YouTube Discovery | Ep. 06 | Mahesh Raghvan - Indian Classical Versions
Hello folks! After a long hiatus I am back with the 6th episode in the series of YouTube Discovery. To give a quick recap about my previous posts - in the 4th episode we had Tushar Lall (Indian Jam Project) discussing Indo-Western Fushion with us. Following which Vidya Vox talked about her Mashup Covers in 5th episode. Indian music is so vast that everybody gets chance to create their own music. Continuing on the same thread, I'd like to talk about the technological advancements in the field of music.
Technology has made musicians play end number of instruments with just one device. This reminds me of my Indian classical training days as a 10 year old kid. I had just finished learning taals and now had to learn raag geets which comprises of sur and taal which meant there had to be a harmonium and a tabla playing when I was singing. I didn't know either of those at that time and my teacher could play only one of those at a time. My 10 year old brain wondered if I would ever be able to learn raag geets looking at the lack of resources. Until my teacher pulled out a bag from one of his cabinet. He opened the bag and kept this device in from of me.
This is a electronic tabla machine. It can play all the taals at various pitch and tempo. The green light would blink at the speed of the tempo and the red light would blink at the completion of one round of taal.
Technology has made musicians play end number of instruments with just one device. This reminds me of my Indian classical training days as a 10 year old kid. I had just finished learning taals and now had to learn raag geets which comprises of sur and taal which meant there had to be a harmonium and a tabla playing when I was singing. I didn't know either of those at that time and my teacher could play only one of those at a time. My 10 year old brain wondered if I would ever be able to learn raag geets looking at the lack of resources. Until my teacher pulled out a bag from one of his cabinet. He opened the bag and kept this device in from of me.
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| http://www.indianmusicinstitute.com/images/elecriyaztabla.jpg |
I was amazed at the technology back then and I am amazed at the technology in music even these days. Something so western and so un-Indian can be cleverly turned into Indian classical at the click of electronic technology. If you don't know what I am trying to address, let me take this moment to introduce the guy who has made Adele and Drake sing their own songs to classical sitar tunes - Mahesh Raghvan. Mahesh is a music composer who has recently released FLAIR - Carnatic Music 2.0, a project that attempts to present Carnatic Music compositions in a modern style, by fusing them with elements of contemporary electronic music. In order to further promote the cause of this project and Indian Music, Mahesh started producing Indian Style Covers of popular western music themes/songs last year on YouTube. Many of the covers went viral on the internet and have been featured in many articles and publications online. I will let you all enjoy some of his YouTube videos in case you haven't got a chance yet. Followed by answers to some of the questions I asked him. Don't forget to check out the quirky Indianised thumbnails on his videos.
1. Hello (Adele) - Indian Classical Version - Mahesh Raghvan
If you liked this episode do check out my previous episodes on Acoustic Loop Covers (ft. Saurabh Shetye) and Indian Classical Music Tutorials (ft. Siddharth Slathia):
Check out my YouTube channel for additional musical stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/user/khanjandamania/
1. Hello (Adele) - Indian Classical Version - Mahesh Raghvan
2. Hotline Bling - Indian Classical Version - Mahesh Raghvan
3. FRIENDS Theme Song - The Indian Version - Mahesh Raghvan
ME: Not a lot have been known about your work. What led to Carnatic Music Fusion? What is FLAIR and what are you trying to achieve through it? Is Indian Classical versions part of it?
MAHESH: The main objective of the work that I do is to promote Indian Classical Music in new ways. FLAIR: Carnatic Music 2.0 is a YouTube project that I started a couple of years ago to promote Carnatic Music to contemporary audiences through the fusion with Electronic Music. Not a lot of people might be interested to listen to Indian Classical Music in its pure form due to the complexities and scale, hence I have tried to present it a form that would be understood by many. In order to reach a wider audience, I decided to do Indian Classical Versions of popular tunes, and the idea worked really well.
ME: This one kind of ties back to the first one. Are you a one-man army or is there a 'Team Mahesh' behind all those videos? How are YouTube channels 'Raga Labs' and 'Indian Raga' associated to your work?
MAHESH: The YouTube project started when I was studying in Scotland. I didn't have many people there to help me with it; so I had to learn and pick up all the skills necessary to be able to do everything myself; video editing / design / social media marketing etc. The good thing about this is I got to learn a lot of new skills and have complete creative control about what I do, but due to that each project I do takes a lot of time as I end up doing everything from scratch myself.
I was the creative director of the IndianRaga fellowship that happened in Boston last August. With their fellows, I produced a variety of Indian Classical Fusion music and it was a great experience to interact and collaborate with other talented artists.
ME: What factors do you take into consideration when selecting songs? Also, do you take into consideration popular of requests from your viewers/subscribers? What does the entire process before a video is published on your channel look like?
MAHESH: If I have to do an Indian style cover of a song, I usually look at the popularity of the original song. If something is trending, I would usually pick that over everything else. Another factor is if it would work in the Indian style of presentation. I do get a lot of requests, and yes I do consider a lot of them. When I select a song I usually work on the melody first as I consider that the most important part of the production. Once the Indian style melody is in place, I work on all the elements around it; percussion, harmonies etc. After the song is done, I work on a video that would go well with it, I usually keep things pretty basic with the video unless it's a full fledged Carnatic Music production, that takes a lot of effort with translations, concepts etc.
ME: Have you ever started with an Indian classical version of a song and realized it didn't turn out as planned? What genre of English songs you would love to but are difficult recreate?
MAHESH: Yes, that happens a lot. I usually work on the melody lines first and I can tell if it will work at a very early stage. I only take it to the music production stage if I'm happy with the melody lines. I'd say Rock music and Hip Hop are pretty difficult to recreate; Rock because of the high energy levels, and Hip Hop because of the repetition and rap elements.
ME: If you were to explain 'GeoShred', 'Geo Synthesizer' apps and 'ROLI Seaboard RISE' to a layman how would you do it? People love your work but not many understand the complexity of effort you put in. Simplify it for us!
MAHESH: GeoShred and GeoSynthesizer are iPad applications that are designed to replicate a guitar fretboard. All of the boxes are different notes and they can be played when the screen is touched. The ROLI Seaboard RISE is a new kind of keyboard instruments, that allows the user to slide between two notes. The ability to slide and bend between notes in the above mentioned instruments makes it possible to achieve the bends and ornamentation used in Indian Classical Music.
In the end I would like to thank Mahesh for allowing me to write about his work and giving his valuable time to answer my curiosity. If you enjoyed this post and the work Mahesh has been doing, then feel free to share it. Let me know your favourite video by Mahesh in the comments below. I will see you next time with a new guest. Until then, Ciao...!
Make sure to 👍 his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/followingmahesh
Also, do subscribe to his YouTube channel:
To follow more of his work, visit www.maheshraghvan.com
You can also check out my Curious Thoughts where I questioned if musical covers on YouTube (India) are becoming monotonous? and if too many music composers in a movie are good or bad?
Check out my YouTube channel for additional musical stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/user/khanjandamania/
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