Electric journey of Abhijith Hegde

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Weird Sounding Dude definitely has the radiance of coming out from a two-year-long creative block. That’s the moniker and performance persona of Abhijith Hegde, the artiste who has just released his second EP since the birth of the year. Kicking off his DJing career in 2011, this self-taught music producer has risen to the ranks of an instructor at Bengaluru-based The Music School. Active on the turntables, the DJ’s progressive and deep house numbers have enthralled crowds at  renowned festivals like Sunburn and Krank. Currently on a three-city tour to promote his latest release called Arcade, Weird Sounding Dude is all set to make the state dance.

As we engage in a conversation about his instrumental variant of house music, Abhijith reveals his approach to electronic music. “I feel the  progressive house genre my music falls into is a very stripped -down version of trance. The elements have to take you on a journey and I design my sets to this effect,” informs the 28-year-old, who doesn’t believe in categorising music. This is very evident in his citing artistes like James Holden and Worakls—who work with techno and intelligent dance music—as influences.

“The melodies and chords have to narrate a story and exude distinct emotions. To achieve this, I might get inspired by elements like drums from one particular style,” says Abhijith, who has collaborated with labels like Juicebox Music and Soundteller Records. Comfortable in the tempo range of 120 - 125 bpm (beats per minute), the artiste’s performance for the dancefloor will include his own tracks like Spectral Sculpt and Boundless. Still high on his creative streak, this artiste expects to release two more EPs soon.