The Indoencers - An Insight Into Indian Music

In the latest episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I got to sit down and have a chat with Kalyani Nair - the singer, arranger, and composer who has been a part of some of Tamil music's finest works across the past two decades. We spoke about the influence living in different cities throughout her childhood had on her musical upbringing, her experience working on genre-breaking projects alongside the likes of Pradeep Kumar and guitarist Keba Jeremiah, the joys and troubles involved in running a choir, plus much more. We thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, and we hope that you enjoy it too!

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This podcast was originally published as a video episode, and is intended to be consumed as such. You can find the video podcast via the link here: https://youtu.be/fnl50zJPp7I

In this podcast, alongside Vignesh Sankar from the MMM Podcast, I take a look at some of Ramesh Vinayagam’s work in Indian music. We focus on the song Enna Idhu from Nala Damayanthi, as well as Ramesh Vinayagam’s unique explorations within Carnatic music. We hope you enjoy this session as much as we did!

This is the latest episode on the MMM Podcast (Music, Movies, and Memories Podcast); however they’ve asked me to upload the video on my channel due to technical difficulties on their end. Please do check their podcast out via the link below!

[MMM Podcast] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GRaxozf6KK0Y3KA2SSw98

Photo Credit: https://www.youtube.com/@ramesh_vinayakam/videos

On the 18th episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I got to speak with the insanely talented composer and singer, Girishh Gopalakrishnan. We spoke about so much throughout this interview - his experience learning under the legendary Lalgudi Jayaraman, his musical explorations in the U.K., why he left the U.K. despite being able to live comfortably as a musician there, plus so so much more. I loved how he was so open in sharing his experiences and knowledge, and I hope all of you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

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Soundwave credit: "https://www.vecteezy.com/video/9863296-digital-audio-spectrum-sound-wave-effect-animation-with-2d-concept-and-black-background" Digital audio spectrum sound wave effect animation with 2d concept and black background Stock Videos by Vecteezy

On the seventeenth episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I had an incredibly fun chat with the genius Navneeth Sundar. We talked extensively about the musical possibilities of the iPad, about his experiences working with Illayaraja-sir and AR Rahman-sir, how he lives "in a world where pink elephants write poems", plus so much more. I enjoyed this conversation so so much, and I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I did!

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Picture Credits: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5a90LDKvSIgq8c3e8IjZRe

On the 16th episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I sat down with the incredible folk singer, Aanchal Shrivastava, who is the voice behind songs like "Ishq Akela", the recent hit "Nadan Dil", among many other fantastic songs. She has had an incredibly unique but also tumultuous journey in music, going through periods of unemployment and constant rejections. The way she has been able to fight through this to be able to share her art with all of us, though, is what I personally find incredibly inspiring! I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did :)

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NOTE: This is an episode of the Movies, Music, and Memories (MMM) podcast. I was simply featured on this episode as a guest. Due to copyright-related issues, they were unable to upload this episode onto their channels, and hence they asked me to upload the episode on my platform. Please do make sure to subscribe to their podcast for fantastic podcasts regarding Indian movies and music.

MMM Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2GRaxozf6KK0Y3KA2SSw98?si=ixE-Sa3MR_CcPubw3QxnMA&utm_source=copy-link&nd=1

In this music-centered episode of MMM, we discuss an extremely talented musician in the current Kollywood Industry - Santhosh Narayanan. He has given us some memorable, soulful numbers right from his first film Attakathi to the recent Andhagan. 

We have Nishad (The Indoencers) on today's episode, who speaks about a lot of the music theory behind Santhosh Narayanan’s compositions (including the significance of frequency ratios, the types of key changes that he utilises, and why all this matters!). We also spoke about Santhosh's out of the box thinking, wherein he blends contrasting genres of music, thus giving us listeners a heart warming experience. 

Do tune in, and after listening to this episode, we hope you have an even more enriching experience the next time you listen to the songs we discussed today!

Picture Credits: https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/tamil-features/santhosh-narayanans-eight-best-albums-that-are-quirky-yet-appealing/

On the 15th episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I had a chat with the wonderful singer-songwriter Shweta Srivastava - the brain and voice behind songs like "July 19", and "Home"! We spoke about the time her school teacher randomly threw her on stage at the tender age of 6, randomly singing at clubs in France, how her vocal coach sneakily got her to compose her own songs, plus much more. I had a ton of fun recording this, and I hope you enjoy it too!

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Photo Credit: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7fDKGPqbGBIf9uc6Q3gINP

On the 14th episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I had a chat with playback singer Madhura Dhara Talluri - the AR Rahman protégé who rendered hits like "Unakaga" and "Maathare". We spoke about her experience homeschooling for one year as she tried to use that one year to focus on music, the state of Carnatic academia, how her stance on "timeless" music has changed over the years, among many other fascinating topics. This was such a fun conversation, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

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The Indoencers Podcast was featured on Feedspot's list of the 10 best music podcasts in India: https://blog.feedspot.com/indian_music_podcasts/

On the 13th episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with music direction and playback singer Vijaynarain - the voice behind songs like "Ei Suzhali", "Poi Vazhva", "Azhagiya Soodana Poovey", among plenty of other hits.  We spoke about his fascination with Carnatic music as a child and how that ended up negatively impacting his academic life at times, his time in the reality shows Ooh La La La and Super Singer, his bond with music director Santhosh Narayanan, among plenty of other topics. I had so much fun speaking with him, and I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did!

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The Indoencers Podcast was featured on Feedspot's list of the 10 best music podcasts in India: https://blog.feedspot.com/indian_music_podcasts/

On the 12th episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I spoke with Abhay Nayampally - an incredible Carnatic guitarist and independent musician, who is a disciple of the legendary Shri Mandolin Srinivas. We spoke about his unusual emotional attachment to music as a child, a life-changing lunch break on a park bench, the evolution of Carnatic music, among tons of other topics. There's also a lovely Charukesi aalaap to check out towards the end :) We hope everybody enjoys this episode!

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Cover Picture Credits: https://rollingstoneindia.com/abhay-nayampally-debut-album-is-a-winner/

The Indoencers Podcast was featured on Feedspot's list of the 10 best music podcasts in India: https://blog.feedspot.com/indian_music_podcasts/

On the tenth episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I had the opportunity to have a chat with the incredible Aditya Prakash. We spoke about his struggles of dealing with the conflict in cultures between India and the Bay Area in the United States, how going on a tour with Ravi Shankar at the age of 16 quashed many of his internal struggles, the impact of hyper-consumerism in the music scene today, among many other topics. Plus, there's some lovely singing at the end :) We hope you enjoy this episode!

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Photo Credits: 1 & 2 

On the ninth episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I spoke with Prashanth Techno - a music producer who has used his expertise over synths in particular to help cultivate new sounds within both the Indian independent and film music scenes. We spoke about how he learned music despite having a very limited formal musical education, his experience participating in a reality show judged by none other than AR Rahman, how his groundbreaking electro-classical musical act (called Kee and Techno) featuring singer Keerthana Vaidyanathan came about, among many other topics. We hope you enjoy this episode!

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On the eighth episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I spoke with Apoorva Krishna - a phenomenal violinist and composer, who has worked and performed with legendary artists like Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain, Bombay Jayashree, among many other such musicians. We spoke about how a strict musical education (from the Lalgudi family nonetheless!) gave her a firm grounding in Carnatic music, the confluence of cultures that define who she is today on multiple levels, her stunning new fusion album titled "Intuition", plus so much more. I had a ton of fun throughout this episode, and we hope you enjoy it too!

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Stream "Intuition"

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This year has been quite the year for all of us - in many ways unfortunately extremely negative. For this podcast, though, 2020 has honestly been a mindbogglingly incredible year, as I've had the honour of speaking to musicians that I would not have even dreamt of interviewing when I started this platform. As we wrap up this year, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back at some of my favourite moments so far on this podcast. Happy New Year to all of you, and let us hope 2021 treats us all well!

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free) 

On the seventh episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I had a chat with singer-songwriter Drishti Tandel (Drish T), who burst onto the independent music scene with her original compositions written in - wait for it - in Japanese. Yes, Japanese! We spoke about her fascination with Japanese culture, how she thinks her uniqueness as an artist affects her commercial prospects within the independent music industry, among many other topics. We hope all of you enjoy this episode!

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free) 

On the sixth episode of The Indoencers podcast, I spoke with Prashanth Srinivas, an incredibly talented composer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and the brain behind the RagaHaus initiative. We spoke about how he goes about expressing emotions through music, why “evil is swag”, how accidentally playing two songs at the same time led to a musical breakthrough, among other topics. We hope you enjoy the full show!

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free) 

Picture/Cover Credits: Canva, https://twitter.com/RagaHaus/status/1308050298569502721/photo/1

In the fifth episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I spoke with Darshana KT - a singer who has sung for the likes of Isaignani Illayaraja, Harris Jayaraj, and has grown to be a regular for the one and only AR Rahman. We spoke about the times where her school Hindi teacher gave her bonus marks because she loved Darshana's renditions of Hindi songs so much, her experience recording the incredible "Muafi Mushkil", her journey in coming to terms with the genre of jazz, plus so much more. I learned so much from hearing her speak to the depth that she did, and I'm sure there will be plenty for you to take away too! |

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free) |

Picture/Cover Credits: https://bit.ly/3bQsqXW & Canva

In the fourth episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I sat down with one of the finest young music directors in the Tamil cinema scene today, Ashwin Vinayagamoorthy - the brain behind hits such as “Aagayam Thaayaga”, “Un Nerukkam”, “Pudavai Nilave”, among other such songs. We spoke about his experiences working with artists like Sid Sriram and Dhanush, why kuthu songs are set to minor keys/scales, the old music vs new music “debate”, living abroad alone at 17, among many other topics. We had a blast recording this, and we hope you enjoy the episode too! |

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free) |

Picture Credits: https://soundcloud.com/ashwinvinayagam & Canva |

On the third episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I had a chat with the brilliant Abhay Jodhpurkar - the singer of many of our favourite songs, including AR Rahman's “Moongil Thottam”, “Mere Naam Tu” from the Sharukh Khan starrer Zero, among other such hits. We spoke about his childlike curiosity, why he labels himself as "destiny's child", the a capella group which he calls “the best thing that ever happened in his life”, the impact Sufi music had on him, plus many other topics. There's also some wonderful singing near the end from Abhay himself, on occasion backed up by some unique background instruments (including dog barks and horn sounds!). This episode was a ton of fun, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZVFtKFVxNH3h6S_vai7_CA |

Check out an interview Abhay did with singer Deepak:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCjHllXjUEL/ |

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free)
Photo Credits: https://www.deccanherald.com/metrolife/metrolife-lifestyle/every-session-with-arr-a-learning-experience-809510.html

In the second episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I spoke with teenage sensation Edwin Louis, who rose to fame after releasing two hit singles within a week: "Adiye Kutti Devadhe", released by Think Music India, and "Thalapathy Raid", which he released through his own YouTube channel. We spoke about his parents' influences on his life, the times where he used to sleep inside keyboard covers, how much of a headache mixing a 127-track song was, why listening to KMMC's Sufi Ensemble brought him to tears, and much more.

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlphaBengali |

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free)
Photo Credit: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlphaBengali

In the first episode of The Indoencers Podcast, I spoke with Composer Sanjay, an extremely talented independent artist, who is also well-known for leading Sanskruti, a band that absolutely bossed their appearance on Kappa TV's Music Mojo. We spoke about how his composing journey started off with a public event/function in his high school, how he deals with writer's block, why and how he composes predominantly semi-classical pieces despite never receiving formal education in classical music, his mind-boggling song in 11/8, and much more.

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Music Credits: Joseph McDade - Sundown (Copyright Free)
Photo Credit: https://soundcloud.com/sanjaymusic91