Indie artist to become the flavour of Chennai's music

It’s seen as the age of the independent artist. Holed up at home or in the studio with their instruments and their audio set up, they write, perform, record, mix and release their own music. Most often than not, they release their work with little or no support at all. The past year has been a revelation of sorts for indie music in Chennai.
With its incredibly talented pool of musicians brimming with inspiration, influence and enthusiasm, the city has been playing host to various genres, styles and a few experiments here and there; and the last six months have seen many well-known groups release their own singles, mostly via the Internet.
Guitarist and producer Sanjeev Thomas explains why indie artistes and their music are better received now. “Indie music is slowly catching the attention of people despite very minimal support from television, media and the film industry. With the Internet and new tools of promotion and support, indie musicians have passed through new boundaries with their identity and music,” he says.
“The indie scene in Chennai is extremely peculiar in a way that some of the best indie acts in the country such as Adam And The Fish Eyed Poets and The Shakey Rays and Harsha Iyer ... all come from the city where there is zilch support for. More so recently, with Skrat’s In The Shed video, its becoming apparent that the local crowd has started to recognize and support the bands,” says Siddharth Raghunandan, musician.
Rohan Thomas, musician, is of the opinion that bands imbibe a strong independent identity only once they begin to move out of the ‘cover band’ category. “Most musicians end up entertaining requests. But now, that’s changing here. We have fans walking into a live Grey Shack gig and screaming for their single Gonzo rather than any rock n’roll cover they’d usually demand an encore for!”
Karma, who runs his own studio, explains that he while the indie scene is catching up on an international scale, there is still more that can be done to make such endeavours commercially viable. But commercial viability or not, the music of these urban youngsters have already done rounds around the country and finds itself in playlists abroad too!
“Chennai is now producing quite a couple of great artists/groups who are writing awesome songs and working to put out new music consistently. But, we badly need more venues! And people to support the bands by turning up for gigs rather than just liking the band's online page,” says Harsha Iyer. Nevertheless, most musicians believe it’s only a matter of time before ‘indie’ gets viable. Meanwhile, they only want to ramble on and play their song.