Collaborating with jazz collective Snarky Puppy, singer Varijashree Venugopal says she finds it easy to marry her Carnatic music with other forms. Venugopal is clear that the Indian ecosystem isn’t favourable for indie musicians
Varijashree Venugopal. Pic/By Special Arrangement
Carnatic music and jazz meet beautifully in Varijashree Venugopal’s world. As the Carnatic singer collaborated with the jazz-fusion collective Snarky Puppy at the GroundUP Music Festival in Miami, it felt less like a collision and more like a confluence of different forms of music. “Training in Carnatic music since childhood has helped me connect with many other forms of music in a meaningful way. I don’t feel I need to make an effort to preserve my identity wherever I go. Carnatic music is my mother tongue, the fundamentals are my alphabet,” explained the Mysuru-born singer.
The voice behind Teardrop and Chasing the Horizon, Venugopal’s signature style is Carnatic Scat. But it didn’t begin as a genre experiment. Instead, her style was born of curiosity.
She recalled, “Until I was 15, my training was majorly in Carnatic music. [At the same time], I used to write notations of any tune that I heard on a cassette at home. In my late teenage years, I began to transcribe jazz instrumental and vocal scat solos into the Indian solfege as an exercise to help me understand harmonies and chord progressions. Today, I feel much more comfortable singing an improvisation over changing harmonies or compositions from different genres.”
Venugopal is clear that the Indian ecosystem isn’t favourable for indie musicians. “Film music gets the most exposure, while independent music often gets buried. Equal representation is the only way people will become aware of the incredible work in indie music.”
2024
When she received a Grammy nomination in the Best Global Music Performance category for ‘A Rock Somewhere’
Around the world
The singer has made a mark globally. Asked whether India appreciates her work enough, Venugopal simply said, “My world has expanded beyond geography. I feel like I’m the daughter of the world.”
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