Blues Conscience is all set to groove back onto the stage in Chennai this month
In Chennai, legacy band Blues Conscience has stood the test of time and is jumping right back into the spotlight with their upcoming performance in a show curated by Quriosity. The band’s co-founder, guitarist and vocalist, Aum Janakiram chats with us about the timelessness of the blues genre, how the spirit of the same can be kept alive, and more. Excerpts:
Please walk us through the playlist for your upcoming show.
It’s a flurry of emotions that’s both lyrically relatable and musically exciting.We’ll be performing a mix of our originals and some not so typically performed blues covers. Each musician is an entertainer here at Blues Conscience, and we would like to show our audience a great time with stories, soulful singing, syncopated moves, solo tradeoffs and sing along tunes.
How has the blues genre evolved in the country in the recent years?
Blues is one genre that hasn’t evolved and doesn’t need to because it’s so simple to play, yet truly hard to feel. There are only a handful of us consistently working on keeping it relevant amongst all the pop, rock and desi bands here. It’s more like a preservation. As blues connoisseurs, our songs’ uniqueness comes from years of listening to the blues greats like Robert Johnson, Buddy Guy, BB King, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughn to name a few.
You have seen Chennai’s musical landscape evolving over the years. How would you want to see it grow further?
More people should come to see live music, more venues should be ready to pay artistes their worth, and more bands should engage with the audience so that they keep coming back for more. More South Indian bands should take to playing up north and vice versa as well. I’d also love to see more young musicians collaborating with veteran musicians and try to make them relevant. That’s what John Mayer did for Eric Clapton, who did the same for BB King and all of it happened back when the blues began.
Can you give us a description of your discography?
We released our only album in 2013 called Down and Dirty comprising 14 songs. Our biggest hit has undoubtedly been Kamasutra and there have been some other crowd favourites like Morning After, Perfectly Reasonable Girl, Like What Music You Got, Janis Joplin and Shagging Ma Dog. These songs always get people grooving and singing along. Apart from the songs in the album, there is Bhagira, which is yet to be recorded and a few more in the works.
Tickets at INR 499.
On May 25. 7 pm onwards.
At Barracuda Brew, Nungambakkam.