Loud. That is how Sumesh Narayanan describes the music he creates with Ramkumar Kanakarajan. The latter agrees: “I like that description. What we play is everything we wanted to do, but we have never got the chance to do. From slow ballads to metal music, pop music to rock music, to jazz and much more.”
Ten years after making music together, the duo has finally acted on a dream — to form a percussion band — that was long coming. “We’ve always been thinking of doing this. But we were preoccupied with other things. And it finally happened when somebody said, ‘You know what you guys should perform at this music festival I’m hosting’.” says Ramkumar.
When this opportunity presented itself, creating music wasn’t the biggest challenge. Says Sumesh, “It's funny because when Kanaxx (Ramkumar) spoke about the show, the biggest thing was – what are we going to call the act?
The duo says they thought of a lot of names for the band. “Kanaxx told me one day that our friends have actually been calling us Snax (Sumesh Narayanan and Kanaxx),” adds Sumesh. That was the birth of their percussion-heavy Snax. The band received the much-needed thumbs up from the audience at the Covelong Surf Festival a few months back.
They have performed over a hundred gigs together but what sets their music apart is their personal relationship. Both of them complement each other both on and off stage.
“That's the beauty. It's beyond just performance… it is the rapport. I know where to pull off and where to come in. Quite honestly, the only musician I see myself doing this with is probably Kanaxx,” says Sumesh, who is part of bands such as Tridentity and Sparsh Quartet.
“I think there's always an audience for something new and fresh,” says Ramkumar who is part of several popular bands including Grey Shack, Sean Roldan & Friends, Indosoul, Amrit Rao & The MADRASCALS, and KANAXX.
Sumesh has worked with singer Bombay Jayashri, Mythili Prakash for her contemporary dance productions, and is currently working with director Roysten Abel. He adds, “Now you have so many people coming out with a lot of original stuff. The audience community is also coming in. It is lovely to be around right now making music.”
