“Man they're playing 5 mins away from my office. Awesome, I'm going for that gig whatever happens. They're launching their new album. It’s going to be amazing. I love their older stuff. It’s time for the gig. Oh man I think they're going on stage. Oh this is going to be great. Hmmm..okaayyy. The sound is nice, not like their previous songs. But nice. Clean. Refined. Let's see the next few songs, maybe they'll get better. Ok what's happening? I came here expecting sounds that would basically give me goosebumps. Basically their earlier material. Geez why are they playing so clean. Where's the sparring between the instruments? Where is the playfulness? Baahh.. Man I'm going home."
This is what went through my head when I went for the album launch of a band called Advaita. They had music that literally gave me goosebumps. Literally. I fell in love with their music. It was peaceful, beautiful, Indian classical with contemporary western influences. I never had such feelings for an Indian band before. And I'm not alone in this. The gig was packed. But boy was it a letdown.
I was expecting them to play with the sounds, letting them flow through a person and disrupting that flow right when it was leaving that person. That was what Advaita was all about. And that is what they were good at. But what they had become was a band whose sounds could melt in the background. They had a clean, refined and uniform sound. They had lost that raw punch that drew so many to their music. They became too perfect. They were led by a new producer who pushed them to become mainstream. Cater to the ears of the mass. What they had become, was a bunch of guys whose music could be mistaken for the ones played at fine dining restaurants. It hurt me to see that.
It really comes down to the question of how a band can retain their original sound. That can happen only if they remain true to themselves. True to the reason they came together. The love of music. The love of that sound they could call their own. It’s hard. It’s tough. It’s a challenge. You need to keep only yourself as a barometer. Retain that raw power that is you. Run after love, nothing else. It'll stop people from going home and hearing your old music they really loved.
Here is a song that I truly loved from their earlier work: