“I just... I can’t describe it.” Shravan Sridhar is at a loss for words and it’s no surprise: his new band, The NonViolinist Project, has just filled the performance room at Wandering Artist and, upon request, has served up a rousing encore of Rahman’s hits from the classic Roja to the trendy ‘Raasaali’. They might have debuted alongside the likes of Karthick Iyer’s IndoSoul and the Super Singers at Ilaiyaraaja’s birthday celebrations earlier this summer, but with this performance, they’ve passed the litmus test.
The beginning
“Things just fell into place,” he says, reflecting on the inception of The NonViolinist Project. Only a few years ago, Sridhar sat in his hostel room at BITS, Hyderabad, exposed for the first time to a world of music outside of the Carnatic idiom that he was trained in by the late veteran artiste TV Ramani. Discovering blues, jazz, and metal through the headphones of classmates in between engineering classes, he began a solo initiative on SoundCloud. It’s name? The NonViolinist Project. He credits the experimentative format of the collective to those early years, first releasing different tracks that fused his Carnatic roots with dubstep rhythms, Western instrumentation, and a groove that would form the base of the band’s sound today. “My Carnatic training lets me understand the intricacies of any other form but when I started, it was all about experimenting with new soundscapes and musical ideas,” the engineer-turned-musician confesses.
A stint with a local analytics company in Chennai quickly faded into the background as Sridhar joined a list of bands from across the country. And yet, the seed of the NonViolinist Project remained, convincing him to pursue a full-time performance career almost two years ago. Jamming sessions resulted in the group’s current line-up, made up of fellow artistes Kumaran (drums), Naveen Samson Benjamin (guitars), Marshall Robinson (keys and synths), and Sooraj Kumarr (bass).
Melange of styles
He describes their sound as eclectic, a melange of a host of different genres that simply has him sighing before accepting defeat. “It’s a melting pot of musicians,” he laughs. “You can’t pigeon hole us into one genre, simply because we all come from drastically different musical upbringings and experiences.” He says the challenge, then, is defining the group’s sound and establishing an individual identity among the boom of Carnatic-fused independent ventures that have flooded the city recently. “There are so many violinists in the city, many of whom are unbelievably talented. The key lies in our influences that have shaped our musical sensibilities.” While Sridhar prefers the addictive chaos of heavy metal and electronic music, using it to add depth to his song-writing, he says the band helps him balance both his sound and his sensibilities. Inspired largely by mentor and musician Anil Srinivasan whom Sridhar has had the chance to share stage space with, he says his guidance has allowed him to contribute to the independent music scene in his own way.
“I owe a lot of what I am today to Anil. He’s paved the way for us to make the music we want to make.” And yet, one wonders whether the city is ready for projects such as Sridhar’s maiden venture. “The outpouring love we’ve received already has been amazing,” Sridhar says fondly, adding that the dearth of performance venues is what inhibits initiatives such as these from crossing the boundaries of independent music and the film space.
With an album in the works, Sridhar hopes to bring a certain musical aesthetic to the city. “For us, it’s just five friends from five different worlds, coming together to make music.”
