Indie music for the soul

A trio of performances, featuring Western classical, humorous lyrics, and the flute, at Live-ly Music Nights on Saturday

(Clockwise) Gaman Mamidi, Madhav Nair Ramesh and Tarini

Across the world, when it comes to promoting independent artistes, small is best. Chennai-based music promoters, On That Note, know this is important when you’re providing a platform for singer-songwriters and artistes writing and performing their own material.

The company, which started out as a band more than a year ago, is hosting a new event series called Live-ly Music Nights starting July 27 (with a repeat performance on August 7) at boutique hotel Ikhaya in Nungambakkam. Co-founder Nitika Rajkumar says they started out with open mic nights and jam sessions and slowly scaled up. “We want it to be an intimate space that artistes can feel comfortable. From an audience perspective, we want to give them the option of doing something interesting on a Saturday night,” she says.

Three home-grown acts will perform at the first ever Live-ly Music Nights, including singer-songwriter Tarini NS (alongside fellow singer-songwriter Alvin Presley), guitarist and composer Gaman Mamidi and flautist Madhav Nair Ramesh. While Mamidi was contacted by the organisers, since Nitika is a school friend, Tarini has just stepped into writing her own music and performing sets. Coming from a Western Classical training with stints in musicals as well as

a capella , Tarini says she’s keen on playing smaller venues for now so that she can gauge how audiences receive her music, adding, “It’s always exciting when completely new people hear my music and feel my lyrics. I’m still trying to figure out the groove of my sound, but it’s mostly pop soul-ish, with influences from Tori Kelly and Taylor Swift.”

Singer-songwriter Gaman Mamidi, for his part, brings one of his first performances with original material at the gig. Currently studying at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, he released his debut EP,

Soul Daddy, in December and is performing this week with a setup that involves saxophone, an additional vocalist and keys. He knew he didn’t want a drummer or bassist for an intimate setting like this. “Overall, as you dive into a new experience you have to adapt and know what you don’t have and change the arrangements,” he says. Sonically, studying at Berklee does lean on jazz but it teaches you to look beyond, he explains. “I’m starting to write commercial music, trying to be original about it, say, by using jazz voicing.”

Live-ly Music Nights with Gaman Mamidi, Tarini and Alvin Presley, Madhav Nair Ramesh takes place at Ikhaya Artisanal Boutique House, Nungambakkam. Tickets at ₹250 on insider.in.