Return of ‘rock’stars 

BENGALURU : Twelve years ago, a group of men in Bengaluru decided to explore the music scene in the city and realised rock music was everyone’s go-to whereas their interest was actually Carnatic music. They decided to merge the two and soon became the first Bengaluru-based band to create Carnatic rock music and named the band Agam. Since then, many others have followed suit, changing the music scene in the city completely. 

Recently, Agam performed in the city for the first time since the pandemic at Forum Mall, Koramangala. Comprising Harish Sivaramakrishnan (vocals), Swamy Seetharaman (keyboards and lyricist), T Praveen Kumar (lead guitar), Aditya Kasyap (bass guitar and backing vocals), Sivakumar Nagarajan (ethnic percussions), Jagadish Natarajan (rhythm guitar) and Yadhunandan (drummer), all of them have independent 9-5 jobs but come together for the band. 

Speaking to CE, bass guitarist Kasyap says,“Since the pandemic, we haven’t performed at all. We didn’t want to do any virtual shows either because not all of us are based out of Bengaluru and we didn’t feel it would do justice to our music. So, we waited till things calmed down and now we’re back to a full-house performance in the city.”

Three of the band members — Harish, Praveen and Aditya — studied together at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and have also played together on stage. “When we started working and realised that the music scene was very different from how we imagined it, we adapted our music and found an audience for it,” Kasyap says, adding that over the years their songs have also been used in Malayalam and Tamil movies. 

While they conquer the tech world on weekdays, the members meet on weekends for band practice or shows. “So, our Monday blues are a bit different from others,” laughs Kasyap, adding that they usually 
return to work after performing at a gig. 

He points out that each of their respective families is also the reason why they have been able to continue creating music. “None of us is in a hurry to put out music. We take our time, improvise, do trial rounds during our performances, improve on it and then release the album. All this takes time and our families have been nothing but supportive throughout the process as sometimes we don’t get to see them for weeks together,” he explains, adding that they are currently working on songs for their next album which will be out later this year.