Talks By The Firelight 3.7: Swaras and Solfèges
Mahesh Raghvan, Fusion-music artist, Creative Director of Indian Raga
With music that moves everyone, Mahesh Raghvan is a trailblazer for young music enthusiasts all over the country. His music continues to grow more and more popular as it hits the right notes in the minds of his fans on YouTube and other popular media. With a rapidly increasing number of projects with popular artists, he has cemented his place as a truly talented artist.
Read on to unravel the tunes behind his tale, as Festember sits down for an eye-opening exchange!
Your career as a musician has required you to be an expert in several instruments, apart from your voice being one. What was the first instrument that made you go so crazy for music that you stay motivated towards this art form for this long?
When I was three or four, I started training myself in Carnatic vocals under my aunt Indira Krishnan in Dubai. She also happened to have a keyboard and I used to try and play the keyboard myself and in a few months, I was able to pick up tunes by listening to them and recreate something similar on the keyboard. And it was this interest in Indian music and the keyboard that made me choose music as a career.
You are the creative director of a company well-established for spreading classical music and dance all over the world. Could you take us on a short tour of your journey at Indian Raga so far?
I discovered one of their videos somewhere around 2015 when they first started. Their quality of production was really good compared to other people at the time, and they were also working with young and upcoming musicians. I was really impressed by the quality of the musicianship that they feature, and so I reached out to them and asked if we could collaborate.
Eventually, after talking for a while, they invited me to be a part of their fellowship and also their Creative Director in 2016. That’s how one thing led to another and I am where I am now. I am actually very proud to be a part of the company, and we’ve been doing some great work together in the field of fusion music and music for dance.
You are fluent with several instruments, which obviously would have demanded a lot of practice. What techniques do you use to practice now and how are they different from the techniques you used while you started learning music?
When we start learning Carnatic music, we have some basic exercises to practice like the Sarali varisai, Janta varisai, and so on. These exercises apply to any form Carnatic music, be it vocal, or keyboard, violin and whatnot. So the exercises I had for every instrument was more or less the same.
When I picked the iPad (which is what I have been doing for the past 4–5 years) I observed that it was like a keyboard, but I could also do the gamakkās or the oscillations that Carnatic music requires. So I wanted myself to use the technology and create Indian music.
Starting with simple exercises, I learnt to use the iPad well, and I also started working with the company that owns the app as well to incorporate Indian music into their apps. Right now, we have all the rāgās that are there in Indian music in the app, and it is now easier to utilize the app for Indian music creation.
The advantage with instruments is that there are techniques that can be translated from one instrument to another. That is what I do with the iPad — I translate techniques that I know from learning keyboard to the iPad, and that’s how I practise now.
Your recent project Thayir Sadam with really famous music artists is a really interesting one. How did this project start, and more importantly, is there any story behind choosing this particular name?
Thayir Sadam is something I’m proud to be a part of. We started the project two years back. Thayir Sadam (curd rice) for South Indians is a comfort food, while also defining us in a way, giving us a sense of identity to our place. It also goes for the style of our music, because it is comforting. Just like curd rice is a base for us to explore different combinations with, our music also explores new things while still bringing the same comfort that the dish does.
Regardless of the number of achievements you have, the most influential project are your songs from Flair — Carnatic Music 2.0, which are on many of our playlists. How did this project begin, and where did you get the inspiration to try this out?
That project started when I was studying my masters degree in the UK, when I got my hands on an iPad and experimented with it as an instrument. This was the start of my inspiration to mix Carnatic and electronic music and all of that happened because, in the UK, we were asked to present our music in a club, and back then I was only familiar enough with Carnatic.
So, I did quite some research and mixed things up for a very small selected audience and they absolutely loved it. That made me think about starting a channel on YouTube, putting all of these things together and seeing where things would go. It did pick up eventually and two years ago I started taking it seriously and started pursuing music full-time.
Your Carnatic adaptations of famous western songs like Hello and Work, and famous soundtracks like the HP, GoT and Sherlock soundtracks are a big hit among your fans. What were the difficulties you faced while transforming one style of music to a completely different one?
There aren’t any difficulties as such, but I would say there are challenges. The main challenge, however, is to do justice to both sides.
If I take Harry Potter, I can’t transform it so much that it doesn’t sound like the original at all. So I use a lot of themes from the original song and retain them in all my attempts. In the melody side of things, I add a few gamakkās here and there and that’s what gives it the Indian touch. But I also improvise the melody and make it something else, or add a tune.
Transforming each song is a different case on its own. So you really need to look closely and see what can be done to the song to adapt it to the needed style. It might be as simple as changing the arrangement of a few parts, or as complex as even having to change the entire melody.
The main challenge though, I would say is to be able to have the listener recognize the song that has been adapted.
Sir, I had the amazing opportunity to attend a concert at Abu Dhabi in 2018, where you had accompanied Rajani Sridhar. And with regards to your performances, what has changed since 2018?
A lot has changed for me personally since then, because I have been collaborating with a lot of people. For example, I started two bands — The Thayir Saadam project and Carnatic Music 2.0. Whoever I have collaborated with has influenced my music and is a part of it.
You always learn something new from the people you collaborate or work with because you find out that they are doing something better than what you are doing, and you try to incorporate that.
So, since 2018, the major change I would say is that I have been taking bits and pieces of inspiration from other people and trying to incorporate them in my style. So that is the main thing that has changed for me.
What sparked the idea to create Carnatic music through instruments that are not common for the style, like an iPad or seaboard?
Actually, the concept of playing Carnatic music on a different instrument is not new at all. We have Kadri Gopalnath ji on saxophone. And for example, the design of the violin that we see today is completely European. Carnatic music has been there for longer than the violin, of course. So there has been so much indomination in instrumentation as such.
When you talk about technology with Carnatic music, it’s only been until recent times that it’s been possible to play or reproduce carnatic gamakkas. There are quite a lot of people who are experimenting with things like a seaboard, for example. The thing is, I’ve been trying my best to create a digital sound for Carnatic music. A lot of people are.
And the best thing is, nobody has actually said that Carnatic music has to be presented only in a certain way.
Our music, the concepts and the traditions are age-old but they still exist. The presentation is up to the artist.
You have grown a lot as a music artist. What are the plans you have for your fans in the future?
So I intend to keep making music, that is the plan as of now. As of now I’m working with two really really fun bands, and I intend to take that forward as well.
The main thing is I intend to keep making new kinds of music and the main vision is to prove that Carnatic music is one of the most versatile forms of music out there in the world, and that is the vision that I’m pursuing throughout.
You hold your collaborators with high regard in your heart, and they are very famous people too. How did you come to get into this huge network of art experts?
So, I really didn’t plan any of this to be honest. It’s just that one thing led to another and that led to another and so on. But most of these people who I’ve been working with these days are people I met through my friends. That’s how it is. And everyone I worked with today, be it the Thayir Saadam project or Carnatic 2.0, they’re all good friends of mine.
More importantly, they’re extremely nice human beings and that makes your collaborations more fun. And that’s something I really consider when I work with people. That’s above everything else for me.
So most of the people I work with, they’re all friends. I don’t know how other people may feel, but it’s just easier for me to work with friends than other people. I keep making friends through new collaborations. It’s just that my friends circle keeps increasing and so does my music circle. So it’s all connected in a way.
The interview with Mahesh Raghvan concluded with him performing a few of his popular compositions for us. Ultimately, Mahesh Raghvan stands testimony to the fact that music can be produced from the most unimaginable of sources, and it is only the passion towards the art that defines an artist. He is not just an expert in singing and creating music, but is also very talented in keeping his audience interested. With an outlook beaming with positivity and anticipation of the future, he is certainly a musician to keep looking out for.
Take a look at Mahesh’s work by visiting his YouTube page!
This interview was taken in collaboration with Vishnu Dhinakaran.
