Renin Raphael ( Guitarist ) and Adithya Gopi ( Bass ) would share bits and pieces of ideas for intro etc via whatsapp recordings . Satish ( Keys ) made a basic structure of the track . We all got together in August for one jam when things slightly opened up . After that we went to the studios and recorded our part . For the Sufi / Qawwali portion we collaborated with Pratap Prb ( a sufi vocalist ) and Rahul Prakash ( Dholak & Tabla ). We also collaborated with Achyuth Jaigopal ( When Chai Met Toast ) on the banjo because we wanted to transition from country folk to the sufi / qawwali which is an Indo-pak folk genre . We have grown up listening to the legends of Coke studio India and Pakistan who introduced us to this genre and in a way this is our humble tribute to them .
Q
If you would collaborate with another band , which one would it be and why ?
A dream would be to collaborate with Coldplay - because their music is all about hope and optimism and I think we are similar too . Although we have worked with Achyuth , we would love to do a song with When Chai Met Toast because we love their music . It ’ s all heart . It would be a super fun jam with them .
Q
How do you feel the digital wave has impacted your music in general ?
Well it has been a revolution to be honest . Esp during the current times where live music is not a possibility , the presence of streaming platforms is a blessing . We are still able to release music and garner an audience . The response to our music on streaming platforms has been nothing short of amazing . All these platforms like Spotify and Apple Music have amazing editors and Artist Heads Like Padmanabhan NS and Bobin James who recognize good music and artists and help us reach a wider audience . All this when live music opens up finally would be great . Because all of them who heard our music on spotify / apple would want to hear it live as well .
Q
What is it that you dislike the most about the music industry and why ?
The artist is always bigger than the music . If a big artist does a mediocre song they will still get all the help from all outlets to make it a hit but say an unknown artist with a really good song will still struggle to reach an audience . For an unknown artist , they would need to build contacts and connections or need to know someone influential to get a venue or say take their music up to people who can actually write about it . Also the need to accept variety , stop asking an artist to do what ’ s trending , let them have their creative voice .
Q
Talk to us about your gear set up as a band
Since we are a six piece band on stage our gear is pretty set . Both Akshay and Renin have their set of pedal boards where they have preset tones configured . We use a couple of guitar amps ( Fender / Orange ) . Our sound engineer NIkhilesh takes care of micing the drums . We generally go with a bass amp ( hartke ) and the keyboard goes through a DI to the mixer directly . Since we play on click , we use in-ear monitors while performing live . When it comes to the studio recording , it ’ s based on the need of the song so it keeps changing .
Q
Upcoming projects
We are releasing our second full-length album “ UPLIFT ” song by song . This is a bi-lingual album in Hindi and Tamil . The next song will be released by end of May and it ’ s a tamil track titled “ Paramapadham ”. This album features a lot of collaborations with artists around the globe . So we are super-excited for the upcoming releases .
BAND MEMBERS
Srihari Jagannathan ( Singer / Songwriter , Music Producer ) Goutham Healer ( Drums , Co-Founder ) Akshay Yesodharan ( Guitars ) Renin Rapahel ( Guitars ) Adithya Gopi ( Bass ) Sebastian Satish ( Keys ) Kajinder Srivatsava ( Songwriter - Hindi )
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