Music and many other things
Festember is one of the biggest annual cultural extravaganzas of the country, hosted by NIT Trichy and invites eminent artists like DJ Shaan and Shravan Sridhar to get the crowd moving to their beat, during the Pro-shows. This was the place to be, with it’s incredible atmosphere and excitement. Festember would like to thank Pringles, for being our sponsor for these ProNights.
Shravan Sridhar and his classical fusion band — The Non-Violinist Project, kicked Festember off to a mellifluous and a resplendent start. They struck a note with each present as they strummed the chords and bashed the drums to deliver an enchanting performance that featured classical fusion covers of familiar songs.
Shravan being a mechanical engineer himself from BITS Hyderabad started as an independent artist on SoundCloud and his journey so far has been nothing short of success. His YouTube channel features some of his best works and also he has made videos by collaborating with many prominent artists such as Mahesh Raghavan and Revaa.
After his power packed performance at Festember, we interacted with the maestro. When we asked about his favourite genre he replied that it was classical Indian. He also remarked that even when he ventured and experimented with metal and blues, there was this “thread of Indian classical that tied it all together.”
Also, Shravan paid tribute to Linkin Park’s late singer Chester Bennington by playing a fusion cover of “Heavy”. When asked about his passion for rock, he said that Linkin park was the band that introduced him to the world of English music and “Heavy” in particular related to him a lot.
As the talk progressed Shravan continued to tell us about his future projects. He remarked that his band, the Non-violinist Project has quite a few albums releasing and that the effort and hardwork that has been put has been tremendous.
He said that he is inspired by a lot of different things everyday and confessed that being a huge metal fan, he looks up to many metal artists who are determined and passionate about what they want to do.
The interview ended with him advising budding musicians in college that there will be days when all one can do is stare at the ceiling and feel sorry, but concerts like the one that just happened are those which give you utmost satisfaction and keep you fighting for what you believe in.
Meanwhile, the EDM scene in India is an incredible place to be, and the EDM nite of Festember was nothing short of spectacular. NIT Trichy hosted one of India’s up and rising EDM artists,and the youngest DJ to ever play in an international music festival — DJ Shaan.
Sporting a trendy T shirt and jeans, the young DJ kept the crowd rising and raving, enthralling us with his quirky beats and tunes. Being involved in the EDM business is a very unconventional profession.
He spoke about his experience, being the first Indian DJ to perform at Tomorrowland.
“It was an exciting experience because when I first got there and they told me that I would be playing, and back then, I was 18 years old. The interesting part was that I was obviously creating history, I was creating a milestone over the last few years, being the first guy ever from a country of 1.4 billion people to ever play at the festival. So it’s also a very proud feeling that you represent the place you’re brought up in.”
When asked about the EDM scene in India, he said, “Well I’d say it’s growing, it’s like it’s become a live-in with next level artists, because there are so many festivals now for me, and I need to travel around with every single artist, but that’s a sign of it growing it as well.”
He warned the aspiring DJs in India, that their journey will not be easy because of the competition. He urged them to be different, stand out from the crowd, but most of all to be strong, follow their heart and never give up.
For two interviews that lasted for a mere 10 minutes, we had the experience of a lifetime. It gave us a whole new perspective on being an artist, and a glimpse into the amazing life of these sensational geniuses.
— With inputs from Venkat, Siddarth Arvind and Sharan Deepak Menon.
Picture Credits: Pixelbug, NIT Trichy. https://www.facebook.com/pixelbug.nitt/
