The Non Violinist project is a coalescence of musicians from diverse musical backgrounds to form an entity that is both modern in sound and yet rooted in aesthetics.
With Shravan Sridhar on violin, Kumaran on Drums, Naveen Samson Benjamin on guitars, Marshall Robinson on Keys and synthesizers, Sooraj Kumarr on Bass; the band's sound is very eclectic drawing inspirations from a myriad of genres including blues, jazz, Latin, Afro-Cuban, Gospel, Indie rock and even Electronica; all amalgamated by the thread of Indian Classical Carnatic and Hindustani. The band has headlined various musical events and college festivals such as Isaignani's Ilayaraja grand birthday celebrations, NIT Trichy Festember, Kuruksastra Sastra University, Raagam NIT Calicut, Pearl BITS Hyderabad Jhankaar MOP Vaishnav, Stella Maris Cultural Festival, KCT Yugam Coimbatore Ft. Chinmayi Sripada and many more!
The band has also recently featured on Music Mojo by Kappa TV! Shravan Sridhar the lead artist of the band spoke exclusively to DC. The Non Violinist Project will be launching Rahman Reimagined A tribute to the legend at VR Chennai on July 21.
What is Rahman Reimagined? What exactly is in store for the audience?
As a band what we tend to do is even when we perform covers, we internalise it and make it our own! We try to bring in our signature sound into existing compositions, and that is essentially what this is! It is a small tribute to the legend himself, where we perform a medley of his songs, in a sound and context that hasn't been imagined before!
You cover a wide spectrum of genres, mainly western music but your roots basically originate from Indian classical Carnatic and Hindustani music, please share something on this.
That is something that happens very organically, especially since each of us in the band is from various different musical upbringings and yet shares a deep sense and understanding of musical sensibilities! I think the Indian classical element is in essence is what ties it all together!
Who do you draw inspiration from for your music?
Everything and everyone around us! Inspiration can literally come from anywhere, be it while travelling in car or while watching the biggest concerts in the world!
What has been your most memorable project so far?
Our most memorable show will always be our first one together as a band, where we literally played in front of Raja Sir himself! As a band that was the biggest blessing for us!
Tell me about The Non Violinist project, how did it come into being?
As we mentioned before, the first concrete 5 member lineup was put together for the grand event of Raja Sir's birthday celebrations which happened at Kamaraj Arangam auditorium! From there we have just gelled so well together and have performed almost a hundred shows together, at various music festivals, events and college cultural festivals!
How was it performing with Chinamyi Sripada?
She is an all round professional in the truest sense of the world. The best part was she was extremely accommodating of how experimental our approach was to arranging her own songs! And needless to say, she definitely is a living legend when it comes to the art itself, having sung for all the legendary composers years back itself!
Any upcoming projects that you would like to share about?
Like we said, we do have the Rahman Reimagined project coming up for which we are extremely excited! We have also been constantly writing new originals, many of which we will be premiering for the first time ever LIVE at VR Chennai!
How do you feel about performing in Chennai?
It's always extremely special for us because it is the home crowd! We travel a lot for performances across India but there is truly no feeling like performing in front of the home audience! We are absolutely stoked about for July 21st and we hope to see a lot of familiar faces for this one!
