Instrumentalist or vocalist? His goal is creative expression

Advait Pattanaik says he’s in a “happening space” right now. The 24-year-old musician from Bengaluru recently made his playback debut with ‘Ello idda hanigalu’ from the Kannada film ‘X&Y’. He also plays guitar and sings backup for Vijay Prakash’s touring band, performs as a session artiste, and is working on his first EP.

Though his “career trajectory has been all over the place”, it’s shaped him into the artiste he is today. He refuses to be boxed in by genres and neither does he want to be labelled only a multi-instrumentalist or vocalist. “Anything that helps me express, and elevate my expression as a musician — that’s my focus,” he says.

He grew up on a “rich diet of music”. Advait’s early exposure came from his father, Annada Prasanna Pattanaik, the acclaimed flautist known as ‘Flute Butto’. Though he started with the flute, he was drawn to the guitar after seeing his seniors perform at a school event and watching the crowd “go nuts”. His father, who believes “whatever comes naturally is best”, gladly handed him an old, rusty guitar.

Rock, metal, and hip hop artistes, along with genre-fluid bands, would go on to shape his vocal style. In school, he was surrounded by classmates with siblings who had eclectic musical tastes. During class, friends wrote down names of new bands on pieces of paper and passed them around. “We would go home and look them up,” he recalls.

These days, he’s listening to a longtime favourite guitarist Eric Gales, apart from jazz-fusion band Cosmosquad, and the late Ozzy Osbourne. From India, he’s drawn to Kerala-based bands like Thaikkudam Bridge, Avial, and The Down Troddence, as well as other acts like Bhayanak Maut, Inner Sanctum, Agam, and Mohini Dey. 

His professional journey began in 2019 with Lucky Ali’s band. His father plays with the band too. During a rehearsal break, while accompanying his father, he picked up one of the “beautiful guitars”. He started strumming, and Ali joined in on a Bob Marley tune. That impromptu jam led to an audition and eventually, a spot in the band as a guitarist and backup vocalist.

A year later, during the pandemic, he wrote his first single, ‘Kar khud se pyaar’, a song about self-love. “Recently, at a wedding in Jaipur, an Indian from Sweden recognised me and said he had heard the song,” he says, highlighting the perks of making music in the Internet age. His Kannada film break also came via the Internet. The director, seeking a “high range” voice, discovered him on Instagram. His rock and metal vocal
background fit the bill.

He plans to release his debut EP by year-end. “I want to create a sonic experience that’s never been heard before,” he says. He’s also eager to reinterpret his father’s existing fusion albums with new-age sounds.