Music producer, composer and singer-songwriter Praveen Mayakar takes his name quite seriously, which is why you’ll see the artiste use maya to describe everything around him, including his music. A firm believer that music can create magical moments, the MayaSwara evangelist talks of his passion, his creative endeavours and his world of maya.
Born in Dharwad and based in Sweden, Praveen has his heart in Bengaluru. “I’m pretty much a Bengaluru boy since I’ve been here from my third grade. Bengaluru has changed so much. I think if all the horns in vehicles across the city were replaced by musical instruments, we have the potential to be a musically orchestrated city,” laughs the cheerful 35-year-old.
Describing his musical journey, Praveen says he started six years ago. “My journey has been empowering in many ways. I was finger tapping one day when my sister sent me a song which I did not like. I think everything starts with ego. I said even I can make a better song. I got self-critical and so started venturing into music. I started with simple electronic beats since I’m an electronic engineer and began playing around with synthesisers. That led to the composition of a song called ‘Sorrow’ using synthetic sitar. That was the beginning. From there, I’ve launched seven albums and recently launched my eighth album, Grievances. They’re all concept albums. I’ve reached a stage where I’m playing an actual sitar. I believe I’m the first guy to sit on a chair, play the sitar, while working on my Launchpad with an electronic drum and rapping at the same time. I hope to take this forward more traditionally.”
The self taught musician says while his first four albums were solo projects, the rest have been collaborations. “I’ve met like-minded people over the years and now am part of a pool of talent that I like to call MayaSwara – an illusion that is musical, magical notes. My effort is to bring out music that is a musical interpretation of human emotions. In this process, MayaSwara is more than one person. I have 15 artistes collaborating in Sweden and now 15 more in India.”
MayaSwara is also an indie record label supporting independent artists. “Since I do most of the recording, editing and mastering, I like to use the label to help independent artistes and encourage everyone who has potential. We don’t want people to get 10,000 likes on Facebook for their music to be a hit. If you believe in yourself and your talent, we are here to give you the platform.”
With Grievances , Praveen explores the concept of grief. “We all experience pain. It is essential and can’t be compared with any other emotion. This album has taken me the longest, over the span of two years and collaborating with five artistes. There’s a lot of positive energy when you have more people and while the album sounds very dark, my effort is to mention how grief works and take you through its different stages. We start with ‘Denial’, move to anger in ‘Fury’, a ‘Heartfelt plea’, the ‘Death of the idea’, coming to ‘Acceptance’ and finally, end with ‘Coming to life’.” The album featuring a host of Bengaluru artistes, including violinist Aneesh Vidyashankar, guitarists Rupam Sil and Monjyoti Bhattacharya, Mangalore vocalist Sthuti Bhat and Praveen’s sitar guru Pandit Harvinder Singh.
Elaborating, Praveen says: “All my albums are concepts dealing with emotions, namely, Annoyances, Ignorances, Acceptances, Appearances and Experiences . In fact, the next album I’m working on is called Limerences – a technical word for the ‘butterflies in your stomach’.”
There is beauty in nothingness, he says. “I had a lot on my mind so I went to page zero and started from there. That is how I honed my skills. I’ve been a poet from a young age and soon, music, photography, and recently even comics came along. I have a cool name so I use Maya for everything – from MayaClicks to MayaComics, it fits everything. I’m also working on my second book in Kannada.
I’m sharing all this to tell people that the moment you start looking in, there is magic and you start realising so many things about yourself and translating that into creativity. I want people to realise that they can do and believe in themselves.”
