A rockstar, playback singer, Carnatic musician, corporate executive and a software engineer all rolled into one – Harish Sivaramakrishnan. The frontman of the Bengaluru-based Carnatic-progressive rock band Agam is on a high on all fronts. Agam , which began as a college band, has carved out a place for itself in Indian music scene, while Harish is into solo playback singing and composing, all the while working as a UX manager at Google, having already left his mark by shaping companies such as Myntra, Snapdeal and Freecharge.
BITS days
After school, just like many others, I opted for engineering and got admission at BITS-Pilani to study chemical engineering. I was a slacker who did everything but study. I met some of the best people I know, in college. Thanks to them, I am a much better human being today.
As far as studies, I guess it was only a matter of time before I realised what I wanted to do. I shifted my focus completely to computer programming, which I was already interested in, as soon as I understood that chemical engineering was not meant for me.
Most of what I know today, I learned after I started working. But college taught me to be that person who could be successful in the market, to be worldly-wise and not be afraid.
Agam
The sum of my musical interest when I joined BITS was Carnatic music, Malayalam movie songs and some Tamil songs, most of which were A.R. Rahman’s. Now that I think about it, the only English song I knew was Barbie Girl . But my friends in Pilani were interested in various genres and I benefited from that. T. Praveen Kumar, lead guitarist of Agam , was a big progressive metal fan. But after college, he became a huge Carnatic fan and I became interested in progressive metal.
I formed Agam with my BITS college mates. Much of what we made during our initial days was not worth anyone’s time. We were just a bunch of kids with interest in different kinds of music coming together. The genre Carnatic-progressive rock, was born out of all our diverse tastes.
A career in music
I am a practical person. I like making money and love that I don’t have to worry about my bills. My job is what helped me fund my musical interest and make something out of it. Many people get lost chasing their passions without enough resources to pursue it. So one thing I would suggest is to work and make enough money to fund your passion.
Passion alone is not enough. Practicality combined with passion is what works. Also, if I had become a full-time musician, I would have been working just two or three days a week. I can’t imagine sitting doing nothing for the rest of the week. It is a criminal waste of time and food. I will work as long as I can.
The system
Education is what you make out of what you learn. I studied in a Malayalam medium government school at Shoranur and I ended up doing well in life. So the conventional education we have works and is not that bad. As for the competitive nature of school and college education, I think it helps the students to prepare for bigger challenges. Being compared to another person will help you understand your inabilities and learn from it. But this emphasis on Class X and XII or the obsession with pressuring children to be better than their peers is not good.
