October 2019 issue featuring Opeth on the cover! by The Score Magazine

ISSN 0974 – 9128

Vol 12 Issue 10 October 2019

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INDIA'S NATIONAL PAN-GENRE MUSIC MAGAZINE

Studio Tour:

GRAY SPARK AUDIO

4 Questions with

SHERRIN VARGHESE

On his solo career, new projects with a Band of boys, stories from touring and his go to equipment on stage and studio.

OPETH

Sneak peak into the workings/ philosophies of this Pune based studio.

COVER STORY

Guitarist Fredrik Akesson hints at brave new album

Also inside: Indie reviews, Music tech lingos that everyone gets wrong and more…

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inside

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ON THE COVER

OPETH

4 QUESTIONS WITH

SHERRIN VARGHESE

READ ON

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY? THE STAGE DOESN'T BITE READ ON

TOP 10 KEYBOARD RIFFS OF THE 80S

STUDIO TOUR

GRAY SPARK AUDIO

READ ON HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION (DAW)

READ ON FOUR AWESOME SOUND DESIGN TOOLS FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION

THE TEAM Director, Business Development Pragash VM Director, Marketing & Operations Sneha Ramesh Director Ajay Prabhakar Editorial Advisor Nikila Srinivasan Creative Director George Vedamanickam Creative Designer Manasi Doshi Content Contributors Shreya Bose Navya C Mukesh Amaran Souvik Chakraborty Aditi Sarawagi Kausthub Ravi Cover and Cover Story Picture Credits Jonas Akerlund

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OPETH

SHREYA BOSE

GUITARIST FREDRIK AKESSON HINTS AT BRAVE NEW ALBUM

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There aren't many bands out there, especially in the headbanger-blustered pits of metal, that have courted more musical controversy than Opeth. With the release of their 2011 album Heritage, they abandoned the death metal-driven prog leanings that proved wildly successful, and reoriented their sound to appeal to more experimental ears. In collaboration with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame, Opeth risked enraging loyal fans who liked their growls intact. These Swedish prog-players peppered their pre-Heritage pieces with folk/blues/jazz inspired riffage and paired their Satan-pleasing growls with achingly eloquent ballads. But the decisive shift into plaintive, pastoral, almost mystical soundcraft was a hard pill to swallow for those that would swear by the devil-raising drum solo that closed Deliverance. Primarily fuelled by the creative fumes of vocalist-guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt, Opeth has always exhibited a rare grace in their melodic filings. Always adept at eliciting the guttural roar, Akerfeldt has also charmed listeners by offering nothing less than enchantment with clean vocals. This vocal changeling made almost schizophrenic shifts from tremorinducing bellows to luminous melodies that would enchant a siren in the sea. When crafting sounds in the death/progressive metal tradition, Akerfeldt and his cohorts knit stories into a tapestry of unexpected sounds. Often, a gentle yet precise piano wanders into the midst of battle-worthy chaos. A seductive acoustic intro that speaks of wistful memories and feather-whisper introspection leads into barrelling death metal. Quiet humming saunters into a massive onslaught of dissonant harmony - all while meandering around disarmingly upbeat vocal harmonies. You wouldn’t expect it, but a touch of funk will appear to lead the gothic-and-giddy carnivalesque into Stevie Wonder-style polyphony. With the recently released In Cauda Venenum, the progmen have ventured into orchestral exuberance. In line with Akerfeldt’s definition of metal “"aggression, rawness, honesty, rebellious…", it is as metal as one gets. Shredded with vaulting gothic ominosity that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Gregorian-style mass (in a particularly progressive church, of course), it is soaked through with a mix of obscure, early-70s breathy prog modalities. It is impossible not to be particularly charmed by the urgency and melodic conviction of Dignity. The Garroter is plush with an irreverent brand of jazz, yet manages to remain sombre and suspenseful. The album is rife with the surprising camaraderie of otherwise contrary elements - the dreamy patches of Lovelorn Crime resides in perfect unity with the dragon-taming awe of Next of Kin. Now heading back to India to headline NH7 Weekender’s Pune chapter, the band has set plenty of fire and brimstone (the good kind) amidst fans who will, no doubt, expect to surrender their souls to pieces from Ghost Reveries and Pale Communion alike. While we can’t reveal much about what these ever-morphing prog-titans will dole out to delight their audience, we did get to steal some time from guitarist Fredrik Akesson so that he could nudge The Score Magazine with a dash of pre-gig intrigue.

With every new album and more songs in your oeuvre, how do you choose what to include in your setlist with every tour? Well, we try to pick songs we haven’t performed on recent tours. Initially we wanted to play songs from every album but that is impossible time-wise since we have 13 studio records out now. Of course we want to play at least 3 or 4 songs from the latest album. So it’s definitely difficult but also exciting to play new songs and some we haven’t performed in a while. What has been the most significant shift in your music, stylistically, conceptually or otherwise - since you became part of Opeth? We have done 4 albums now without the growl vocals and that shift happened after the Watershed album. It took me a while to get used to that shift but now it feels like a natural step for Opeth. Mikael felt he took that style to its peak and the band needed to do something different but still keep the Opeth vibe which I think we succeeded with. Still, we like to perform the older songs live since that style is the foundation of Opeth and the mix of the old and new songs creates good dynamics in the set list. Do you get involved in the lyrical side of composition? The lyrics in Opeth has always been written by Mikael Åkerfeldt. I personally don’t have any ambition to contribute with any lyrics to Opeth. Opeth is known for introducing an extremely tasteful strain of metal - a genre hardly ever associated with the kind of delicate nuance you bring to it. Could you tell us about this graceful, eloquent brand of metal? Wow that was nicely said of you haha..Opeth is influenced by a lot of different styles of music.The Swedish folk tones for instance has been there from the first album Orchid and influences from 70s prog bands like King Crimson,Camel,Pink Floyd Jethro Tull, etc. The list goes on and on. Also influences from metal and hard rock and death metal, of course. We try to be unpredictable for the listeners without losing a red thread. Why the decision to release music in both Swedish and English? Are you planning to play the Swedish versions anywhere except Sweden? Mikael came up with the idea. At first he wanted to do only the Swedish version but after a while we decided to do both. That decision was taken by the band and not our label. The album demo was only recorded in Swedish and we got used to and liked that version. I remember listening to the first song “All things will end” that was played to me at the demo stage. Surprisingly enough, I thought it sounded quite natural. The translation to the English version came about in the studio and luckily it went smoother than we assumed it would be. Lots of the lyrics could be directly translated. Are there certain songs you think work better in Swedish? In that case, do you think non-Swedish speakers would be missing out on something with the English version? Maybe..”Lovelorn crime” is one song that for which I like the Swedish version better, especially the chorus. But I like the variation of both versions. The phrasing of the vocals is different because of the different languages so maybe that’s interesting for the people who are really interested in Opeth.

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Is the music first written in Swedish or English? Who translates from one language to another? The demo was done in Swedish and Mike did the translation in the actual studio recording. All song ideas started without lyrics and I know Mikael thought it was more difficult to come up with Swedish lyrics. But I also think that inspired and triggered him to work harder and remain even more focused. What led Opeth to sample a 1970s children's puppet show for "Heart in Hand"? That is from an author called Jan Lööf who also still writes children’s books. He makes great illustrations and the books are still entertaining for me as an adult to read to my kid. We grew up with the puppet show so it’s for nostalgic reasons I believe. Do you have any pet peeves about the prog scene as it stands today? No, not really. We just try to focus on what we are doing. Akerfeldt said that going on tour is "agony". Do you agree? No I like it and I think Mike does to a certain extent. It has its downsides with all the travelling, lack of sleep and of course being away from your family. But performing the gig is a great feeling and the desire to play better and better gigs is something we always aim for. What do you do before, after and between shows when you have time to spare? I usually play the guitar a couple of hours before the gig. It’s like a ritual for me and it makes me de-stressed and relaxed before the show. Usually we don’t have time to do much between shows because of the tight schedule. But it’s usually interesting to see some historical places and record stores, visit restaurants, etc. When an Opeth album is created, are the songs extensions of a singular, overarching idea? Or are they expressions of separate ideas/instincts/memories, etc.? It could be a bit of everything really. It often starts with a guitar riff or a drum beat or a melody. Musical ideas are most of the

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time the starting seed for a song. Lyrics usually come after. Tell us about where In Cauda Venenum comes from. And, what is the story being told? Since there is the Swedish and English version of the album it made sense to use a Latin version. Black Metal bands used Latin titles of songs and we haven’t done that before so maybe that inspired the name a bit. With the two-language release it made sense to bring in a third language. Also the line didn’t come from one of the great philosophers and we liked that. There is a sense of the new album being carrying more grandiose sensibility than before. Would you say that is a good assessment of it? If so, what is the purpose behind this? I would indeed, The purpose was to make the most ppic album possible. I think we really went the extra mile on In Cauda. We rehearsed before the recording so everyone had their parts in their muscle memory so we could focus on A/B testing different instruments and gear etc. What, in your opinion, is most poisonous to a musician's craft? The strive to get better and better.. it’s a never ending quest and there will always be something you can get better at. But that’s also the fun part and it’s a rewarding feeling when you finally reach a goal here and there. But as a musician l rarely stop thinking about guitar licks and songs so that can be very difficult to put aside as a “regular job “. Perhaps that would be poisonous. Tell us a bit about your last experience in India. What are you expecting this time? I remember that the audience was great. We had our own bodyguards which never happened before. We also had the luxury to have an off day so we took the opportunity to visit a temple and I really liked that experience. We are all really big fans of the Indian cuisine so fortunately enough we got to try some fantastic food. I’m a fan of the spicier food and one vegetarian dish I had was really powerful haha. Looking forward to visit India again!

SCORE’S OPETH PLAYLIST:

HEIR APPARENT (WATERSHED) BURDEN (WATERSHED) WINDOWPANE (DAMNATION) A FAIR JUDGEMENT (DELIVERANCE) IN MY TIME OF NEED (DAMNATION) CUSP OF ETERNITY (PALE COMMUNION) SORCERESS (SORCERESS) DELIVERANCE (DELIVERANCE) THE DRAPERY FALLS (BLACKWATER PARK) BY THE PAIN I SEE IN OTHERS (DELIVERANCE) THE DEVIL’S ORCHARD (HERITAGE)

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Artist of the month

Surej Singh You wear many hats such as being a guitarist, composer and a songwriter. How do you start your journey of being an artist? I was part of a band in college. So the first half of my college time was well balanced between music and studies. The latter half, was where the balance shifted to music completely. We used to practice in our hostel rooms and would never attend classes. I graduated, came back home and started making my solo music. “Oceans Apart” was where the album writing process first started, although I had no idea where I was headed. I was just doing it for fun back then. And then I wrote a couple more songs only to realise that I could do a full length album. Meanwhile, convincing my parents that I want to be a full time musician and succeeding at it a few months later.

Tell us about your song writing process and where you draw inspiration from? I usually come up with a melody in my head and transcribe it on the guitar and make the whole sound around that melody. I still rely on writing down the tabs or notations as I compose. It’s like an auto save mode. It’s probably the most important aspect of my song writing.

Share some of your guitar techniques and give us a brief on the gear you use I’m a simple guitar player with very simple and basic techniques. Nothing fancy going on there to be honest. The gear that I’m using live is even more basic. Using a Sterling by Music Man JP100 guitar which goes through an old

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Boss GT8. Been saving up for upgrades for a while now though.

As a composer, what are some key things you keep in mind while composing a song? How does it flow? I make instrumental music (so far), and for me the most vital thing is to keep the song interesting all the way. It shouldn’t be boring for the listener! And I am the first listener to my own song. If I feel excited throughout the song, I know I’ve done my job right.

What are some of the digital trends you have adapted into your music? Well I think, it would mostly be the use of social media and Instagram in particular which has helped me reach out to a set of talented people all across the globe and the collaborations have really worked very well on my debut album !

How do you use technology to enhance your work? Well in terms of writing music, I use my computer to record demos and write all the music via DAWs and other softwares. Apart from that, the internet has always been an effective boon and as I mentioned earlier, it lets me connect to a larger set of people for collaborations and I also get to reach out to more people with my original music.

Tell us about your upcoming projects Currently I’m at home in Solan, writing new songs which are probably going to be a part of the new album hopefully. That’s all for now !

THE 2020 NAMM SHOW HAS A LOT TO OFFER!

From January 16–19, The NAMM Show returns to Anaheim, connecting the industry around the latest products, cutting-edge education and dynamic events. Below are listed some highlights for the show: Community Neighbourhoods As the industry’s Crossroads, the communities of music, sound and entertainment technology unite to celebrate all aspects of stage and recorded performance. The 2020 NAMM Show offers an exhibiting layout to best serve each community and allow buyers and influencers the chance to interact with products side-by-side. On the interactive show map, users can click through their favourite categories and get a feel for their favourite areas of the show.

• Pro Production by PLSN & FOH: series of exciting sessions for event technology professionals, presented by the publishers of Front of House, PLSN and Stage Directions. • Lighting&Sound America / PLASA: Richard Cadena of Lighting&Sound America and PLASA hosts several entertainment technology sessions. • AES Academy: Premier training, education and hands-on instruction for working and future audio professionals

This year, a series of showcases will be introduced to serve as the centre piece of several dynamic neighbourhoods:

• TEC Tracks: Legends and thought leaders offer sessions for sound, studio and stage pros

• The Synth Showcase will feature the latest in analog and digital synthesizer technology.

• A3E: Explore the future of audio, music-making and music technology

• The Innovator Showcase will collect the latest innovations across several product types.

• Dante Training: Get trained in the industry-leading Dante platform, hosted by Audinate

• The Loudspeaker System Showcase will conduct like-for-like demos of line array systems.

Transportation and Essentials

• The Boutique Guitar Showcase will highlight the artistry of industry luthiers. • Software.NAMM will bring digital solutions and developments to ACC North. • Lounge 88 will coalesce the piano community, with products and exciting events such as the Roomful of Pianos. Education

Likewise, the interactive show map calls out key features and amenities throughout the campus. These include Anaheim Resort Transportation, badge pick up locations, food areas, as well as all-important beer and coffee spots. We’re happy to announce a special airport-to-hotel shuttle discount, with the Karmel Shuttle Service. Use promo code NAMM20 to receive this special offer. Be sure to register for badges and book your hotel soon!

NAMM is committed to growing the industry through effective and actionable education. To power continued innovation, a wide variety of education tracks will return to the show: • NAMM U: Sessions for music retailers, working artists and industry professionals, running throughout different NAMM Show education programs. • ESTA-Curated Sessions: Four tracks for entertainment technology professionals, with the opportunity to earn free ETCP-renewal credits: Lighting & Electrical, Lighting Networking, Rigging and Safety.

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4 QUESTIONS WITH

Sherrin Varghese Tell us about your style of music My style of music is what I have coined as Bollytronica or Mallu dubstep and the reason I have called it that is because of Bollywood that is the omnipresent devil that we have in our country and I personally like dance music and the electronic side of music. I come from the school of thought where music should not have only the traditional organic sound of a live band, neither should it have an overtly electronic dance music production sound! I like the blend and the hybrid nature of it. That’s the reason why I made adipoli with a dubstep sound to it. It has the sounds of an electric guitar, nadhaswaram etc. Also, in 2013 when I came out with my album, I wanted to stand out, and put my name out in terms of the electronic scene.

Tell us your best moments of being part of Band of Boys. What plans do you have with the band? A Band of Boys is India’s first boy band and with them we have all had the pleasure of being a very unique, high octane, highly regarded band in India. We have been alive for twenty years and this is technically our third innings as such. When we came out, we have had panties thrown at us on stage, we have had four passport booklets filled, traveled the world, we have done 1200 plus shows, one Bollywood film, five albums. We have had the world‘s best attention on us during our peak time. We are four rascals together and when we are in our best elements on stage, we are all for each other and one for all. We have been trained and are what we call manufactured pop. We have the demographic of eight to eighty taken care of. The blend of our voices was our USP. The one thing you would

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remember about the Band of Boys is the energy we bring to the stage or to the audience.

Tell us about the mics you use My go-to mic on stage is AKG HT 4500 because of the crisp nature that it captures the voice. As a musician, while producing music, I use the AKG C214 which is a legacy product where the entire dynamic range is amazing! The C451B helps capture guitars but I’ve also used it to capture and accentuates my voice. As a Producer of a property The Circuit, the heart and soul of the audio department has been the Soundcraft UI24R which is a complete 24 channel mixer which is just a junction box. The beauty of this product is that the UI comes on any device which hosts a web interface. We can do levels, mixes, separate mixes, gain, EQ, effects, and so on. It has so many features in it! I use the JBL Eon One’s PA. I can use it anywhere I want to. I use the JBL 305P MKII as well and that is my studio go-to punch point.

Tell us about your upcoming projects I will start with the Band of Boys, a song we are coming up with called Nain Ladaye, a song we have recently recorded with a video. My personal solo career has been chiseling with my latest property called The Circuit where I am producing seven episodes in 24 minutes each with each episode is going to be song based with songs by me which I have produced with producers and arranged by musicians and they are all different from each other. This is going to be a seven song album that I put out. These seven songs have a live performance.

THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS THROUGH MUSIC ENHANCING COGNITIVE RESERVE, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN Music and its relation in dynamics are closely associated with the human brain. We are born with pro-exposure of music in the form of rhythmic perception while we are in our mother's womb. This early association is connected with the sense of rhythm in the form of time signature evaluation even before learning any form of percussive instruments. A common example is speed, distance, intensity and time. We have a built-in mechanism to quantize even before we learn music. Music is associated with the pleasure centres of the brain called the dopaminergic receptor region located in the Substantia nigra of the brain. It is a very unique feedback system connected to the brain at the auditory cortex level on both sides of the brain located just adjacent to the ears. At a deeper level, it is connected to the limbic system of the brain which is near the forehead which finally leads to the inner regions of the brain such as the amygdala which is for fight or flight response or simpler terms the impulse zone of the brain. This complex feedback system has its functionality associated with the reward-based response where a pleasant tone is reward generator and dissonance is a turn-off or harsh stimulus.

which account for higher executive functions. When all these cognitive functions are put together, it forms a vital performance feature of the brain called “The Cognitive Reserve” which determines the neuroplasticity of the brain through repetition for engagement and learning. One of the most effective therapies according to recent studies is music therapy which is non-pharmacological or invasive in nature. Music therapy has significantly changed prophylactic intervention with respect to complex mental health conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Dementia, Cerebral palsy, Depression, ADHD and many more. Music therapy is analogous, and isomorphic in nature with its protocols. It has evolved to generate efficacious results in the clinical sector. Many hospitals are apparently using music therapy and also engaging music therapist for cases such as traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s and more. Although some the pathways associated are still being researched, it is important to understand that music therapy and sound therapy have critical solutions to chronic mental health and neurological conditions. References

THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS THROUGH MUSIC Music in therapeutic approach has the ability to stimulate the hippocampus in bringing back stored memory indices in conditions such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Hence the perception of music and its dynamics are deeply associated with cognitive functions such as memory, attention, recall feedback systems, judgement, decision-making abilities, spatial orientation and processing dynamics

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5618810/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC6022981/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pmc/articles/PMC4074275/#R9 https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3814522/ Author: Prof B.Sai Kiran Kumar Consultant neurofeedback trainer BCIA USA, B.Shivani , Psychologist and certified Neurofeedback trainer

A child with Cerebral Palsy being brain mapped

A Boy with Vision difficulties being brain mapped

An adult with suspected Dementia being brain mapped

Brain activity during thinking and processing information

Brain activity live visualization

Brain wave activity

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SHREYA BOSE Tears of the Wizard (Parikrama):

The striking difference between a veteran and a has-been is made stupidly apparent with Parikrama's sonorous comeback. Nothing is more clear than the fact that they haven't lost a smidgeon of music relevance. One would be foolish to imagine that the band that supported Iron Maiden's Indian chapter could ever fade, but Tears of the Wizard is a good reminder that the grand-daddies of Indian rock will still happily wallop your pretensions to classic rock back into shape. Drawn from the rich, resonant high fantasy of The Lord of the Rings, Tears of the Wizard pays tribute to Gandalf the Grey, the wizard who mentored Frodo Baggins and guided the Fellowship to victory over the dark machinations of Sauron. This vaulting rock ballad breeds powerful harmonies that rise to paint images of valour and nature-borne nobility (this was mostly conveyed by the video). The video is shot in the magnificent Mechuka valley in Arunachal Pradesh, which gave the camera endless measures of magnificence. Snow-capped peaks stand tall in the backdrop, as

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leather-clad rockers straddle bridges over roaring rivers and send their gritand-glory chorus to the crystal-blue sky. Considering the LOTR obsession, the scene could not have been more appropriate. The troops of Gondor would not have been out of place in the grassy slopes of Mechuka. They don't show up, but you will receive an equal measure of delight when you witness Sharat Chandra Srivastava's winnowing violin solo in the winter-kissed hills as the eternal mountains glower in approval. Parikrama has made a glorious comeback, and nothing less was expected of them. For those who grew up with But It Rained and Gonna Get It, this is a call to return to their early musical community. For those who remember the roots of rock in this country, it is a validation of the fact that our heroes have not yet died. Not even close.

Nukhta (Midival Punditz): Have

you ever imagined that Sufi verse sang in adoration and exaltation of God could take an ominous turn? Neither did most, until Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj decided to take a crack at the Baba Bulleh Shah's esoteric exuberance.

Rajasthani firebrand Kutle Khan fits right into the aesthetic with his skysummoning refrain of "Alfat in bin un bin an bin nukta yaar banaya" - the joy of the hermit when they finally float out of the shackles of ignorance. Human attachment becomes illusion, and joy becomes the new normal. The electro-fusion duo use sounds from this decade to give renewed urgency to words that have rejuvenated spiritual seekers across time. Far from being facile, the musical framing can, in fact, serve as an entrance to the trance of heightened connection. Staying true to their superior collaborative strategies, Midival Punditz have managed, once again, to find an exact footing between the ever-valuable old and the ever-transforming new. The track is expansive, feeding into a larger worldbuilding instinct. Yet, a bass-tickled pit-of-the-stomach rumbling underpins the whole thing. It is almost a low growl that reminds the listener to ground themselves in the midst of ecstasy, a murky reminder to return to the sound and peel another layer of discovery.

Over Seas (AAKASH):

When Aakash Ravikrishnan watched Gully Boy, he was instantly taken by the grit and

ravenous intensity on Indian hip-hop. So, he began to reach out to Mumbai rappers via Instagram to put together a series of idiosyncratic, impossible-to-ignore tracks that channel the city’s grime and glitter through the voices of its toughest children. Funny thing, Aakash doesn’t actually speak or understand Hindi too well, given his long stint in foreign shores. He found the voices that spoke to him, and trusted them to tell their own stories. Interestingly, even though there are multiple voices and personalities in the album, none of them feel like they don’t belong. Hindi and Urdu wordplay tickles the imagination in Khamakha. Rehta High scrapes out the sole preoccupation of a decided stoner - the grief is palpable amidst all the drug-addled flexing. Game Over is an exercise in underdog pluck presented with scotch-smooth yet spitfire verbiage. Darr is a firecracker that spits in the face of fear, replacing apprehension with rage. Wazan Hain offers bleeding testimony for a bad world that never changes, no matter how many insist that "Humko shanti chahiye". Khauf is a searing condemnation of the terror bred by a society that demands excellence of its inhabitants while providing nothing to build it off. Hapless anger, mental illness and intractable desolation are given life in Maharya's relentless resentment. Khauf becomes a grotesque ode to the anxiety of merely being alive.

Every track provides fodder for the soul. Outrage about broken childhoods, despair over fractured adulthoods and aching acceptance of too much that seems to have gone wrong. It is a quintessential hip-hop album that celebrates the genre by using it for its original purpose - lay bare the plight of the oppressed. It takes no prisoners, shoots straight from the throat and effortlessly becomes one of the most luminous additions to the garden of desi hip-hop.

My Place to You (Easy Wanderlings): A

band with artistic maturity in the vein of Easy Wanderlings usually finds it hard to replicate the sombre delights of their debut. Simply put, once you enchant an audience with a certain kind of insight, it's hard for them to relate with another layer of differentlyflavored existentialism. But Easy Wanderlings is getting there. In the follow up to their roll-off-thetongue folksy debut As Written in the Stars, there’s a sense of deepening conviction. As in its predecessor, My Place To You invites the listener to curl in and introspect. The songs are ripe with powerful melodic arrangements

- powerful because there is abundant restraint being exercised by a clearly skilled ensemble. In Beneath The Fireworks, this restrain crackles with charm and nuance. They sandpaper out any frills and keep the focus simmered on creamy vocals that hint at the hurts of adult expectation. The weight of responsibility sits heavy, but Sanyanth Naroth, Sharad Rao and Pratika Gopinath sing those ineffable sorrows into something your browbeaten soul can take shelter in. Madeline carries that ultimately unnameable grief of a parent who looks upon their child and anticipates the disappointments that life will heap upon them. A winnowing flute leads into cinematic textures that give the listener space to fall in love. The lyrics beckon an old-world comfort, an adult’s dream of a Sunday afternoon spent in a breezy balcony with a book that brought you joy when you were young. The light lovemaking of piano and strings is that of an old couple that has managed to stay in love. In fact, that is what the album’s dulcet euphonies are most reminiscent of. It's all familiar, brimming with the pleasure of loving old friends and well-loved childhood homes. Even the angst inherent in both songs seems bearable by virtue of the predictable-yet-desirable charm.

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NEHITA ABRAHAM

How Perfect are The Perfect Intervals? If you have been to any music class, you’re bound to learn about intervals in the music language. Soon enough you will hear the term: “Perfect Intervals”. So, if you’ve ever wondered what’s so perfect about them? Just keep reading. No glitch with the right pitch! What does the term “pitch” mean? A pitch of a certain note tells us how high or low the note sounds. What does the term “interval” mean? An interval is the distance between any two pitches or any two notes. While scientists often describe the difference in pitch between two notes, as the difference between their frequency, musicians on the other hand like to see the difference between two notes as intervals. We can simply calculate how many semitones have moved up or down and it’s easy! For example, you can say "B natural is a half step below C natural", or "E flat is a step and a half above C natural". But when we talk about larger intervals in the major/minor system, there is a more convenient and descriptive way to name them. This concept is so important that it is almost impossible to talk about scales, chords, harmonic progression, cadence, or dissonance without referring to intervals. Perfect Pitch or Pitch Perfect? Unisons, octaves, fourths(4th), and fifths(5th) are called perfect intervals. A perfect interval is an interval that is not major, minor, augmented or diminished. It always remains perfect. Sure, they can be augmented or diminished if we move a note up or down. A perfect interval becomes augmented when G-C (perfect 4th) is changed from G-C# (an augmented 4th). But without changing the note, a perfect interval always remains perfect. Let’s test this! Let’s turn things upside down! (literally)

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Let’s say we want to turn an interval upside down, or inverted. When you do that with C-E ( a major third) the inversion gives us E-C ( a minor 6th). Woah! A major can become a minor when we shift the position? Yes, that’s why it’s important to remember that intervals are based on an absolute distance in between semitones and not if they are in a minor or major scale. Minor intervals are not minor because they are found in the minor scale and the same goes for the major. Majors become minors, majors become minors, augmented becomes diminished, The exceptions to this inversion rule are the octaves, 4th and 5th. C- F is a perfect 4th F-C is a perfect 5th. The interval stays at perfect, that hasn't changed. Even still, why do we innately feel that certain intervals are consonant( sounds that sound good together)? And ever go so far as to call them “perfect” ? In simple words, if we examine the acoustics or sound waves( Frequency and Wavelength), the notes of the perfect interval are very closely related. Because they are so closely related, they sound particularly good together, a fact that has been noticed since at least the times of classical Greece, and probably even longer. (Both the octave and perfect fifth have prominent positions in most of the world's musical traditions.) This makes them sound really particularly good together. One person to identify this was Pythagoras (Yes, the same guy whose theories annoy you during exams), and possibly many other Greeks at the time noticed this too. We can tell that they liked it, by the fact that in most musical traditions, the octave and perfect 5th have a prominent position. So, to go so far as to call these intervals “perfect”? Guess it sounds and calculates perfectly!

ADITI SARAWAGI

Offbeat Genres of Fusion Music Music is ever evolving and artists are creating novel sounds in newer styles every day. Fusion music is essentially combining two or more genres. Not confining oneself to a particular genre often results in extraordinary sounds and that is why fusion music is extremely popular today. Fusion Music is sometimes also referred to as ‘cross-over’ music wherein a piece of music appeals to listeners of different genres of music. It helps in reaching a wider audience and also enables the establishment of a new or unique sound. The most well-known genres of fusion music are jazz fusion, blues rock, jazz fusion, reggae rock and sufi rock amongst others. These genres have made a place of their own in the music world and are renowned everywhere. There are some sub genres which are unusual and are an acquired taste. There are various types or genres of fusion music and here we list the most unusual types of fusion music. This will only be a partial list as the combinations of genres are unlimited.

Dubstyle One of the newer entrants in the electronic music scene, Dubstyle is a combination of dub step and hard style. It takes the beats of the two genres to create an entirely new type of sound. Headhunterz was the first DJ to release the first official dubstyle in 2010 with the song “The MF Point of Perfection (Original Dubstyle Mix)” and this where the genre gained traction.

Folktronica Folktronica is a combination of folk and electronic music. This style originated in the early 2000’s in the UK and this fusion genre has been made mainstream by bands like Animal Collective, Four Tet, and Tunng. The spirit of folk music is carried effortlessly into electronic music and

this genre of fusion music is truly unique.

Jazz Rap Jazz Rap is an immensely popular genre of fusion music which replaces the hip-hop background score of rap with instrumental jazz tracks. The lyrics are also more positive when compared to a normal rap song. One of the most famous jazz rap songs of all time is Cantaloop by US3. Overall, jazz rap is an upbeat form of music, great for dancing!

Glitch Glitch is one of the most creative forms of fusion music. This genre is a fusion of electronic music and the sounds of the errors popping up on computer screens or any electronic device whatsoever like records and CD’s which have been damaged. This disarray of sounds are brought together to form a piece of music. The style arose in the 1990’s in Germany and was popularized by artists like Aphex Twin and Autechre. This genre is an acquired taste but has a huge fan following nevertheless.

Drag Drag is an amalgamation of house music, hip-hop, noise music, dark ambient music and even industrial music. This genre basically incorporates the occult in some form in its songs, the yesteryear goth bands being a strong point of influence. This term was invented by the electronic artist Pictureplane in 2009. Today, several styles of music are considered to be in the fusion genre, many of which started with basic jazz or rock elements. From time immemorial, people have invented new genres of music by mixing two or more different styles of music. These unorthodox fusion genres have created exciting new content. The

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VYOMA SHAH

Technology in Music Education

Education technology is entering an exciting space and the music education industry been quick to jump on the bandwagon.

While there is still a lot left to explore and imbibe, below are some trends that can go a long way in revolutionizing classroom experiences:

VR and AR Augmented and virtual reality can truly inject life into a potentially drab lesson. Google Expeditions, a free application on iOS and Google Play can be employed as a powerful teaching tool. It has a plethora of music related VR tours and AR possibilities. Remember how dreary history lessons can be? Well, through VR, students can learn about the history of jazz by walking around in New Orleans, no matter where in the world they might be. Through AR, students can learn about various medieval instruments, jazz instruments and the working mechanisms of different musical instruments. Another example is Teach U: VR, which offers students a creative platform to play piano and drums in VR. Using Google Cardboard, students can play virtual instruments and interact with others in the same virtual space .

AI and Machine Learning Machine Learning is helping students practise more productively. Often, students practise away from their teacher’s supervision and hence might end up practising incorrectly. SmartMusic is one platform which provides students instant feedback as they practise . It signals students when they miss a beat or play a wrong note. Through this website, teachers can create customized classrooms, where they can generate sight reading exercises, import or create music using an in-built music notation tool and send personalized assignments to students.

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Magenta, a research project initially started by the Google research team has set out to prove that machine learning can be used to activate the dormant creative potential in everyone. For example, one aspect of it is the Magenta Studio, a plug in for Ableton Live, which lets students apply five tools, namely Continue, Groove, Generate, Drumify

and Interpolate, to their MIDI files. Music production teachers could utilize this technology to stir up creativity amongst their students and help them explore the many different directions that their compositions could take.

Blended Learning This combination of classroom learning and online learning has subsequently created the flipped classroom – where students watch pre-recorded instructional videos and go through handouts beforehand. Since students do a fair amount of independent study in this model of learning, teachers can really focus on developing their students’ critical thinking abilities and on practical application of theoretical concepts in the physical classroom. Kannu, a learning management system released by Kadenze, is making blended learning possible in music and arts education.

Learning Analytics Learning Analytics, though still a relatively new paradigm in education, is gradually garnering the importance that it deserves. As a burgeoning number of students begin to engage with online learning applications, the expanse of digital traces they leave behind is prodigious. Collecting and analyzing this data can really help understand how students learn, how they engage with the content of the courses being delivered, the rate of their progress, reasons for underperformance, frequency of practise and many other such essential criteria. This information can help to develop and tailor curriculums and programs that ensure better results, thus building a culture of adaptive learning. There are numerous tools out there such as Yet Analytics, Wooclap, Knewton etc., that organizations can integrate in their long term education strategies. Technology has taken the education industry by storm. As educators, we can either sit and brood about how computers might someday supplant us humans or instead, put our minds to how we can better reap the benefits of this technological boom and deliver cutting-edge educational experiences – the choice is ours!

HOW TO SELL MUSIC IN INDIA

SUMIT SHARMA “Free”, It’s the most fascinating keyword people use while searching songs on internet and it’s not good for artists. There was a time when people used to buy cassettes and CDs of their favorite songs and artists; in 1994 Altaf Raja released the album Tum To Thehre Pardesi, which sold 4 million units. In 2000s, artists and bands like Sonu Nigam, Adnan Sami, Himesh Reshammiya, KK, Jal, Euphoria and many other Indie artists became popular and sold millions of units but after the digital revolution of music industry in 2010s, the only thing increased is Music Piracy. In 2010, famous Indie Rock Band Indian Ocean released their sixth album 16/330 Khajoor Road online for free. As of 2017, the number of smartphones in the country stood at 468 million, according to Kantar IMRB the number of internet users will reach 627 million by the end of 2019. So yes! This is the right time to release music online. But majority of listeners still don’t buy music online, so how to sell music? In May 2017, Saregama launched a retro device in the digital age, called Carvaan. Saregama sold 1 million units of this portable audio player in 16 months. The key reasons behind its success are curation of most played 5k songs of Saregama on various streaming platforms and emotions, it’s a box of nostalgia because of its classic design, content and TG. But what if you don’t have hundreds of songs in your catalogue ? And even if you have a huge catalogue but not the resources to sell or promote it? So here are some ways to sell your music in India (2019) Music Streaming Platforms - Gaana has become the first music app in the country to cross 100 million monthly active users (MAU) in March 2019. Apps like JioSaavn, Wynk Music, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, Hungama Music with millions of MAU can give you the listeners you seek. The

world’s most popular paid music streaming service Spotify also debuted in India with 2 million active users. Music streaming platforms can really help you earn money through royalty based on number of plays. These platforms are now expanding their businesses in regional markets, so you don’t need to worry about the language and genre of your music. IPRS – Indian Performing Right Society helps Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music to legitimize use of copyrighted Music by Music users by issuing them Licences and collect Royalties from Music Users(Public Performances, TV, Radio, OTT, Ringtone/CRBT), for and on behalf of Authors/ Composers. Events – It is difficult to sell CDs and merchandise at festivals and concerts but Delhi based music platform Songdew came up with the idea of selling music through QR codes and surprisingly it’s an effective way to encourage people to buy music. If you mention your social media handles after the performance, you can surely ask the audience to buy your songs by scanning the QR code. Just take a print out of the QR Code and put it in your event through standee, marketing collateral or A4 sheet. Sync-licensing - Music licensing is the most efficacious way to get your songs placed in TV shows, movies, radio, videos, commercials, etc. Companies like CD Baby and Tunecore help artists to place their music in films and TV shows through their licensing services. There are many ways to earn through licensing like Covers, Hospitality(hotels and restaurants), Retail (Malls and clothing stores), Radio and TV though cue sheets. Apart from these fruitful ways, you can also collaborate with some brands to sell your music by advertising their products, Imperial Blue cassettes & CDs is one of the most popular example of it.

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SOUVIK CHAKRABORT Y

HOW IS IT LIKE TO BE GOOD IN ARTS AND SCIENCE AND WIN A NOBEL PRIZE TOO? Did you know that CV Raman, the renowned scientist known for his ground breaking contributions on the scattering of light was also a music aficionado. Raman, the glorified intellect has for years studied the phenomena of the much coveted jugalbandi or the synergy between art and science. His curiosity lie in the production of a note through a sound and vice versa. Raman was influenced and inspired by an interplay of global and intrinsic factors. Around the 1890s, the British physicist Lord Rayleigh studied through experiments, the vibrations produced by bells. During his stint as an Assistant Accountant-General in Kolkata, Raman was working with the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science (IACS). The IACS and the popular philosophers of the time were interconnected in the essence that the ideas, thoughts and the beliefs around music and culture were already in the air. The medical practitioner to Swami Ramakrishna, was the founder of the IACS. Raman was caught up in the vortex of the jugalbandi that he had sought out to pursue. So, he dived deep into the mechanisms of the Indian percussions, especially the tabla and the mridangam. He was particularly intrigued by the manner in which the instruments were built. So in 1919, he started off with his studies of how a mridangam is built. Raman's studies were soon shifted to the studying of the nuances of the so-far unexplained phenomena of optics. So, for the next few years, Raman would crack what is going to be famously called the Raman effect. He had made a mindboggling discovery that when light traverses through a transparent medium, some of the deflected light changes the wavelength and its amplitude. It is his finding that answered the most simple natural phenomena like why is the sky blue? Until 1935, Raman had just built upon this treasure of knowledge and finally the time came for his paper in the 'Proceeding of Indian Academy of Sciences'. Raman had found out that the ‘Mridangam’ and the ‘Tabla’ had a character in their tones. The magic of the sustained vibration was a common denominator for both the instruments. This was possible largely because of the heaviness of the wooden shell and the symmetrical head, made of a mix of charcoal, gum and some other secret sauces. Similarly, the rigid shell of the mridangam amplified the sustained vibrations inside the instrument. The harmonic overtones were decoded to be processing itself out of the enclosed air in between the skin and the outer shell. It is amazing to find out that, the creators of the instruments had figured out a way to naturally equalize the sound of these instruments. Instead of using just one leather skin, a tabla uses three layers of skin

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sandwiched together to create sixteen tension equalizers and also maintain the hallmark of the instruments. The concentric circles on the exo-skin of the tabla ensure that it has a range of higher to lower pitches. A tabla usually produces higher pitches towards the outer region and lower pitches towards the centre. The very flattering of the smearing of dough at the centre, pitch shifts the instrument to its best output. The tonal vibrations would then be evoked through playing either from the base of the hand or the fingers. It is important to note, that Raman did not only stop at the Indian percussion instruments. He went ahead with studying the western stringed instruments as well. But, as per his deductions, the western instruments were by far, less musical than their Indian counterparts. He would even take them to have been lost in the noise of an orchestral music setup.

KADAMBARI SRIVASTAVA Taal; to put it literally, means beats. These can be taken in any sense, whether those heartbeats that tap to the tune of destiny, or those of music, the various permutations and combinations of set notes which open endless possibilities. But then there are those few which can capture that beat right from the centre of the heart, only to curate it into something so powerful that it reverberates through time. A.R. Rahman is one such magic composer. And one of the most beautiful Bollywood compositions that he gave to us in the past two decades was in the movie Taal — the 1999 blockbuster starring Aishwarya Rai and Akshay Khanna. The movie was a love story spun amidst the backdrop of music, of two lovers breaking apart and coming together by the musical stroke of fate. Music, here, played the protagonist, the narrator, and who better than Rahman to do justice to such a scenario? But, did you know that while most of the movie titles of the time were more or similar — long and ambiguous with the same old words roped in — it was Taal wherein the movie’s name was inspired by the music curated for it, in sync with love’s pain, loss, and ultimate finding. Yes. Upon the release of the movie’s soundtrack to widespread acclaim, director Subhash Ghai revealed the same. “I credit the name of the movie to composer A.R.Rahman. This movie is a romance and I could have called it any thing – Dil, Pyaar, Hum Bhaag Gaye, but it was SB's presence in the movie that gave me the confidence to call it Taal. Taal means music and music means Taal. The whole credit goes to A.R.Rahman and Anand Bakshi. SB kept me awake many nights, but after listening to the songs, I felt it was worth all the trouble,” Ghai said.

Time has been kind to the movie and its soundtrack. In the times of social media when tides can turn any day in favour of something or against it, Taal has been rocking the boat steadily, like a cool stream amidst high tides. Even if Ghai wouldn’t have revealed it, it was an apt title to the movie. After all, it’s music which plays the role of narrator, mediator, a character in its own capacity. Each note, each song has been spun together so lovingly that it is in stark contrast to the lazy compositions of today that hardly experiment and mostly rely on the popularity of the old which are recreated to suit the forced narratives. The credit of Taal’s success goes as much to the music as to the other aspects, more so, if one dares say. So it is not surprising that it is named after the very beat which created it. Taal was the story of two star-crossed lovers, who met as music wafted through the beauty of nature, and fell in love as the tunes formed a song of its own. As class difference created a valley between them as misunderstanding crept in, it was eventually which cleared those and brought them together too. Music is not only the backdrop of the movie, but is omnipresent throughout the narrative, its presence felt in the highs and lows and in the pleasant plateaus of the plot. The music of Taal was as essential to it as the screenplay itself, and just when one thought Rahman couldn’t do it better, he went ahead and outdid himself. The music of Taal will remain in the hearts forever, as the fusion of genres and instruments will come alive with the immortal words of Anand Bakshi, and the story of love will live.

Nostalgic Notes Taal - A Musical Marvel Beyond Years...

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MEGHAN KHARSYNRAP

Performance

Anxiety?

THE STAGE DOESN’T BITE!

In 2013 at an iHeartRadio Concert at New York, Jonathan Knight of New Kids On The Block walked off the stage after he was unable to sing the words of his solo in song “Survive You” from their album 10. That day fans were also met with an apology from Knight on twitter. Knight has an interesting history with performance. He left the band in 1994 to live a reclusive life for 3 years. He then pursued a career in real estate and became immensely successful. He only reunited with the band in 2008. Knight is generally outspoken about his anxiety. He has talked about his panic attacks on stage extensively on Oprah as well as the genetic history of his anxiety. This feeling is relatable in several musical circles but also outside it. Sometimes performing on stage can be debilitating. It’s not the incidental excitement or the nerves before a gig that really bothers people. It’s the exhausting process of constant fear many weeks before a performance. Then finally, during the performance, the exhaustion of constantly evaluating ones musical value in real time. It makes a person self critical. I personally am always looking for some mistake even after a good performance. Some musicians never feel satisfied with the performance and this could be the bane of the performer. The American Psychiatric Association states that performance anxiety is a subtype of social anxiety disorder (SAD). If a person suffers from persistent fear for 6 or more months and it affects their lifestyle- socially, at work or in general then they’re likely to have SAD.

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It’s crazy how many idols suffer from music performance anxiety. There’s Eddie Van Halen, Adele, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Lorde and even Ozzy Osbourne. Sometimes it takes just one accident that could make you feel performance anxiety for life like with Barbara Streisand. In 1967 at a Concert in Central Park, New York, Barbra Streisand couldn’t recollect

the lyrics of her song. Soon after she developed Music Performance Anxiety and left the stage for 27 years. So I asked a couple of local artists from Mumbai how they felt about performing on stage. Brothers, Joshua and Samuel Sinate told me that performing for them was always fun and effortless. They enjoy both the music and the interaction from the crowd. Joshua tells me that he’s never based how good a performance is depending on the audience’s reaction because when he plays classical music the audience is generally quiet and they’re more active when he plays fun gigs. So he’s never felt the need to overanalyse them. Both musicians also feel like any nerves they have about a performance can be countered with practice. Avneesh from Bombay Bandook also had a positive outlook to performing. He tells me he tries not to be to critical of himself after his performance. It’s okay to have days when you’re off, you can just bounce back. So why do only some musicians experience such performance anxiety? There could be many factors involved. It could start from a traumatic experience like with Barbara Streisand or genetic like with Knight. It could be a foundational problem, a developmental problem or a problem owing to self esteem. For some Musicians a bad performance holds a lot of weight. It could make them feel like quitting their passion because they think they’ll probably never get better. One small mistake could make them feel like they ruined their performance not only for themselves but for their band and that they don’t deserve to be in it. Some anxiety is always healthy and normal before a performance but in excess can prove to be toxic. Fortunately today, there are many ways to help yourself achieve calm before the performance from psycho/talk/cognitive behavior therapy to other medication. But change can only start when the anxiety ridden musician seeks for it.

AKARSH SHEKHAR

Top 10 Keyboard Riffs of the 80s What is a riff? In general terms, it's that part of a song which people recognize immediately. The intro of Deep Purple’s- Smoke On The Water or Guns N' Roses'- Sweet Child O' Mine, for example, are songs that invoke a sense of familiarity and make you want to hum along to it (although these aren’t keyboard riffs, these intros are mentioned to help the uninitiated understand what a riff is).

Understanding The Riff: Even if you have no memory of the lyrics or the solos, you'll recognize certain songs the moment they are played, based on the intro riff. Even if you don't recognize it completely, your mind will still go ‘I have heard this tune somewhere’. In absolute musical terms, a riff is a repeated chord pattern, series of notes, or musical phrase. Riffs can be heard in genres such as rock, metal, jazz, blues, country and pop music. 80s Riffs: Before the eccentricities of the 80s came along, the term ‘riff’ was only applied to the electric guitar driven music of rock/ metal bands such as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Judas Priest. The keyboards were mainly used to add an ‘atmospheric’ element in the background. The 80s plucked the keyboard from the background and placed it firmly at the center of every song. In fact, the most popular and beloved 80s tunes had prominent keyboard/ synthesizer/piano parts. Their keyboard riffs marked the imminent arrival of something awesome and epic. Here's a list of ten of the best ones from the 80’s:

1. Europe – The Final Countdown If you still don’t know what a riff is, after reading “The Final Countdown” the tune that instantly popped in your mind, is called a riff. This song probably has the most memorable keyboard riff in the world.

2. A-ha – Take on Me In addition to the iconic keyboard riff, this innovative music video from the 80s, was the highlight of animation and went on to win 6 awards.

4. Van Halen – Jump When you hear the name Eddie Van Halen, you usually associate it with guitar wizardry ‘erupting’ out of your speakers. However, in 1984, he took his enormous talents to the keyboard and created one of the most memorable keyboard riffs and it’s bound to make you jump every time you hear it. 5. Harold Faltermeyer – Axel F Made popular by the Crazy Frog era, this riff was where it all started. 6. Journey – Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) If you aren’t already familiar with this song’s ‘sobad-it’s-good’ music video from the 80s, you would’ve definitely heard it in the Tron: Legacy movie. 7. Bon Jovi – Runaway Before Bon Jovi was selling out stadiums with Livin’ on a Prayer, they made a stellar entrance into the music world with Runaway. This song about teenage rebellion is driven by its iconic keyboard riff. 8. Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark This song is so good it has an instantly recognizable keyboard riff and, it even has Courteney Cox, before she became famous as Monica in Friends! 9. Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters The Ghostbusters theme song was the anthem of all children in the 80s and honestly, it’s all thanks to that famous keyboard riff! 10. Toto - Africa One of the most recognizable intros, a pop classic, this song has been taking us to Africa since the 80s with that brilliant keyboard riff.

3. Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up If you haven’t been Rick Rolled, then listening to this super hit’s keyboard intro riff will make you want to wear trench coats and dance to Astley’s deep voice and smooth moves.

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KARISHMA D'MELLO

A Brief Overview of Music’s History (Part I):

Journey to the Renaissance We can’t quite trace music back to a time zero. A time before the first chord was struck, the first note played or the first time we could even comprehend or conceptualize what it was. But it would be safe to assume, that for as long as sound has existed, music has too. Either way, if you want to venture down that particular rabbit hole, there are two ways to go about it. One is the historical (and rather, anthropological perspective), the other is through musicology – a more critical analysis of the evolution of music. This, however, is simply a brief overview of some major moments in musical history and what we know (or think we know) of the times surrounding them! When we speak of prehistoric periods, there’s no way to confirm anything and the best that can be done is guesswork. Solid, evidence-based guesswork, but they are still assumptions, nevertheless. Some of this evidence, includes musical writings and compositions from Syria, along with “Seikilos Epitaph”, which is recognized as the oldest composition yet. A few years back, archeologists also found bone flutes in the caves of Southern Germany. These were estimated to be approximately 35,000 years old. Countries have their own histories intertwined with music. The Indian roots are always traced back to religious texts of the Vedas, more notably the Samaveda. King Jamshid of Persia was even supposed to have “invented music” during his reign. This, of course, is in direct contradiction with the Biblical texts that credits “Jubal” with this honor. The bible has always had several references to a rich culture of music. The concept of “litany”, even in its earliest forms involved a profound co-relation with music. But to truly wrap your head around the impact of the Catholic Church on music, you would have to move into the Medieval ages and the Renaissance, where it really hit its stride. The Liturgical music under the rule of Pope Gregory

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I and the (coerced?) spread of the Gregorian Chant and the development of Polyphony (two voiced harmony), and the emphasis of notation and composition, all owe to this era of medieval, catholic dominance in the West. Guido of Arezzo, an Italian monk was credited with creating a system of learning music by ear – solfege. Meanwhile, in Germany, music was dominated by the “Minnesang”. However, these were also times of epidemic and disease. Following the Black Death, apocalyptic musings took precedence over everything else. French forms of poetic musical expression developed into varying expressions of “ballades”, “virelai”, “lai”, and “rondeau”. Despite the emphasis on religion, there was a group of unwilling conformists who established themselves in secular music. This would then create the foundation for the music of the Renaissance. Renaissance was the year of skepticism and enlightenment. People were ready to move beyond chants and into more complex forms of musical expression. Josquin Desprez, (the “prince” of music), was one of the most notable composers of that time, owing to his affiliations with the courts and the Sistine Chapel alike. However, this development was short-lived. Pope Pius’s ‘counter-reformative’ ideology eliminated the use of instruments and put back the emphasis on harmony and voices again, making one exception with the permitted use of the organ. The emphasis on voices spawned the practice of castration, and the castrati - a group of singing men, castrated to preserve their young, falsetto voices. Why wouldn’t they just use women, you ask? At the time, all women were prohibited from singing in church. Stay tuned for next month’s issue where we go into the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods of classical styling.

AKARSH SHEKHAR

How Music Re-tunes Our Brain What is the favourite part of favourite song? Why do we sing or dance to music? Why do we love the theme song to our favourite TV show? Some of us even know the lyrics to F.R.I.E.N.D.S- “I’ll be there for you” by heart and some of us sing the melody of the Game Of Thrones theme song as if we wrote it – it’s in our memory forever! Music has the ability to go deep and move us. We have all been on the dance floor when “our jam” comes on and you just have to pick up the pace and move with the music. You had no choice. Contemplate that for a moment, why is that? Why does it feel so good to match your movements to the beat? Let’s take a look at why we remember our favourite song, why we tap our feet or why we turn to music when get emotional. Music has involved more parts of the brain than any other function that people perform. The relationships between the elements of melody and harmony: in tones, intervals, chords, and scales or Tonality, for example, affect the Prefrontal Cortex, the Cerebellum and the Temporal Lobe. This means that extremely processed information from various sensory modalities is brought here in a precise fashion to construct memory, perception, and diverse cognitive processes. Temporal factors help make events predictable. A predictable time produces expectation and this anticipation allows tapping to the beat (for example). If there is no anticipation we are forever a millisecond behind, waiting to react to the sound. In other words, we remember the tone of the song, even if we heard it just once (creating memories) with the help of these parts of the brain. We keep up with the next part of the song, a millisecond before, in

anticipation of that part (we know what’s coming) because of these parts too! In the case of Rhythm, left frontal cortex, left parietal cortex, and right cerebellum are all activated. Motor areas are activated we tap our feet. Motor control is the function by which humans and animals use their brain or cognitive processing to activate and coordinate the muscles and limbs involved in the performance of a motor skill. So that’s why feel like dancing or tapping our feet. Brain activity and rhythm perception are carried out by these 3 parts! Lastly let’s look at Lyrics. Areas like the Visual Cortex- (part of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing visual information), Wernicke's area of the brain (responsible for helping us to understand language) and motors and Broca's area (determining meaning of sentences or language comprehension) are all used when we read lyrics. We contemplate on the words and get emotionally moved because that’s what music makes us feel with the addition of lyrics to a song. The psychology of music makes it clear how profoundly important music association is to the success of individuals. Yes, we all listen, yes, we dance and yes, we sing. But do we really understand what happens to us behind the scene? There’s more to why we like music than just singing along to a catchy beat or having fun at karaoke. Dozens of receptors in our brain respond to different musical aspects like lyrics, tone, rhythm and determining the qualities we personally favour and do not favour. If we let music just go in one ear and out the other we can never learn how to interpret your brain’s response to music and benefits of listening to it. The

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NAVYA C

Instrumental Greats in Carnatic Music The world of Carnatic music is quite vivid and versatile not just in terms of vocal performers, but also with wide range of instrumental players. The genre was essentially much with the lead vocal performer and accompanying instrumental artists in the background. Veena in particular was elaborately used for its grandeur, royal nature and the convenience of playing sliding notes effectively. The lead percussion instrument was mridangam, kanjira and ghatam along with morsing. But as times passed by, Carnatic music adapted many instruments from global arena as well and embraced them as their own. For example, a western classical instrument like violin was adapted convincingly to Carnatic music and became one of the lead instruments as well. Some of the greatest solo Carnatic violinists include L.Subramaniam and Lalgudi Jayaraman. Interestingly, another western instrument like mandolin had striking sounds that emote so perfectly for Carnatic music. However, the sliding notes (gamakas) is quite a challenge for a mandolin artist to play. But legends like U. Srinivas brought a star status to the instrument by using electric pick up, beautiful expression and proved time and again that- the instrumentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sounding depends on the expertise of an artist. The expertise of U.Srinivas was so brilliant that many people still believe that mandolin is a Carnatic instrument! The modern age of Carnatic music also witnessed a Jazzy instrument like Saxophone was adapted to Carnatic music by popular artist Kadri Gopalnath. He made the instrument

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sound appealing, and breathtaking with the play of notes. Another biggest advantage and challenge with playing Carnatic music on an instrument is to present the musicality along with the bhava aspect of the composition. These two need to be done at the same instance and that leads to much universality of the attempt. The instrumental greats over the ages have brought up some miracles to Carnatic music with their ease of experimentation and striking imagination. The passionate instrumental players are also imbibing western music concepts such as harmonies into Carnatic music. A great example of this is fantastic violin duo Ganesh-Kumaresh who are one of the leading performers currently. Another impressive happening is the Carnatic instrumental performers exploring the likes of Rock and Roll, Jazz, and Blues by bringing it to the Indian audience. Guitar Prasanna in particular has been doing this with tremendous ease and perfection. He brings up the beauty of a Saint Thyagaraja composition by seamlessly moving to a Jimi Hendrix number thereby enthralling the audience. Rajhesh Vaidya on the other hand, has made Veena not just royal but also contemporary and trendy by playing it with new techniques and mastery. All in all, the direction and dimension of Carnatic music has expanded tenfold with the advent of much instrumental players all over the field. We need more such experiments and choice of funky instruments to reveal the beauty of Carnatic music. Isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t this enough to say that music is universal- irrespective of the genre?

ADAM AUDIO T SERIES REVIEW About a year ago, ADAM Audio released their competitively priced T5V near field monitor, along with its larger sibling, the T7V. As a follow-up, Adam have now unveiled the T10S, a subwoofer designed and matched for use with either the T5V or T7V. Admittedly, the T5V and T7V can already produce bottom end down to 45Hz and 39Hz respectively, but the addition of a subwoofer, especially a matched one, makes this important region of your mix more clear. The T5V is, more specifically, a near-field studio monitor with a 5” woofer, bass port and ribbon tweeter. The T5V and T7V have on board DSP-powered crossovers, and when used in conjunction with the T10S, no crossover is needed as the sub itself has a selectable crossover that matches the crossover/ high-pass filter on the near-field monitors you’ve chosen. The T series of speakers overall are really highly specked for their price point. ADAM Audio consistently deliver great products, but they also deliver products in top-tier price points because of the sheer quality of the design, components and construction. The T5V and T7V feature matching U-ART 1.9” accelerated ribbon tweeters and a HPS wave-guide to ensure those sweet and balanced highs hit your ears. The polypropylene woofer and rear-

firing bass-reflex port handle the mids and lows, while the construction of the speaker itself handles all those vibrations ranging from 39Hz up to 25kHz, and is capable of withstanding the max SPL of 106dB for a pair. The T10S is powered by a single Class D amplifier, which feeds the 1x10 down firing speaker as mentioned before. The sub can reproduce frequencies all the way down to 28Hz, and generally up tp 120Hz unless the crossover is bypassed and you’ll be hearing up to 300Hz. A max output of 104dB will keep your neighbours bopping along to your mixes. Overall, the T series of speakers are designed to be used together and function especially well when used in this manner. The T5V and T7V are great speakers in their own right, but the T10S sub brings them to life. Despite their price point, the T Series near-field monitors aren’t budget and would function really well in a professional setting even as a main monitor. They’re balanced, honest, but still enjoyable to listen to - a feat that not many speakers manage to achieve, they’re usually one but not the other. You’ll be confident, your clients will be blown away, and you’ll spend less time noticing issues in mixes because the T Series translates so well.

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MUSKAN GOSWAMI

7 of the coolest music apps to download

Smartphones have helped us in staying connected with many of our hobbies and interests in a snap. If being glued to music and everything related to it is one of your favorite past times, then you have reached the right place. Following are some of the most suave music apps which you should consider on downloading:

1. Shazam A one-of-a-kind app which is popular worldwide. The app lets its users identify music, with just one tap. If often happens that we come across songs which we haven’t heard before, to know the song you can simply search it on Shazam and the app will show search the song and show you the result in just a few seconds. On this app, you can also watch music videos, read lyrics along with the playing music and do much more.

2. Gaana An Indian origin app which completely took over the hearts of the Indian music lovers. It was one of the first music streaming apps available in India. The app offers a collection of over 30 million songs in various languages. Gaana has an in-built voice assistant to whom you can command to play any song as per your liking. Moreover, this assistant can also help you in identifying a song playing nearby you. There is also an option for subscription which allows you premium privileges in the app.

3. Saavn Another Indian origin music app which is quite popular among music lovers. This app offers a wide collection of songs from across the world. You can listen to international songs as well as regional and Bollywood songs. Among other features which are offered by the app, playing online radios is one a supremely efficient one. The app also has a category named “Saavn Originals” where one can find several interesting podcasts to listen to. Many more services are available for you to enjoy after you subscribe to them.

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4. Mixcloud

This unique app allows its users to know what their contacts are listening to. The app introduces you to artists, albums and also lets you choose from ambient, deep house, beats, and much more. Mixcloud is undoubtedly the best platform to build a DJ’s profile. Here, you can also explore fellow DJ’s and clubbers and stay up to date with their latest mixes. Furthermore, you can listen to more than 15 million radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts made by professional creates. On top of this, you can stream audio shows for free anytime, anywhere.

5. Sound Cloud A German-based music streaming app which contains the largest collection of international music. The app is extensively popular for its massive library of songs that is created by independent artists from across the globe. Here, you can also upload your music for free and get discovered by people worldwide.

6. Spotify Spotify is world’s most popular music streaming app which recently made its debut in India. The app is a great platform for exploring new music and listen to your favorite songs. According to your music preference, Spotify sends you recommendations for similar songs and curates playlists for you accordingly. Many more features are available once you become its subscriber.

7. YouTube Music YouTube recently released its YouTube Music app, which is a perfect amalgamation of good music collection and visuals. Here, you can listen to specially curated playlists for you and explore songs of any language or origin. The app allows you to download official music videos and also provides a platform for you to upload your own videos and songs. Unlike the YouTube app, where you cannot play music videos in the background, YouTube Music allows you to play official music videos in background, ad-free. Isn’t that cool!

JANET CATHERINA

JACOB COLLIER Makes India Debut in Mumbai

Grammy award-winning musician Jacob Collier just made his debut in India to a sold-out crowd at the NCPA, Mumbai, courtesy of music and event management company Mixtape. You think you know what to expect from him after watching his YouTube videos, but he comes out on stage and proves you wrong within the first five minutes. One thing becomes clear then: this is not just another concert. Of course, one could have already guessed that from seeing the audience that turned up for the show—everyone in the music industry, from Bollywood music composers to indie musicians to music critics and enthusiasts. Amidst this close-knit community where everyone knows everyone, it feels less like a concert and more like a gettogether hosted by Jacob Collier. Joined on stage by three incredible multi-instrumentalists— MARO, Robin Mullarkey, and Christian Euman—Collier starts off the show with hits like ‘With The Love In My Heart’ and ‘Hideaway.’ He sings and bounces around the stage in his signature Peter Pan-esque way from piano to drums to keys to bass. As impressive as it is to watch, the true magic happens when Collier begins to play the instrument that he plays best—the audience. From foot-stomping to bird whistles, the musically-proficient audience indulges him in all his directions. If there was ever a disconnect felt while listening to his music on a device, it fades into nothing when he's right in front of you. At this point, his music isn't there just to appreciate, it's there to experience. The initial excitement in the auditorium dies down and gives way for some intimacy when MARO takes the lead with ‘Feel.’ Then, with the audience's rapt attention, Collier goes on to

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demonstrate his musical prowess with his custom-built vocal harmonizer. While he’s known for his spectacular music ability, it’s interesting to note how good of a performer he is as well. Although choreographed, everything from the way he moves to the way he talks is endearing and engaging, and the crowd responds in kind with standing ovations and spontaneous harmonies. During the show, the young musician, who is signed to Quincy Jones Productions, takes some time to tell us about Djesse, his four-volume album with 50 songs that he wrote over the course of a year or so. The first two volumes, which have been released, feature collaborations with the likes of guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and vocal phenom Jojo. With a laugh, Collier explains that the third volume deals with negative space and will probably not be well-liked, while the fourth volume is a mystery altogether. And if there was any confusion about what genre Collier’s music falls under, he cheekily describes it as “Jacobian music.” A few minutes after Collier and the band leave the stage, they come back for a much-anticipated encore. This time, Collier opts for the simplicity of an acoustic guitar and a melodica as he performs his latest single, ‘It Don’t Matter,’ sitting crosslegged on the stage with the audience sitting right in front of him on the floor. Then, the show ends on a magical note with crowd favorite ‘Blackbird.’ People leave concerts with a variety of feelings, but on this night, there is only one thought on everyone’s mind as they step out of Tata Theatre—that it was an absolute privilege to have witnessed this.

In conversation with

LOST STORIES First things first, tell us about your latest single ‘Bombay Dreams’. What was the idea behind it? The idea for Bombay Dreams started in the summer of 2015 when Kavita Seth sent us the vocal idea and we started building a vibe around it. After multiple versions, we finally got a vibe going which we sent to KSHMR and he loved it. He worked his magic on it and that’s how Bombay Dreams happened.

How did the thought of collaborating with the amazing Kavita Seth come about? Tell us more about the collaboration We had already collaborated with Kavita Seth on our previous release Mahi before this. We were a fan of her writing & her unique voice since a long time and it fit perfectly with the kind of sound we were planning on doing.

You have also roped in ace producer KSHMR. Take us through the production of the song and your collaboration with him. KSHMR has been supporting Lost Stories for a long time now. We knew we had to work on a track together ever since we heard each other’s stuff but we never found the perfect time and vibe for it. Bombay Dreams happened at the right time and we had the right vibe for the song that Niles really liked. This collaboration was not only a dream collaboration for us but also a lot of Lost Stories & KSHMR fans across the globe.

What were the best moments for you while creating the single? I think when we decided to name it Bombay Dreams was the best moment for the song because it gave the song an identity and a feeling of nostalgia according to me. That just elevated the song to the next level.

Could you elaborate a bit about the kind of tech set up you’ve used for the single? Both KSHMR & I make music in our bedroom studios. We both use Ableton Live and that’s what made the process so simple. The flute was recorded live at a studio and we recorded Zaeden’s vocals over the iPhone mic I think.

How has the single been received so far and what are some of the best comments you’ve received? The reaction has been amazing. People love what we have done on the song as a team and thanks to our awesome management, the team at Dharma and our friends, the song is spreading everywhere. Best comments are always the ones where people notice very minor details in the song which you spent months on. It’s always great to know that people are listening to your work with such concentration.

Tell us about your upcoming projects There’s so much music in the pipeline that we don’t know what to put out next!

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AN INSTANT CONNECTION: SENNHEISER ENABLES MUSICIANS TO ROAM FREE WITH XS WIRELESS DIGITAL

A good connection doesn’t require being tied down. Wireless means no obstacles, no distractions, just effortless audio, every time. Sennheiser empowers musician with XS Wireless Digital, a liberating wireless solution which allows them to move across the stage without any hassle and makes it convenient to practice in a rehearsal room. Lose the cables but keep the connection. XS Wireless Digital is like any classic romance, it’s elegant to see, complex in theory, but intuitive in action. These might sound like strong words for a wireless solution, but like any love story, you know it when you experience it. It’s an instant connection. XS Wireless Digital is essentially a cable replacement. It works digitally, using a 2.4 GHz transmission to create a wireless peerto-peer connection. With a simple touch of a button, step away from the cables and maintain a faithful connection. As a liberating solution for the musician moving about on stage, or a convenient approach to practicing in the rehearsal room, XS Wireless Digital empowers your inner creativity by allowing you to roam free. It means interacting with the crowd like you never have before and enables you to take your performance to the next level. It’s the power to turn audio limitations into audio opportunities. Operation has been made as easy as possible via a single button: Pressing the buttons on both the transmitter and the receiver will power up and automatically link the units, clicking either button on the receiver or transmitter will mute the audio signal and pressing and holding both buttons again will power the system down. The transmitter is connected to a handheld mic, a lavalier mic or an instrument, while the receiver can be directly connected to a mixing desk, a guitar or bass amp or the mic respectively. . The transmitter and receiver units can be conveniently recharged via USB using the included charging cable and work for up to five hours on a single charge. Frankly, it’s a simple but versatile tool that means more than we’ve had the time to discover. What we do know is that it works,

and if you’re looking to change your relationship with cables and frequencies, then you need to try it out. Who knows? You might find you have an instant connection. No more cables A good connection doesn’t require being tied down. Wireless means no obstacles, no distractions, just effortless audio, every time. Empower your performance with the ability to roam free; lose the cables but keep the connection. One touch ease-of-use It’s simple, each XS Wireless Digital has only one button. Press to power up and link simultaneously, click once to mute, and hold to power down. It’s as easy as plugging in a cable, minus the cable part. Digital for worldwide operation Your sound should be as boundless as your ideas. Forget about having to set frequencies and step into the world of digital. Using a 2.4 GHz transmission, sync and go anywhere, anytime—effortlessly. Features • One touch ease-of-use • 2.4 GHz digital transmission for worldwide operation • 75m range (250ft) in optimal conditions • Up to 5 hours battery life on a single charge • Switch between multiple transmitters linked to one receiver • Configure any combination of transmitters and receivers • Mute from either transmitter or receiver The

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What equipment do you use? Monitoring Section: Dynaudio M2’s; Neumann KH120; Yamaha HS5s Preamps: Neve 511, UAD 4710d; SSL SiX; Apollo 8p Compressors: Manley Vari-MU; WA76; SSL Six EQ: Wes Audio Hyperion Microphones: A whole bunch of 28 odd microphones ranging from C414, KM184 to U87 and GAP R1 Active.

Pieces of gear you cannot live without Our most recent acquisition the WES Audio Hyperion has easily become my favorite piece of gear. The blend of this Analog and Digital technology is the future of Audio Gear. I also cannot live without the Manley VARI-MU, my all-time favorite buss compressor. Most importantly, my coffee machine.

Philosophy or reasoning behind gear choices Since our studio works with varied engineers and producers it does get quite hard to find the gear that appeals to everyone. We have a very simple process for bringing in new gear into the studio, we test it meticulously in recording scenarios Tell us about the space We’re Gray Spark Audio a recording studio based in Pune (MH), and have an internal discussion with our engineers if it really fits for the kind of work the studio brings in. and we specialize in the Art of Sound. Gray Spark Audio is a complete Music Production and Audio Post Production Facility What’s your next buy for the studio? based out of Pune; a couple of hours away from Mumbai. We are Our next addition is most likely going to be the famed 500 series housed in a 3500 sq.ft .facility with state of the art equipment and an acclaimed team of audio engineers. Our space facilitates SSL G Buss compressor and a large diaphragm Telefunken Microphone that we’ve been looking at for a while now. 4 studios, Studio A with a 700 sq.ft. live room capable of recording up to 25 musicians. houses some of the best in class microphones and preamps with and AVID HD I/O and outboard gear like the classic 1176 and Manley Vari-Mu. This facility is used mostly for live recording and film mix sessions. Studio B which is our smaller facility usually handles vocal dub, ADR, Foley, and small scale productions. Studio C is an artist/ programming room designed keeping the needs of producers and programmers in mind. Studio D our latest addition is a space designed for the students of our Audio Academy where they get trained in our facility in the art of producing a record.

Take us through the process of setting it up: The studio was first established in 2009, by Ronak under the name of “Thoughtplate Records” which eventually turned into Gray Spark Audio. The design and building the acoustics of the space took approximately 5 months of hard work to put together. The Acoustics of the studio was entirely designed and executed by Ronak. Studio A’s control Room took the longest time to build, tweaking and setting up the best possible room response with the Dynaudio M2’s. The equipment for both the studios was built slowly over time and put together finally in June of 2016. The other 3 studio spaces were built over time as the studio and the client requirements expanded.

What are some of the studio essentials you would recommend? The foundation of a good studio is great engineers that have an environment that is creative and conducive to trying out new things. We believe that it is the people who work in the studio that add the most value to the work that we do. Apart from people, it is also important to have a well-built, flat response monitoring environment with good AD/DA and preamps.

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AKARSH SHEKHAR

HOW HOWTO TOCHOOSE CHOOSETHE THE

RIGHT

DIGITAL AUDIO WORK STATION

(DAW)

A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is a computer program designed for recording, editing, mixing and mastering audio files. A DAW helps musicians record their instruments, vocals, MIDI controllers, lay down the tracks, arrange, splice, add effects and finalize the song for everyone to hear. DAWs are used across professional, semi-pro and home studios. In today's digital age, a DAW forms the backbone of a modern recording studio. Yes, a few artists prefer to record using traditional analogue means but their numbers are dwindling and digital is definitely the way forward. With the vast variety of options available, choosing the right DAW for your needs might be a little confusing. Here are some important things to consider while choosing the right DAW: • What’s your budget? – While buying a software which costs 10 times more than your budget is not recommended, you still need to see buying a DAW as an investment. Something which you might plan to use for at least 4-5 years (like a car). Even some professional studios have been using the same DAW for 10 years. Most DAW makers provide free trials so you should definitely ‘try before you buy’. • What’s your experience level? - If you’re a beginner, don't go crazy and buy something expensive and exhaustive like Pro Tools (it's such a vast tool that entire school programs have been created to properly learn this massive software, and even they might not be enough to learn everything). Start with a simpler, smaller software as a pro level tool might prove to be too daunting at the start. If you are a little experienced, definitely go for something like Pro Tools, as it will turn out to be a great investment • Which is the operating system that you have? – The Mac vs PC debate isn't only relevant for graphic designers, it applies for music producers as well. If you already have a well equipped music computer, wonderful. If not, you will need to invest in a powerful system to support the DAW you choose to buy after reading this article. Some producers (and people) are Windows only while some are Mac only. If you have the right hardware, the OS doesn't really make that much of a difference. However, if the DAW that you’ve chosen is Mac only or Windows only, then you need to get the specific OS. • Do you perform live? -Some DAWs are better suited for live performances. They have features such as easy integration with MIDI controllers, VST instruments, control surfaces and other live performance-specific gear and features. Live performance gear is usually a bit more tricky than studio gear as the scenario is a lot less controlled. So, you’ll want to make sure all of your tools flow well together. Regarding software, there are some more live-tailored features in some DAWs, such as saving presets, matching the interface with what you’ve got in front of you, etc. Some are just more geared to live performances, while others being for when you’re deep inside of the studio well-past midnight. As you become more familiar with your DAW, your workflow will speed up. If you think you have learned your DAW, learn again. Look into hot keys, extensions, etc. Develop the ability to immediately put an idea into play to keep that work flow going. Join message boards or sub-reddits about the software to brainstorm and learn with others. Buying a DAW is an investment and it's definitely not the easiest thing to learn, but once it gets going, it becomes as smooth as butter. And soon, dishing out great music will become second nature for you. The

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AKARSH SHEKHAR

FOUR Awesome Sound Design Tools for Music Production The Weaponizer The Weaponizer by Krotos Audio is the ultimate tool for designing sounds for video games or films where such sounds are needed. Craft a weapon sound asset from the ground up by layering up to four samples from a vast and searchable library for each of the temporal stages of the sound using four engines referred to as: Onset, Body, Thump and Tail modules. These modules all include synth modules that can augment the sample or be used independently, while the Tail engine allows access to a convolution reverb. Each has an independent effects chain that can include: EQ, Limiter, Saturation, Flanger, Transient Shaper,Ring Modulation, and Noise Gate. It’s sort of a self-contained four channel DAW intended to create everything from aggressive firepower to crunchy impacts and whizzing projectiles.

The plugin features sophisticated visualizations and metering giving the user the necessary relevant audio and visual feedback for creating well-crafted sounds with healthy dynamic levels. There is a great collection of general presets organized under the categories: Classic Textures, Aggressive, Edge, Experimental, Heavy, Percussive, Subtle, and Utility. Filter and Wave Shaper presets are also available to help you get started. This is a must-have plug that’s more like an instrument than an effect. Wormhole Wormhole from Zynaptiq is a multi-effects plugin capable of “alien ambiences, starship drones, monster, ambient octaveshift tails, and robot voices,” and otherworldly effects possible via complex effects chains.

Sound design for action films or gaming? this plugin is an obvious choice. But, this plugin can be used by music producers to create drum sounds using the same well-designed engines.

It use a combination of unique spectral warping, rich reverb algorithms, pitch shifting and morphing to enhance sustained sounds creating lovely evolving soundscapes or adding variety and complexity to rhythmic content.

Many Foley and FX sounds work beautifully in a musical and rhythmic context, and that their spectral richness and inherent rhythmic complexity is underappreciated. The Weaponzier is the perfect software to bridge sound effects and music production which offers producers an elegant means to expand their sound palette.

Wormhole is a perfect mechanism for awakening the hidden sounds lying dormant in the spectral content of existing material.

Have a look at the Dehumanizer and Reformer plugins by Krotos Audio in exploring sound design tools for musical applications. Trash 2 Trash 2 by iZotope takes distortion and saturation to a new level of mayhem. This will destroy whatever enters its signal chain in surprising and unusual ways sure to delight even the most demented noise-aholics. Using various filters, wave shapers, LFOs, envelopes, impulse response files, multiband dynamic processing, delay and distortion algorithms, the user can craft the distorted sounds of their dreams.

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Logic Pro: Alchemy and Sculpture Apple’s Logic Pro remains probably the most awesome DAW on the market in terms of price. The cheap $199 tag gets you a ton of virtual instruments ranging from the basic ES-M monophonic synth to its flagship instrument, Alchemy. Developed in 2009 by Camel Audio, this instrument alone is worth the price of Logic Pro. It features a searchable preset matrix to find a sound quickly based on tags and user-defined search terms. The performative morph pad allows instant access, seamless transitioning between preset variations. There are also four source modules in which wave generators or even entire EXS24 sampler instruments can be loaded. There is a granular synth engine, complex signal routing and extensive modulation capabilities that include a variety of LFOs, sequencers and multi-segment envelope generators. These are the best, well designed tools for creating unique sound design for music production.

ROLAND UNVEILS NEXT-GENERATION FANTOM KEYBOARD SERIES All-New Expandable Keyboards Offer Fluid Workflow, Modeless Operation, Deep Computer Integration, and More

Roland, a leading manufacturer and distributor of electronic musical instruments and professional video products, announces the flagship FANTOM lineup, an allnew series of professional keyboards for music production and live performance. Developed from the ground up for modern players, the next-generation FANTOM 6, FANTOM 7, and FANTOM 8 models fuse Roland’s latest synthesizer technologies with fluid operation, an intuitive color touchscreen, and deep computer integration. FANTOM instruments also offer superb playability, and feature rugged, tour-ready construction to meet the demands of everyday life on the road. Today’s professional keyboardists need an instrument that lets them compose and perform music with no creative roadblocks to slow them down. They also need to integrate seamlessly with the computer-based environments that form the backbone of modern stage and studio setups. FANTOM is designed to meet all these needs and more, giving players a new type of creative hub to realize ideas and accelerate workflow like never before. A key feature of FANTOM is its modeless interface, which makes technical limitations and confusing operation a thing of the past. Players never have to worry about what features work in which mode—FANTOM is always in full-on creative mode, providing a consistent working experience in every musical scenario. And with workspaces called Scenes, the instrument can be fully customized and instantly reconfigured for different composition and performance setups. FANTOM’s flexible and expandable sound engine leverages decades of research and development, providing an endless range of inspiring and authentic electronic, acoustic, and hybrid sounds. Players can combine different synthesis technologies along with the onboard analog filter for new and unusual sounds.

There’s also an enormous selection of effects available to enhance individual sounds and process entire mixes. With FANTOM’s potent DSP engine, players can focus on music, not rationing processing power. It’s possible to run all 16 parts with all available effects at once, complete with full patch remain for seamless transitions. There’s never any guessing about how many effects are available, or if sounds can be changed smoothly without limiting complex patches. FANTOM models offer exceptional playability and aftertouch support with Roland’s best keyboards ever, including the acclaimed PHA-50 on the 88-key FANTOM 8 and a brand new semi-weighted action on the 76-key FANTOM 7 and 61-key FANTOM 6. In addition to the color touchscreen interface, there are plenty of knobs and sliders for intuitive and immediate control, plus a dedicated synthesizer section with oscillator, filter, and envelope controls. FANTOM is a complete music composition platform, filled with creative options to build arrangements fast. Available tools include RGB pads, a classic TR-REC style pattern sequencer, real-time recording with piano roll editing, and a grid for recording and launching clips. FANTOM excels as a standalone instrument, but its powers grow exponentially when connected to computers, analog synthesizers, and other gear. DAWs and performance software like Apple's Logic Pro and MainStage can be operated from the touchscreen and panel controls, and virtual instruments from Roland Cloud and others can be easily controlled and combined with FANTOM's internal sounds. It’s also possible to drive modular and analog synthesizers from its dual CV/Gate outputs. To learn more about the all-new FANTOM keyboards, visit Roland.co.in. The

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KAUSTHUB RAVI & SIVANESH NATARAJAN

AI MAGIC, COMPRESSION AND GUITARS

OVERLOUD COMP LA

Plug - in

The relatively new company Overloud has released the Comp LA. It is a recreation of two legendary optical compressors, the LA-2A, and LA-3A from Teletronix/Urei. Before you write it off as just another emulation, you come to find out that it has some interesting features added to this common unit. The 2A version is tube-based and delivers a warmer, harmonically rich tone. The 3A version is solid-state based and has a faster attack, cleaner tone. The extended features that it has are what makes it interesting. It includes - MidSide Processing, Parallel compression, Controllable harmonic generation amount and metering, oversampling modes, meter calibration all built-in. These features tailor the humble 2A and 3A into a tool for power users looking to get a lot more out of them. The plugin itself sounds pretty nice, close to most other emulations. Its got a decent it of character. Do the extra features seem like something that you would use? Most of the time it seems like added gimmicks that might never actually come of use, but for those of us who think we think that it is a good idea then its a nice plugin to add to your arsenal.

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KEMPER PROFILER STAGE FLOORBOARD AMP-Modeller YOU WANT IT, YOU GOT IT! The Kemper Profiler, a popular competitor to the AXE FX units has come out with a floorboard version of its unit. It essentially combines the company’s Profiler Head/Rack with its Profiler Remote, and even adds a bit more, says Kemper. Combining the two units offers enhanced switching capabilities, allowing the Profiler Stage to control and program Performances, as well as manage Rig switches and parameter modifications. The Kemper units are known for their superior amp profiling capabilities and offer unparalleled tones that sound really close to the amps that they’re modelling. The Profiler stage itself comes preloaded with 100s of guitar amps, and of course, features Kemper’s Profiling tech for capturing the tone of other amps. Five footswitches offer access to five different Rigs per Performance, while Performances

can be switched via a bank system. There are also four effect footswitches, which can be assigned individually per Rig, and used to toggle pre- and post-amp FX, plus Action and Freeze functions. Other dedicated switches are onboard for tuner mode and looper, plus tap tempo. You can also plug in up to four expression pedals or external switches, while the unit’s display is sunlight-proof, according to Kemper. Outputs include dedicated Stereo

Monitor Outputs for driving two full-range or standard guitar cabs independently from the direct stereo feed, while there are also two stereo effects send/returns. The unit looks very promising, while it is quite expensive, it has the power and immense flexibility of the standalone/ rack units in a form that is ultra-portable, rugged and stage ready. It should be interesting to see how it does compare to the Fractal Audio and Line 6 units.

SONIBLE SMART COMPRESSOR Plug-in

DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR! Keeping in line with our general liking for ‘smart’ plugins, we have found another one for us to take a look at. We previously reviewed the Smart EQ by Sonible and now they’ve released a brand new Smart compressor. While EQ is something most of us pick up fairly easily, compression takes quite a while to crack. This might be a nice way to develop an ear for compression and for those of us that feel like we’ve understood it enough, it can be a way to greatly speed up workflow. A lot of plugins these days promise some level of AI or machine learning process to help achieve compression and they work fairly well but struggle to perform well across a wide range of different mix applications. Sonible, the makers of smartEQ and other intelligent EQ plug-ins has just released their latest plug-in smartComp, which promises to dial in automatic compression with results that thy claim sound transparent. It works based on something called Spectral compression which as Sonible says- is all about giving a track the best possible definition and maximum transparency. By continuously analyzing the input signal across more than 2000 bands, smart:comp acts like an intelligent, ultra-highresolution multiband compressor that dynamically smoothes out tonal imbalances. Sonible claim that once you have experienced the power of the spectral compressor, which only applies compression when the AI believes it is needed, you wouldn't want to mix without it. Hearing is believing, with the sensitivity dial set to around 50% we could hear

the effect of compression back off in a pleasant way while still achieving ample gain reduction. It seems to work on most sources like guitars, vocals and drums without much artefacts as long as it is not set to 100% attack mode. The features are fairly common and bare bone, the ones that you will end up using time and again when dialing in compressor values. There's not much character or saturation that you get from this. It's more of a technical mix tool. It's ultra-clean and transparent. But the smart comps party piece is the learning mode, which is very similar to what you find in Sonible’s other EQ plug-ins. To set up you first need to select the appropriate profile from the dropdown menu, hit the learn button, start playback in your DAW, wait a few seconds for the process to complete and as if my magic instant compressor values appear. Some AI compressor plug-ins can be a bit hit and miss. This certainly isn’t the case in Sonible’s smart comp. It’s undoubtedly smart, quick and easy to use while it produces compression effects that sound effortless and open across a wide range of track types. Make no mistake, while smart comp can do a lot of the heavy dynamics lifting for you it isn’t for those who haven’t a clue how to set compression values tastefully. A basic understanding of compression is still required to get the most out of the UI. It's still very indicative of the sort of plugins that we will be seeing in time to come. Tools that enhance workflow, speed and efficiency but nothing truly replaces a well-trained ear.

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Audio Lingo Unlike the visual arts, where one can simply point to the screen and leave a fingerprint smudge where they need something changed, one of the hardest things in the Audio Profession is to understand your client’s intentions. Is why the creative professionals will always ask for reference songs before starting any work hoping to get a clearer picture of the requirement. Even then sometimes we are subjected to vocabulary which even the thickest of dictionaries can’t explain and

we are left to wonder of the endless possibilities of their meaning. In my career of 11 years, I have had my share of words that were completely mis-understood by every single person in the room. So if you are a budding engineer, musician, an ad agency creative or someone who needs to deal with music producers and engineers, here is an A to Z of some words you should prepare for and learn what they mean..

Airy

Bright: Ambiguity Rating: 

What it actually means: Uneffected signal

Full

Ambiguity Rating: What you think it means: Breathy or full of reverb and delay

What you think it means: Happy, exciting, shrill

Dynamic:

What you think it means: Just enough instruments

What it actually means: Shelf boost above 7.5kHz

What it actually means: Clear, well balanced high end

Body

Color

Ambiguity Rating:

Ambiguity Rating:

What you think it means: Full, impactful, strong, bass

What you think it means: Variety, festive, uniqueness, signature sound

What it actually means: Saturation, drive, well balanced mids or a boost around 300Hz

What it actually means: Harmonics, frequency boosts

Boom

Cutting

Ambiguity Rating:

Ambiguity Rating:

What you think it means: Something that shakes my house and wakes the neighbors

What you think it means: Audible, loud, sitting above the music, half a cup of tea

What it actually means: A sustained low end. Can also be a sustained kick or tom

What it actually means: No clashing frequencies or masking

Bounce

Ambiguity Rating:

Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: HipHop

Dark What you think it means: Scary, horror like, Mozart!

What it actually means: SideChain

What it actually means: Less highs, rich in good low and low mid frequencies, clean harmonics

Boxy

Depth

Ambiguity Rating: 

Ambiguity Rating: 

What you think it means: Not clear enough, not loud enough, not open enough What it actually means: Lack of high-mid, high and presence or too much of low-mid and mid frequencies around the 200-400Hz range.

What you think it means: Meaning, purpose, passion What it actually means: A good balance on the low end Dry Ambiguity Rating: What you think it means: Not enough reverb

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Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Variety in instruments, colorful, many different parts What it actually means: Audible difference between the loudest and softest parts Earthy Ambiguity Rating: 

Ambiguity Rating: 

What it actually means: Well arranged harmonic content Glassy Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Twinkling, jingling, soft What it actually means: High end with sustain, like on cymbals

What you think it means: Sarangi, table, bansuri, alaap

Heavy

What it actually means: Someone smoked too much

What you think it means: Your super awesome pedal

Ambiguity Rating: 

Ambiguity Rating: 

What it actually means: An aggressive melody and performance

What you think it means: Cool, unique, has an ‘edge’ to it

Honky

Edgy

What it actually means: Percussive, good dynamic range Feel Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: The feeling one gets while listening to Pink Floyd What it actually means: The feeling one gets when they are intoxicated Flair Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Fashionable, unique, smooth What it actually means: Well balanced, saturated highs, like flutes when recorded right

Ambiguity Rating: What you think it means: Dhol like, ringing like a bathroom What it actually means: Most resonant frequency of a signal overpowering Huge Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Lots of drums and instruments, stadium chanting What it actually means: Well balanced reverb, delay and low end with good stereo imaging In Yo Face! Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Aggressive, loud, profane, rebellious

What it actually means: Compressed hard, kept loud and centered in the mix Juice Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: ‘Oomph’, ‘hit’ element, virality What it actually means: Authenticity of performance and production

Official

Shimmer

Ambiguity Rating: 

Ambiguity Rating: 

What you think it means: Make me Viral!

What you think it means: Xylophon-ish, small bells, twinkling sounds

What it actually means: Original release with properly filed paperwork

What it actually means: High end gain and saturation

Organic

Shine

Ambiguity Rating: 

Ambiguity Rating: 

What you think it means: Flowy, effortless, sarangi, flute, tabla

What you think it means: Loudness, crispness, glossy

What it actually means: Predictable, simple, memorable melodies and chord progressions

What it actually means: Frequency boost above 6kHz and above

Phat

Snappy

Ambiguity Rating: 

What you think it means: Boom boom, huge, thumpy

What you think it means: Groovy, foot tappy, fast drums

Ambiguity Rating: 

What it actually means: Tasteful saturation in lows and low mids

What you think it means: Not enough shake and thunder

Pillowy

What it actually means: Slow attack and release on percussive elements

What it actually means: Too much resonance in lows and low mids

What you think it means: Soft, fluffy, smooth

Jumpy Ambiguity Rating  What you think it means: Electronic music, disco music, 1 2 3 4 beat What it actually means: An upbeat performance, well curated bassline and kick pattern Knocky

Lively Ambiguity Rating: 

Ambiguity Rating: 

What it actually means: Quick Low end transients

What you think it means: Happy, joyful, ‘Jai Ho’, claps

Punchy

What it actually means: Open and clear highs with a healthy amount of mids and lows

What you think it means: House music, young music, kick heavy

LoFi Ambiguity Rating: 

Ambiguity Rating: 

What it actually means: Anything with good attack, high ratio compression with slow attack

What you think it means: Vinyl

What it actually means: Filtered highs and lows, tasteful saturation, slight dirt and pop glitches, forceful sampling

What you think it means: A cue to start your performance

Ambiguity Rating: 

Muddy

What it actually means: The range of an equalizer band

Ambiguity Rating: 

Rubbery

What you think it means: Something you don’t like the sound of but can’t find a better term

Ambiguity Rating: 

What it actually means: Too many clashing frequencies or instruments, lack of clarity, too much mid information Nasal Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Sounds like it has a cold, too much of 1kHz What it actually means: Resonant frequencies are too loud, can be anywhere on the spectrum depending on the instrument

What you think it means: Purring, brrrr sounds, dubstep style bass What it actually means: Next to no decay or sustain on legato notes, quick rests Rustic Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Folk, classic, baritone voices What it actually means: Too much whiskey has happened

Solo Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: My time to shine!!, A melodic section to increase the length of a half written song What it actually means: An instrumental section that furthers the story and vision of the song Sizzling Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Hot, trendy, seductive What it actually means: Frequency boost above 10kHz Thickness Ambiguity Rating  What you think it means: Doubling, bass, distortion What it actually means: Low and low-mid harmonics, well balanced lows and mids Urban Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: New age, electronic, fashion show music What it actually means: A sub genre of RnB

What it actually means: Memes Wall of Sound! Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Excessive over layering, changing guitar pick-ups for each new layer, adding another distortion, hard panning left, right AND center What it actually means: A well created sound or tone with full harmonics and effective EQ Warm Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Beautiful, amazing, awesome, perfect, magic What it actually means: Grammy Wet Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Effect on, more reverb What it actually means: Effected signal to make performances sound natural Width Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Wall of Sound!, going around my head What it actually means: The stereo field X-Factor Ambiguity Rating  What you think it means: Superstar What it actually means: A TV show that exploits young performers Yummy Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Sounds delicious, feeling of wanting to lick the sound wave What it actually means: A questionable upbringing Zen Ambiguity Rating: What you think it means: Peaceful, chill, delta waves What it actually means: A very successful car model

Viral Ambiguity Rating:  What you think it means: Something fun, people will share it, cool new idea

--Mukul Jain (Chief Engineer/Proprietor at Ferris Wheel Studios) The

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MUKESH AMARAN

ALBUM ARTicle

PREETHAM GUNALAN Hello, a little bit about yourself and your background in arts and music? Hello! I am Preetham Gunalan. I am an animator and illustrator, graduated from Srishti institute of art, design and technology.

At this point in your career, what role did music have to play in you getting to where you are? Professionally, music is a constant source of inspiration. Music stimulates imagination, right? And creates a mood and feel. For animation especially, the flow of music can really help you guide the flow of visuals. Personally, I grew up feeling the hype of Anime soundtracks or yelling out Linkin Park lyrics in my room, and then developed an interest in Tamil music and local and street performances and the stories they have to say. No matter what music it is and who it is by, there is always visuals and emotions that come to mind.

Tell us about your collaboration with Easy Wanderlings from conception to creation and the end product. Easy Wanderlings, Sailesh Gopalan (fellow artist and Srishti alumni) and I began a collaboration to produce the music video for 'My Place to You'. Sanyanth Naroth (from the band) told us the inspiration for the music and the kind of story he wanted to tell. Then Sailesh and I, scripted and storyboarded a story inspired by that, that taps into our mutual love for fantasy, magic and grand breathtaking worlds. So, towards the end of this collaboration, I began working on the album art. In this case, it was a continuation of that video and I was making sure the album art captures the larger story and feel.

What are your thoughts on how other art apart from music is perceived in our music scene? (Like visual arts, album arts, photographers and the likes) I don't think I can truly speak for the music scene, or the perception.

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I think it's a great time right now, because there is a meaningful union of artists of all kinds under the banner of 'storytellers'. I mean artists, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, chefs and archivists, the list goes on! So, in terms of perception, we have moved on from appreciation and are truly understanding and seeing the value in active collaboration. I can only speak from my experience, but it's a delight to talk art with musicians or those in the field of music because it's a common language. Whether we are talking about expression, or creative vision, or the mood or emotion. I can relax knowing that the other person understands exactly what I am talking about. The artistic struggle, and thus connect, is universal.

Tell us a little bit about the process that is involved in making a piece by Preetham. Haha, there is a fair share of procrastination and confusion in the beginning until the idea clicks and falls into place. For that, it helps to listen to music, see what other artists are doing (in any field), revisit your inspirations, discuss with friends, and sometimes to just sit and do nothing, but mostly, I just draw, and draw more, hoping eventually an idea will come that just makes sense, and usually it does. After that the process is fairly technical, of just drawing and details and painting. Sometimes I deliberately break this process and draw directly with no expectations or idea, and the whimsy that comes through is quite rewarding.

Tell us about your art style and the concepts behind your artworks. I have to admit; my art style isn't very consciously developed but just an accumulation of the styles of artists I was inspired by and really wanted to draw like. Now it's a weird mix of all these styles, but not as impressive as any of them.Some of these artists are Jean Girault, Eiichiro Oda, Mike Mignola etc.

GIG CALENDAR OCTOBER 2019

DELHI

BANGALORE 06-Oct

Blackstratblues (When It's Time Album Launch)

Fandom, Bangalore

03-Oct

Salt Rock

The Pianoman Jazz Club, New Delhi

07-Oct

Flying Shoe

The Pianoman Jazz Club, New Delhi

12-Oct

Red Bull Music Presents Disco Puppet Album Launch

Fandom, Bangalore

09-Oct

Groovemeister

The Pianoman Jazz Club, New Delhi

17-Oct

The Grooverz

Hard Rock Café, Bangalore

10-Oct

Milkman Presents: Interstellar Funk

Auro, New Delhi 19-Oct

Aswekeepsearching: ROOH Launch show w/ Flaw and Order

Fandom, Bangalore

17-Oct

The Great Jazz Guitar Trio : Tribute to Wes Montgomery

The Pianoman Jazz Club, New Delhi

18-Oct

Blue Breakfast

The Pianoman Jazz Club, New Delhi

19-Oct

Midival Punditz (LIVE SET)

Auro, New Delhi

04-Oct

DJ Skip's Cinema

Flea Bazaar Café, Mumbai

22-Oct

K Sohl

The Pianoman Jazz Club, New Delhi

05-Oct

RoadToOPMF Phase 2 ft. The Local Train & SAAR

Hard Rock Café, Andheri

28-Oct

Bharat Maheshwari

The Pianoman Jazz Club, New Delhi

05-Oct

Daria Kolosova

Kitty Su, Mumbai

06-Oct

The Louiz Banks Matrixx

AntiSocial, Todi mills

10-Oct

Treble Bite

Hard Rock Café, Andheri

PUNE

MUMBAI

04-Oct

Bumble Takeover: Paper Queen & Eshna

Viman Nagar Social, Pune

11-Oct

Disconnect 005

The Little Door, Bandra

10-Oct

Fiddlecraft

Hard Rock Café, Pune

12-Oct

NEON EAST FEST

Reliance Jio Garden, BKC

17-Oct

Jodav

Hard Rock Café, Pune

19-Oct

Blackblood 18 #TilliDie

The Habitat, Mumbai

HYDERABAD 11-Oct

Tribute to Poets of The Fall ft. Winterchild

GOA Hard Rock Café, Hyderabad

18-Oct

Future Rising Presents: BLOT! x Sam Madhu

If it isn’t here, it isn’t happening! Write to us at contactus@highonscore.com to get your event featured! Tag us on social media to get your gig featured.

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