm, they can
use it to write in different
flows and also explore time
signatures and that was the
motivation for them too.
I also envisioned the possibilities
of using the sound of the
mridangam, but approaching
it like a drummer to create
grooves and that’s how this
project manifested.
WOMEX is an exhibition
where artists, booking agents,
publishers etc come and it
is one of the biggest music
exhibitions that happen.
I found out about it in 2008
when I released by first album
‘Moving Images’ and wanted
to go, but it’s very expensive.
The first joy happened when
we were selected amongst
the top 18, out of approx.3000
applications. I am grateful that I
found sponsors to get us there.
The audience is from the
industry and you actually get
briefed about how tough it
is to please that audience.
It was through our WOMEX
performance that we got
invited to Womad, Shambala
and a few other festivals
Can you tell us about SUNOH
Almost 4 years ago, my partner
Aishwarya Natarajan and I
started SUNOH. It’s basically a
brand audio consulting firm.
I got a chance to take Ta Dhom
project to Europe. It was on
my bucket list to perform
at Womad and another big
festival, Shambala. When
the invitation happened, I
was in seventh heaven. I have done about 300
Advertisements in my career.
One of the reasons that this felt
like a need in the industry, came
from the fact that the brief would
be very vague and you could say
Photographer - Shashank Sharma Score Magazine Thankfully, in these festivals,
it’s the music that matters
highonscore.com
Tell us about your experience
at Womex & Womad
For me personally its an
extension of my passion
towards music and sound.
Taking the rappers and
presenting them on big stages
was something that I desired
from the bottom of my heart,
and that happened too.
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It feels great when the
music that you create gets
appreciated on its merit.
How was your experience
touring Europe and taking
your music worldwide?
It was in many ways a dream
come true. Whenever I think
about it even now, it feels surreal
and seeing the mridangam take
centre stage was another hidden
dream that i saw come alive.
The
and not "names or surnames"
. We also got covered by BBC
World Service on Arts hour,
BBC 3 and BBC asian network
,which I am so grateful for.
that there was no audio strategy
as such. But when it came to
colors they were particular
about their logo, fonts and so on.
So we started working on
how a brand can actually
have an Audio DNA ,and a
scalable audio strategy.
We now also have Tyuns™,
a proprietary tool which can
show you options of musical
notes to build your scale/
raga ,by just using the R G B
of the color of the brand.