Raga riffs

July 27, 2016 04:29 pm | Updated 04:29 pm IST - Kochi

Kochi, Kerala, 27/07/2016: Singer Harish Sivaramakrishnan during an interaction with The Hindu Metro Plus in Kochi. Photo : Thulasi Kakkat

Kochi, Kerala, 27/07/2016: Singer Harish Sivaramakrishnan during an interaction with The Hindu Metro Plus in Kochi. Photo : Thulasi Kakkat

Harish Sivaramakrishnan walks in, barely an hour before a gig at The Muse Room, an interview seems like the unlikeliest thing. The audio has not been checked and the hosts are beginning to get a bit edgy.

Harish, however, graciously apologises for the delay, slams the Kochi traffic and quickly settles for a chat. Dressed in a staple black T-shirt, long hair pulled back into a knot and held in place with a black bandana, he says there’s all the time to take questions.

When the front man of the ‘Carnatic progressive rock’ band Agam—who is also the vice-president of Snapdeal and FreeCharge—says there is time, one has to go with it.

Time management has been one of Agam’s key challenges, as the members juggle their jobs and packed music schedules. And things have got a lot more hectic, as Harish and the band’s lead guitarist, T. Praveen Kumar, have launched a music school at their studio in Bengaluru.

Harish, Praveen and Swamy Seetharaman (keyboard and lyrics) had just driven all the way from Bengaluru the previous night to Kochi for a performance. But none shows any signs of weariness. Rather, there is a sense of excitement as the band is set to launch its second album in November.

Since its launch in 2003, Agam has made a mark in the Indie music scene, with its unique blending of Carnatic ragas with rock riffs. Conventional kritis found themselves in head-banging reincarnations, but with finesse. Harish bristles at the term fusion. “Ours is not fusion. It took me some time to coin this term Carnatic progressive rock. Since then, that’s what our music has been.”

What began as a casual jamming with friends, most of who studied at the BITS, Pilani, resulted in the formation of Agam—Harish, Swamy, Praveen, Ganesh Ram Nagarajan (drums and backing vocals), Vignesh Lakshminarayanan (bass guitar and backing vocals), Sivakumar Nagarajan (ethnic percussions), and Jagadish Natarajan (rhythm guitar).

Apart from its originals, Agam does interpretations of popular mainstream film music as well.

Snatches from the chat with Harish

The beginning

Agam was not planned. We friends would jam at home and the feeling of togetherness, the ‘community vibe’ it created brought in much joy. We mostly reinterpreted mainstream music before we became a band. Singing pure Carnatic just happened. There were certain kritis that we loved and jammed. Some of them fit in perfectly, while some didn’t.

The juggling act

All of us in the band have regular day jobs. That is how we pay our bills! All this creativity is fuelled by these jobs. If you really want to do something, there’s always time. I’m a father; I have a four-year-old daughter. I’m making time for so many things now which I didn’t have to do before. If there is an inherent want, there are always ways to do what you got to do.

Carnatic connect

I am essentially a Carnatic singer. I have learnt Carnatic music for 22 years. Basically, I didn’t have a choice (laughs). I didn’t enjoy learning music at all. It meant no cricket matches, no time in the mornings. It was only much later that I acknowledged it as a good calling to have.

So, are kutcheris

still on?

I do perform kutcheris, but sing in certain ways that might not be considered conventional. I am a loosely-wired musician; I can only sing the kind of music that resonates within me. When I perform a kutcheri, I might even be dressed in a casual T-shirt.

From shishya

to guru

Thanks for asking. Praveen and I have started The Space Academy of Music at our studio in Bengaluru for vocals and guitar. We are focusing on an appreciation-oriented approach to learning, not pedagogical. Classes will accommodate only six people at a time. We are picking and choosing people, as we would want to eventually add them to our band.

Long hair for the rock star image?

Actually no. My mother fell ill and I tonsured my head. It was one of those difficult phases when the physical appearance ceased to matter. After that, I never went to a barber.

What is next for Agam?

Agam as a band will continuously reinvent itself. Independent artistes cannot sit back thinking their game is the best in town. There’s a lot farther to go, and not be complacent. A lot of it is about branding and marketing your band as well.

The secret behind Agam’s unity

The sheer joy of music.

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