Bengaluru-based musicians Bryden Lewis and Parth Chandiramani come from rather different worlds. Bryden had a “classic good Christian boy” upbringing that started with him singing in the church choir and jamming after service; while Parth started learning the flute when he was six years old, followed by Hindustani classical music, with most of his influences stemming from that genre.
But it was while touring with the Raghu Dixit Project in around 2011 that Bryden and Parth discovered their mutual love for 90s Bollywood music, staying back at soundcheck to perform medleys and mash-ups playing the guitar and flute respectively. “It’s when a third party heard us that they suggested we take it live. Then we realised we should put up some content on YouTube and it became a hit,” says Bryden on the phone.
In 2015, they officially started performing together as Bryden-Parth and now they have over 1.81 lakh subscribers on YouTube. Featuring The Choral Riff, a nine-member choir that Bryden also does the vocal arrangements for, the videos include a medley of ‘Samjhawan’/ ‘Mitwa’/ ‘Maahi Ve’ (6.6 million views), of ‘Gerua’/ ‘Kabira’ (4.4 million views) and ‘Get Lucky’/ ‘Bang Bang’ (93,000 views).
As for how, they decide which songs will work in a medley or mash-up, Parth says, “It comes down to songs that both of us really like. We discuss and put them together. We don’t over-think it.” Bryden adds, “The melody and chords determine the mash-up, to see whether it’s in the same groove.”
The element of having a choir also adds to the performances. Talking about The Choral Riff, Bryden says, “It consists of Bengaluru-based musicians who were friends who later became professionals in their own right. They came together and started doing shows with us. Their addition to our set adds a lot of flavour. We like to be a little theatrical with our performances; the choir adds that dimension to our shows and it also adds to our sound. We also add choreography. It’s not every day that you see a Bollywood act or a commercial pop act with a choir.”
- Bryden-Parth are working on their first album, likely to be released end of the year. Parth says,“It will be a multilingual album with influences from all around the world.” Bryden adds, “We have incorporated different sounds that we have encountered on our travels such as Irish whistles and percussion instruments from all across the world. You can pick out the influences in the songs when you hear it. There will also be some instrumental songs between Parth and myself which will be interesting.”
Recently, Bryden and Parth also worked on an episode of MTV Unplugged with Guru Randhawa. “We were thrilled that we got invited. The producer of the show put his trust in us and we took it up as a challenge. We have never been paired with a Punjabi artist before and just to reimagine and rearrange Guru Randhwa’s songs was challenging and exciting. We haven’t seen too much of it being done before. We gave it a nice Bryden-Parth twist in terms of arrangement. Of course, you can hear the guitar and flute but you can also hear other string instruments and the choir was on board as well. We got some good reviews for that episode.”
And this Saturday, Bengalureans will have the opportunity to listen to Bryden-Parth and The Choral Riff live. The concert will be a tribute to all their influences and the audience can count on hearing some familiar tunes.
“We are doing a tribute to Michael Jackson, a tribute to the 90s... Of course, it will also include everything we have been doing for the last three years. We play a lot of Bollywood shows across the country so that will be there as well. Most importantly, we will perform three songs from our first album at the show, which will be the first time anybody hears it.”
The Ultimate Pop Jugalbandi concert will be held at Forum Shantiniketan, Whitefield, on August 3 7 pm onwards. Register on eventshigh.com for free entry.
