“It feels like living a double life,” says Shalini Maria Selvaraja, about juggling the two hats of dentist-by-day and musician-by-night. The AccessMusic event at InKO Centre on Thursday sees her throw one of these hats in the ring, to stake her claim as a serious singer-songwriter. Playing alongside her for the one-hour set are Alvin Presley on guitar and vocals, and Vinay Ramakrishnan on percussion. The bill of fare will be acoustic indie folk compositions, whose themes range from her love for mountains to hard-hitting social issues.
More than music
For Selvaraja, it was “love at first chord when I got my guitar at 16”. If eyebrows were raised at the unusual pairing of dentistry and music when she started her solo career in 2017, she was not deterred. She shares how music has allowed her to connect with people and places. “I did a solo backpacking trip, taking along my guitar to a remote village in Uttarakhand last year. Despite my broken Hindi, I left two weeks later with a delightful bag of memories,” she recalls.
Selvaraja says that she relates best to music with thoughtful lyrics – by artists such as Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez and Alanis Morisette. This being the first show where she will play only her original compositions, it sits well with the remit of AccessMusic to encourage inventive music. But what does the singer-songwriter feel about putting it all out there? “It’s both terrifying and exhilarating,” she admits, adding, “I never thought I’d ever share my compositions; they are so personal, it makes one feel vulnerable.”
However, the suicide of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington forced her to reassess this diffidence and start releasing original content. “Somebody might need to hear what you have to say, and nobody knows when their time is up,” says Selvaraja, who believes that the music is always bigger than the artists.
For the artistes
Created and curated by InKo Centre in collaboration with Unwind Center (the latter institution has been teaching vocals and instruments for some 20 years, and also runs a DJ Academy), AccessMusic is a musical platform designed to showcase fresh indie talent from Korea and India. Rathi Jafer, Director at InKo, explains that the programme is deliberately presented in a space that is “intimate, unplugged with minimal amplification, allowing for free and easy exchange between the artist and the audience”. In a couple of years, she says, the hope is to release a compilation of the artistes presented at the space.
AccessMusic featuring Shalini Maria Selvaraja, from 7 pm onwards on June 28, at InKo Centre, Adyar Club Gate Road. Free entry. 24361224
