How do you reinvent a brand of music that has already been taken to heart by thousands? That was the challenge that frontman Harish Sivaramakrishnan and Agam band members set for themselves when they began working on their second album in 2015. After two years of hard work involving more than a 100 musicians, several sleepless nights, tiring rewriting sessions and hours of recording and rerecording, Agam’s sophomore album A Dream to Remember will be out in November.
In the new album, Agam delves deeper into contemporary and traditional aspects of Carnatic-progressive rock. “The music is progressive metal in nature rather than rock and the Carnatic compositions are older and more intricate. There is great variety, greater nuance and the soundscape itself is totally different from our previous works,” says Harish. The guitar portion, lead guitarist Praveen Kumar adds, will have more depth and character. “It won’t be like death or thrash metal, but it is certainly on the heavier side with chuggy riffs and a lot of Agam signature cycles,” he says. Different Indian instruments, some which are rarely heard in mainstream music, will also be part of the songs.
There are eight songs in the album. Four of them are Carnatic kritis and the rest are songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit. A reworked version of Agam’s 2015 single Over the Horizon... will be one of the Malayalam songs. It will be an audio-visual experience as well, with each song having its own concept video. Harish says, “This is an ambitious move from our part. No expenses have been spared. It is a huge production directed by my friend Mithun Raj (Munz).”
(From left) Swamy Seetharaman, Jagadish Natarajan, Yadhunandhan Nagaraj, T Praveen Kumar, Aditya Kasyap, Harish Sivaramakrishnan and Sivakumar Nagarajan
Much has changed for the rockstars of Agam since their first album Inner Self Awakens released in 2012. The major one was the departure of Ganesh Ram Nagarajan, co-founder and drummer for several years, and Vignesh Lakshminarayanan (bassist). Harish adds, “Although they moved to the US last year, they are still a part of the band. Ganesh has been coordinating and giving his suggestions in the making of the album all the way from Seattle.” Meanwhile, drummer Yadhunandhan Nagaraj and bassist Aditya Kasyap have taken the missing spots in the Agam line-up.
It is not just the music and the musicians, the band logo too has been given a makeover. The evolution of the logo, the face of a Theyyam performer with elaborate headgear, from a mystical and ghostly first design to the latest solid geometric style portrays Agam’s journey. “Our music has become more refined over the years. As musicians we have much more clarity when it comes to our music and what we need to achieve. We wanted that change to reflect in our logo as well,”says Harish.
The primer for Agam’s redefined sound was laid back in 2015 when they collaborated with Aruna Sairam for The Hindu November Fest in Chennai.
Harish adds, “A bunch of compositions used in that performance went into the creation of this album. For instance, we played Rangapura Vihara... the first time there and it will be one of the songs in A dream to remember . That concert was given a choral treatment.”
The difference is that this time it is a much bigger orchestra and choir that have worked behind the album.
The Chennai concert was a live experiment of the new broader sound that Agam wanted to try out and two songs from that evening have found a place in A Dream to Remember .
To coordinate and bring together the music of more than 87 individual artistes performing in various sessions and in various settings, was a gargantuan task. “The number of musicians involved meant we had to do multiple recordings at various studios across India. We even recorded in auditoriums to create a live performance effect. It is truly a dream come true,” Harish says.
So is there a chance for the people to watch the dream ensemble live on stage? Harish adds, “There will be one concert each in select cities. One of them will be in Kochi. It is going to be huge.” And now we wait for the riffs to begin.
Special song
According to Harish, Swans of Saraswathi was the song that the band members thought was the definition of the genre that they wanted to present to the world.
