An Upside Down Tale

I'm happy. 

The world's quite messed-up right now, but I'm happy. 

If this isn't a testament to my selfishness, then I wouldn't know what else is. 

Success has a lot to do with my happiness, and vice versa. That elusive album finally happened, and happened well. Years of playing with several bands, implicitly gave me good insight into how to approach this production process. 

This is all in retrospect, of course. 

The actual way 'Upside Down' unfolded was a little more chaotic and unpredictable. While there are several people who have aided this piece of work, these lovely folk bubble-up to the top, chronologically.

Anushya

Technically the first person to hear all my songs, at every stage of development long before ‘Upside Down’ took any significant shape. Trooper that she is, enduring countless cacophonous renditions that iteratively bubbled up into semi-acceptable IG upload worthy versions, Anushya would patiently provide feedback and solid encouragement. Although I may have a few miles on my musical journey, this album would not have been, if not for her. 

Thanks, Love. 

Sylvester 

After all the songs structures were ‘done’ (at least in my head), and since most of the songs had a fairly traditional structure with a space for an instrument solo, it only made sense to approach somebody whose playing style I loved and was quite familiar with. So obviously, Sylvester. (for the uninitiated, I play bass for The Sylvester Trio and there is really no need to wax emotional about Sylvester’s guitar skills; that’s already an established fact)

The initial plan was to put in a couple of electric guitar solos, followed by a pinch of programmed drums. Sylvester was the first person who floated the idea that some songs deserved ‘more’ (while also emphatically stating that some should be left as is). His kind and welcoming response to the songs is what made me re-think the home recording route, and actually consider the possibility of roping some professional help for the entire process.

I could already sense this project getting out of hand.

Paul

A lucky encounter introduced the Sylvester Trio to Paul's sound engineering talent. We had roughly 3 hours to record a song from scratch at Alive 1 Studio and what resulted was of quality we'd previously only heard in world-class level recordings. 

Needless to say, he topped my personnel list to approach for the engineering of 'Upside Down'. Not only was Paul kind enough to agree to listen to my scratch tracks, but kinder still to offer his services at Alive 1 Studios.  This is where things took a drastically different turn. Safe to say  that the whole 'home-recording' bit was now long forgotten, and the access to a studio like Alive 1 for recording, meant that my songs could have acoustic drums tracked, live. 

Things were changing, and very quickly.

Joel

And that brings us to Joel, who needs no introduction.

The Sylvester Trio’s practice sessions happen at a sweet little jam studio created by Joel at his ancestral home (literally that; it’s over a 100 years old!) recently renovated, and treated sound-wise to standards good enough to give most jam-rooms in Bangalore a run for their money. 

Joel had offered this space as an alternative to recording at home, and even more generously, his services on the drums which I had to turn down, quite reluctantly, owing to my initial plan of intending to engineer ‘Upside Down’ myself, and obviously quite diffident about my acoustic drum tracking abilities.

Of course, that plan changed after Paul’s offer.

Considering that we’ve been band-mates for nearly 6 years, It’s no surprise that Joel’s understanding and interpretation of my songs fit so well with what I had in mind; there was very little I had to ‘explain’, and it was as if he knew exactly what had to go with each song.

In this album, Joel has ‘played to the song’, while managing to maintain his characteristic flavour.  

There are very few drummers I know who can do that. 

Osi

 With Joel entering the mix, literally (kind of), and with a personally set time  constraint on studio session time, the next important aspect to sort out was the bass. I truly believed that my songs deserved a well thought of and carefully crafted bass part and as tempting as it was to play the bass parts myself, considering the timeline and my skill level, I saw no possibility of that happening in such a short span of time. 

Turn to the Pro, and enter Osi Gomango.

Years of experience, and unfathomable insight into bass playing, is what Osi brought with him. His vast experience with multiple bands over the years contributed immensely to the jam sessions for ‘Upside Down’, while he astutely suggested parts and transitions that aided the growth of these songs into finer and more mature versions of their earlier selves. I couldn’t be more grateful. 

This association with Osi was a learning experience in musicality, professionalism and extreme skill levels. I consider my self blessed. 

What started as a thought, structured around a home studio setup, eventually mutated into this. Parting shot wise, I owe so much to the musical ethos of Bangalore and her vibrant collection of musicians and (swiftly dwindling) performance venues.

'Upside Down' is available for streaming and free download, here.