The feel-good factor...
The past week threw at me a strange new challenge, one that i have never been thro before..
A couple of friends called me asking if i could help them with their music for the popular Sun TV show, Sapthaswarangal. With no idea of what was expected of me, but with nothing much to do in life otherwise, I decided to give it a shot, and maybe win a few acquaintances on the way..
Day 1 (at harini's place) was highly unproductive, and things didnt seem to be going anywhere near smooth, especially given that they were facing a formidable Hindustan College band in their quarterfinals...
The wheels were set in motion the next day - at Sujatha's place - when we sat down and composed a freaky lil instrumental piece that bordered on lunacy.. Everything seemed to fit in, somehow though..
The news of an unexpected victory against the much vaunted Hindustan band came as a pleasant shock, but this meant only one thing - more work for the semifinals...
It wasnt much of a contribution from my side for the Semifinals, and all i did was to kinda oversee some of their stuff, with Ravi singing a Thillana, ably supported by Sriram and Bharadwaj (the savior), and another splendid remix composition by Prashanth, Venkat and Nut...
Sujatha's mom deserves more than just a word of thanks for her delicious lunch and tea.. putting up with all that noise, what with some 12 of us cramming up their 2nd floor apartment..
The guys managed to win their semifinals too, and this meant a LOT of work - a rehash of an old song, a completely original composition and a brand new instrumental piece - to be done in ONE day! S-O-S!!
In what can be nothing but God's grace, RR had this one line in mind that we worked on, and the lyrics evolved on their own in an hour's time... the original composition was suddenly ready and looking good...
Thanks to a complete lack of time, and some poor management, I had to stay overnight (the idea was not to leave it half-done, having come this far), and thanks again to Sujatha's folks for the wonderful hospitality.
Harini is an extremely gifted keyboardist and a ridiculously fast learner.I couldn't have asked for an easier person to work with.. Andhi mazhai pozhigiradhu was remixed at the speed of light.. Prashanth - though highly temperamental - is quick to learn and adapt, and is an asset to the side..
Aishwarya - who i mistook to be Aarthi for a long time - reminds me of 'cute'. She played the bass on the keyboard, and was very easy to teach. Aarthi was on the other keyboard and it was mostly Harini's responsibility to co-ord the 3 boards..
The own composition - a difficult one for the vocalist, given one day's time - was painstakingly learnt by Ravi, who shut himself up in one of the rooms and rewound the tape so many times till it yelled back at him.. Again, the orchestration was smooth thanks to some inspired work from harini, sriram and Prashanth..
Composing an instrumental piece doesnt get easier than this... Laughable it might sound, but I am confident that the group wont take more than 10 mins to do a whole new instrumental piece, given the way we have been workin on these.. The piece in raag Chandrakauns happened automatically . Flute Srikanth, younger bro of our own G.Srinath, finally shed his inhibitions and hit form...
I was feeling all the while that the female vocalists - Sujatha and Ranjini - needed to be given more work, and watchin them sittin without much work to do didnt do any good.. which was why I insisted on a female solo for the 4th round, and had them learn it overnight. And learn they did, and had me satisfied when they sang for me after half an hour... Ninnukori Varnam...
This bunch of highly likeable and enthusiastic musicians gave it their all in the finals of sapthaswarangal. Completely satisfied with their performance, calling it their best ever, they sounded pretty positive on their phones and SMSes when they were waiting for the results..
Unni menon was the judge it seems.. no idea how he is qualified enough to judge a group music thing at the Sapthaswarangal finals..
And then it came. They had lost.
And then they partied, for all the memories and for all the camaraderie and the sheer fun of the past week... The loss hurt, yes, but they knew to put things in perspective. And God bless them for that.
In a party that happened at a Roof garden restaurant late in the night, they pushed me close to embarrasment with their ovation and all the affection that they showered on me unconditionally...
If any of you are reading this, let me tell u guys that I had an absolute blast. It was seriously amazing, and I loved that night-out, with drooping heads singing full throatedly, and the poor gurls being woken up rudely to learn their parts for Ninnukkori.. Prashanth on the phone was rolling-on-the-floor funny.. Thanks guys for being what you were... keep the enthu going...
Coincidentally, one line in our composition went.. 'NinaivugaLe... nirandharame... sugam tharume..'
Its amazing how some things just fall into place..
A couple of friends called me asking if i could help them with their music for the popular Sun TV show, Sapthaswarangal. With no idea of what was expected of me, but with nothing much to do in life otherwise, I decided to give it a shot, and maybe win a few acquaintances on the way..
Day 1 (at harini's place) was highly unproductive, and things didnt seem to be going anywhere near smooth, especially given that they were facing a formidable Hindustan College band in their quarterfinals...
The wheels were set in motion the next day - at Sujatha's place - when we sat down and composed a freaky lil instrumental piece that bordered on lunacy.. Everything seemed to fit in, somehow though..
The news of an unexpected victory against the much vaunted Hindustan band came as a pleasant shock, but this meant only one thing - more work for the semifinals...
It wasnt much of a contribution from my side for the Semifinals, and all i did was to kinda oversee some of their stuff, with Ravi singing a Thillana, ably supported by Sriram and Bharadwaj (the savior), and another splendid remix composition by Prashanth, Venkat and Nut...
Sujatha's mom deserves more than just a word of thanks for her delicious lunch and tea.. putting up with all that noise, what with some 12 of us cramming up their 2nd floor apartment..
The guys managed to win their semifinals too, and this meant a LOT of work - a rehash of an old song, a completely original composition and a brand new instrumental piece - to be done in ONE day! S-O-S!!
In what can be nothing but God's grace, RR had this one line in mind that we worked on, and the lyrics evolved on their own in an hour's time... the original composition was suddenly ready and looking good...
Thanks to a complete lack of time, and some poor management, I had to stay overnight (the idea was not to leave it half-done, having come this far), and thanks again to Sujatha's folks for the wonderful hospitality.
Harini is an extremely gifted keyboardist and a ridiculously fast learner.I couldn't have asked for an easier person to work with.. Andhi mazhai pozhigiradhu was remixed at the speed of light.. Prashanth - though highly temperamental - is quick to learn and adapt, and is an asset to the side..
Aishwarya - who i mistook to be Aarthi for a long time - reminds me of 'cute'. She played the bass on the keyboard, and was very easy to teach. Aarthi was on the other keyboard and it was mostly Harini's responsibility to co-ord the 3 boards..
The own composition - a difficult one for the vocalist, given one day's time - was painstakingly learnt by Ravi, who shut himself up in one of the rooms and rewound the tape so many times till it yelled back at him.. Again, the orchestration was smooth thanks to some inspired work from harini, sriram and Prashanth..
Composing an instrumental piece doesnt get easier than this... Laughable it might sound, but I am confident that the group wont take more than 10 mins to do a whole new instrumental piece, given the way we have been workin on these.. The piece in raag Chandrakauns happened automatically . Flute Srikanth, younger bro of our own G.Srinath, finally shed his inhibitions and hit form...
I was feeling all the while that the female vocalists - Sujatha and Ranjini - needed to be given more work, and watchin them sittin without much work to do didnt do any good.. which was why I insisted on a female solo for the 4th round, and had them learn it overnight. And learn they did, and had me satisfied when they sang for me after half an hour... Ninnukori Varnam...
This bunch of highly likeable and enthusiastic musicians gave it their all in the finals of sapthaswarangal. Completely satisfied with their performance, calling it their best ever, they sounded pretty positive on their phones and SMSes when they were waiting for the results..
Unni menon was the judge it seems.. no idea how he is qualified enough to judge a group music thing at the Sapthaswarangal finals..
And then it came. They had lost.
And then they partied, for all the memories and for all the camaraderie and the sheer fun of the past week... The loss hurt, yes, but they knew to put things in perspective. And God bless them for that.
In a party that happened at a Roof garden restaurant late in the night, they pushed me close to embarrasment with their ovation and all the affection that they showered on me unconditionally...
If any of you are reading this, let me tell u guys that I had an absolute blast. It was seriously amazing, and I loved that night-out, with drooping heads singing full throatedly, and the poor gurls being woken up rudely to learn their parts for Ninnukkori.. Prashanth on the phone was rolling-on-the-floor funny.. Thanks guys for being what you were... keep the enthu going...
Coincidentally, one line in our composition went.. 'NinaivugaLe... nirandharame... sugam tharume..'
Its amazing how some things just fall into place..
posted by Girish at 11:20 AM
11 Comments:
felt good!
for u da Giri!
Have many more good days as such!
Semmayaa irundhudhu.... though I didnt know that Sapthaswarangal had such rounds.. groups participating .. must either be a new concept or a hopeless out-of-touch Karthik....
btw.. what college was this group representing?
:)
Hi!!
I don't know if u would recognize me,,,well,i am sujatha's sis...I read ur article Feel good factor abt ur experience with the band,,, i really loved the way you had presented the article. I guess, since i was there during the entire practise,,,reading "feel good" ,,,was more like reading a synopsis of some big story! I'm sure the band would like your support in the future as well...while u on the other hand keep up the good work and keep giving us good entertainment with your gr8 articles!
Guys check moi blog..updated the place after long...had stuff to write...
hi anna this is srikanth read your article about us all and we too enjoyed those days with you we would have not won the quater finals and the semis without you. its much of your efforts than ours. hope such kind of days come again.thanks a lot and all the best foryour forthcoming interviews. bye.
Hi anna,
Iam bharad waj Thanks a lot for ur comment i feel that this is greater than the sheild given to us.lets make it happen......
great to see u doing cool stuff. And it makes me envious that there are ppl who call you anna and look up to you .. and respect you .. and blah blah.
im sure you deserve all that praise.
hi anna
this is hrishikesh sriram's brother.i too enjoyed those days with him getting so excited and tensed about the whole thing.i did whatever i could do for them.i have seen u during that performance in sudha mahendra's house.
its too sad that they lost.it is ok that they know to take these losses in their stride.
btw,what about your iim interview result anna?
Thanks to u all my eternal thambis.... :)
And Raam.. Mark my words.. Guess the world wud know me better as 'Girish Anna' someday in the future... hav seen all the makings of it in the recent past...
lol..
Hullo Girish,
An interesting read. Takes me back to our choir days of school. Great work!
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