Bangalore-based band Swarathma on Hyderabad’s ever-evolving music scene

Hyderabad is a city that could well be Bangalore-based fusion band

Swarathma

’s second home, what with the band having performed here 15 times since their first show in the city back in 2008. And judging by reaction to the band at a recently-concluded music festival, it is safe to conclude that their love affair with the city is sure to carry on. The band credits this to Hyderabad’s ever-evolving taste in music for the same: “It’s pretty clear that there is a huge music loving audience in Hyderabad and they genuinely like good music. The spike in the number of large scale music festivals that are being held here reflects the changing mind-set of Hyderabadis. they know that music is not just that which is heard via mainstream media. There’s more to music than just film music or even EDM. The time for independent music has come. Organisers have taken the first step, and now the audiences too are coming forward and embracing it,” says says bassist

Jishnu Dasgupta

who is joined by vocalist Vasu Dixit, violinist

Sanjeev Nayak

, percussionist

Karthik Mani

, drummer

Joel Milan Baptist

and guitarist

Varun Murali

to complete the line-up.
So how often does Swarathma evolve its own sound? “Well, let’s just say we are open to evolving as long as it’s not a forced evolution. We write new songs very often, but we don’t plan to make it different just for the heck of it. Music and artiste is like a marriage, you know; a kind of coming together... you try different positions. Some you like, some you don’t,” says Jishnu.
Speaking of the music scene in the city, the bassist is all praise for Hyderabad’s small but talented bunch of musicians. “even though you don’t have such a vibrant live music scene here, the bands from Hyderabad have always been impressive. back in the day there used to be this metal band called Sledge — they were amazing. Of late, The Ragamuffins have been doing really well,” says Jishnu. For Vasu though, Hyderabad’s food is still the biggest draw! “You name the pakka Hyderabadi joint, and we’ve been there. We’re big time foodies’ we make it a point to go biryani feasting every time we’re here. There were times we came to Hyderabadi to eat — and by that I mean just to eat!” Vasu quips, signing off.