With a deep love for modern Indian music, over 100 gifted musicians from India, America and Canada play in The Anirudh Varma Collective, a contemporary Hindustani classical group, led by the visionary pianist, composer and producer Anirudh Varma.
To create a distinctive contemporary identity for Indian classical music that appeals to audiences of all ages, it seeks to unite musicians and artistes from various musical and cultural backgrounds. The collective strives to make Indian classical music approachable to listeners of all ages and backgrounds by exploring, re-discovering and presenting the richness and diversity of Indian music in a modern yet grounded way.
The collective has performed over 500 times, both in India and abroad, and released two full-length albums, Perspectives (2018) and Homecoming (2022). The collective has recently completed its debut USA Tour, having performed at 15 concerts across nine cities. We engage in an insightful conversation with Anirudh to find out more about the newly released single and the upcoming album.
You released your latest single recently. Can you tell us more about it and the idea behind the title and the concept?
This new single is called Dekho Sakhi, which is the first single from our third upcoming album. It's a composition about nostalgia for paying homage to a teacher. In this case, one of our lead vocalists, Pratik Narasimha, has sung the track. So, this composition is meant for listeners of all backgrounds. And I think this track also showcases how I think we're moving towards more simplicity in our songwriting and arrangement than before. The music video for the song was shot in Banaras and is available on YouTube. The point of this song was to keep the simplicity of a composition alive.
What was the idea behind the third album?
I believe that every album, for any artiste, showcases their use of his or her current state of mind and how they see themselves as an artiste and a person. So for us also, as an ensemble, this third album is going to be very interesting because all the writing and all the arrangements are being done very organically by the entire group. We focus on giving our listeners a fresh sound from us because otherwise, it can be a little monotonous sometimes.
Have you decided on the name of the album yet?
Not at all. It's far too early to figure out what it'll be called. All we know is that it is a third album. So we have about five or six songs ready from it at the moment. I think slowly in the course of every one and a half, two months we'll try and put it out. We are planning to add around 8-10 songs to the album.
Also read: Anurag Saikia finds ecstasy in tiny joys
Could you let us in on your journey behind your ensemble Anirudh Varma Collective?
When I was finishing college, around that time as a pianist, my listening habits were changing and then a lot of collaborations within the college circuit were happening naturally. And I put out my first ever piano EP around that time in 2016 called The Melancholic Rhapsody. And post that, I wanted to produce an album which was a very collaborative idea. The idea of collaboration has always been exciting for me because it allows multiple musicians to adapt to each other, find a cohesive space and create an idea. I think the idea was always to create a community of musicians who are looking and finding ways to sustain themselves.
Our goal has been to essentially make Indian classical music more accessible to audiences of all age groups. The key idea behind the collective was to make it a dynamic unit in the sense that the lineup is always evolving. We have over 200 musicians now across the globe and we also have illustrators, visual artists, writers and the idea now is moving forward to take the art community forward together as a whole, as a collective.
Dekho Sakhi is streaming on all audio platforms.
Email: indulge@newindianexpress.com
X: indulgexpress