Guitar, drums, and classical music, a match made in agam

CHENNAI: What’s amazing about the Chennai audience is that they have a good understanding of Carnatic music and they also sing along with us in perfect pitch,” says Adithya Kasyap, band member of Agam, a Carnatic progressive rock band, gearing up to perform at Phoenix Marketcity today.

The band is performing in Chennai after a long time. Agam will be performing new songs along with their favourites and the audience’s favourites.

Their recent concert in Dubai hit high notes for both the band and the audience. Kasyap says, “We were elated to go back and perform in Dubai after the pandemic and be welcomed by a large group of audience. The thing that amazed us the most was people were singing along with us. It was a wonderful sight to be acknowledged and enjoyed abroad.”

Talking to DT Next, he mentions about the ecstatic feeling of performing in public after the lockdown. “It was not just us who were missing out on performing but the audience too. Getting back on stage and receiving so much support and love feels beyond incredible,” he says. Apart from missing the audience, the band members also yearned to meet in person to create and play music as it was quite difficult to do it virtually.

As one of the pioneers of Carnatic progressive rock, the band has been producing songs for the last 10 years in this genre. Kasyap reminiscences their journey and shares how all the musicians in their band were trained in Carnatic music, picked up Rock and other genres during their college days and landed up in this fusion. He says that their band stays true to their vocals and gives them a unique twist through the instruments.

The band is named Agam after the Tamil and Malayalam word ‘soul’ or ‘heart’. The band feels fortunate and blessed enough to collaborate with various stalwarts such as Aruna Sairam and would love to do more such projects with such great artists. “It also gives us an opportunity to contemporise the music with the help of other artists. We are beyond glad to receive such support and encouragement for such stalwarts” shares Kasyap.

“Though we weren’t able to appear as a group on TV after the ‘Ooh la la la’ show, we have had our individual appearances. Harish Sivaramakrishnan for instance has appeared as a celebrity judge in shows like ‘Sa re ga ma’ and ‘Super singer’,” says Kasyap on their plan to make TV appearances. When asked about their future albums, he shares that their band is excitedly working on their third album which has about six to eight songs. As a band, they wish with all their agam to continue producing songs that are modern and relevant to their audience.