Carnatic's new comrades

Earlier this season, as the Coke Studio fever caught on Indian music lovers, a bunch of nondescript music enthusiasts made headlines across popular social networks and music circles.

Raising even critical eyebrows, AGAM took a whole generation by storm with their popular number Malhar Jam, and before anyone knew, their fan following grew by leaps and bounds. This refreshingly innovative bunch of young musicians comprises full-time working professionals. Looking into the band’s brief history is an exciting tale of inspiration for many.

“Me and Ganesh, the drummer, went to college together. We were making music long before the band was formed. Much later, we started writing our own songs in a small way. The first song we wrote was called Brahma’s Dance, which is pretty popular today.
Ganesh also plays the keyboards. At that time, we hired a keyboard for thousand rupees a day for a week! It seems small, but at that time it was an astronomical price for two students who were pursuing their passion. We would try experimenting and mixing all kinds of tunes and genres and all we had was a single keyboard,” says Harish Sivaramakrishnan, the lead vocalist of the band, recollecting their initial days. A few years later, others joined in.

Looking back...

“Swamy Seetharaman played a very critical role in shaping the band’s identity. He can actually rationalise a lot of things, something which I couldn’t easily do. We used to call ourselves ‘Studio F6’, named after a simple residential address that we were based out of. He gave us the name AGAM. It means the inner self. We were all youngsters with full-time day jobs, and playing music would also mean expressing our common interest that held us together within ourselves. Looking back today, we are happy we took his advice with the name. We were not doing any gigs. This was a name that seven of us, and may be my family, knew. It didn’t make a radical change in anything. Now that we had a name, maybe we could use it for some social media networking,” he adds, as he unravels the mystery of the fascinating name the band acquired for itself.

From almost nowhere in the scene just a few years ago to being the new face of Indian bands, AGAM’s journey has been a fairy tale of sorts.

A lot of ink has been consumed about artistes’ need to groom themselves in classical arts before they experiment. “I come from a home of Carnatic musicians. Being the grand-nephew of the legendary T V Gopalakrishnan and trained under the Chembai-baani, I spent a good 17 years with the genre to grind myself into it before venturing out with my own ideas,” says Harish. His other band members include Vighnesh Lakshminarayanan, a keyboardist-turned-guitar player who also helps with the backing vocals, Jagadish Natarajan, who handles the rhythm guitar, Praveen Kumar, the lead guitarist, and Ganesh Ram Nagarajan, who handles the drums.

Organic process

For a band’s success, it is important to see where the points of divergence and tangents can be drawn when it comes to what each member contributes. “Vighnesh is a big fan of Iron Maiden and Dream Theatre. He started unabashedly playing progressive metal on top of our songs. It took some time for me to understand that. I had limited exposure and understanding of it. He was doing some crazy riffing on top of Carnatic music which I had never heard earlier. Three weeks down, it actually sounded different,” adds Harish. The members sat, brain-stormed, experimented and went through a process of severe self-analysis and self-criticism before everyone agreed on the final nod over a single track. This organic process of working is a fading quality amongst most bands. AGAM’s success lay in this process.

“Once we went through our own process, we thought we would beg venues to give us gigs for half a song or so,” says Harish. Today, AGAM is one of the most wanted Indian bands on the scene, rubbing shoulders with their industry seniors, in fact, giving a stiff competition to many established ones.

At a television reality show, they were vouched for by none other than A R Rahman for their music. “Frankly speaking, we were thinking we would get our backsides kicked because Rahman was judging the show. After much thought, we decided to go. A few people said we were good and we thought they were just being polite. The head of a famous record label asked us if we had an album and we thought he was kidding,” adds Harish, about the whole experience of their initial success. The rest, as they say, is history. AGAM’s first album was launched with high fanfare at the Hard Rock café and before anyone knew, it became the most sold album across social media and otherwise.
Looking at their growth chart and the originality of their music, one can confidently congratulate Carnatic music for finding its true global ambassadors.