Meet: Avi and the Uprising - Urban folk collaborative

Founded by singer-songwriter Avi, this musical project takes its name from an ideology of fighting for utopia in a social sense and connecting with your true self in a personal sense.
The current line-up has Avi on vocals and guitar, Rigden Yolmo on guitar, Akshat Pradhan on bass, Karthikeya Vashist on the flute and Joshua Grant on drums. The project has two different avatars — a solo setup with Avi on vocals, guitar and piano and an organic jam band with five to nine members from backgrounds as varied as progressive rock, blues, Rajasthani folk, jazz to Indian classical.With their debut studio album Eyes On The Radio out last week, the band chronicles their journey.
On their a-ha moment: Avi started out by writing protest songs like Nithari and The Anna Hazare Song that he performed as a solo act in the early days and quickly started generating underground buzz. Different musicians came into the project, each bringing different a musical world into Avi’s songs. As time passed, Avi and his songwriting evolved into a more personal approach with songs like Wahe Guru and Boom Boom Shiva. Avi And The Uprising’s first a-ha moment happened when they played at Central Park to a massive crowd for a youth festival to celebrate 100 years of Delhi. Their performance caused such a riot that police barricades had to be erected. Says Avi, “Another a-ha moment was the release of the video for Boom Boom Shiva, shot in the erstwhile Kathputli Colony with magicians, street performers and acrobats.” On their brand of music: Musically, the band is firmly rooted in American folk, blues and 60s rock while integrating diverse influences like opera, Bollywood and stadium rock. Their album Eyes On The Radio sums up their sound for Avi. “The search for an identity as an urban Indian in the 21st century is the central theme. There’s a conflict between the collective unconscious, populated by past symbols of the eternal, deeply embedded in our history and the collective consciousness as represented by immediate symbols of the apparent — the chaos and colour of modern Indian streets,” says Avi.
On their influences: Though Avi has performed as a bass baritone soloist in many opera productions and also learnt Hindustani classical, his heart lies in the songwriting brilliance of The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan and The Doors. Guitarist Rigden is a blues fanatic while Karthikeya, the prodigious flute player, is a huge L Shankar fan, bassist Akshat is the band’s youngest member and loves Snarky Puppy while drummer Joshua Grant loves to listen to jazz greats like Chick Corea and Weather Report.
On their way forward: Avi plans to release a new video from Eyes On The Radio and produce a few new singles for the second album, One Connection, which will predominantly feature his songs with Manganiyar and Bheel musicians from Jaisalmer. Avi is moving to Australia mid-February and is optimistic about the project’s future in the land down under.