From uploading videos of their performances to YouTube back in 2013, to reaching listeners from around the world, Karthick Iyer Live's musical journey began with a spark and has become a flame, sustained by their passion for creating unique musical collaborations.
Karthick Iyer's band IndoSoul is made up of mridangist Sumesh Narayanan, guitarist Vikram Vivekanand, Naveen Napier on the bass guitar and drummer Ramkumar Kanakarajan. These artists are all distinct in the unique ways they break down superficial barriers between instruments, cultures and languages to introduce new harmonies.
Initially playing covers and creating adaptations brought them into the limelight, but IndoSoul began to compose their own, original music and released their first album, ‘IndoSoul: Looking within to look beyond' in 2015.
“Classical music has existed for years. It is a widely respected niche. But, it has not translated into the mainstream spectrum yet. Our idea is to make it more accessible and approachable for a wider audience,”
Recognizing that while their fans span the world, the largest contingents are in Canada and the U.S., outside of India, and in February 2015, they made the impulsive decision to plan a set of shows in North America. Their first major tour outside India was a huge success and set the stage for their second in 2017. They are currently on the road and premiering songs from their third album ‘2 sides of Karma’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKGinbFm9Dg&feature=youtu.be
"What we hope to take forward with these tours is to make Indian Classical music more approachable to people who have grown up listening to other forms of music. This is the mission for us at IndoSoul. To do this we take strains of music from different genres such as Rock, Pop, Jazz, RnB etc and blend them with our classical music to perform music that is Indian at its core and yet global in its sound."
Their final show in Canada in 2017 will be at the Flato Markham Theatre on October 4th with proceeds supporting the Ideal Hope Foundation. Ideal Hope was established with the mission to provide homes, inspire hope and contribute to the development of sustainable communities in the developing world. More details on the Markham show can be found here.
"For me, IndoSoul has major differences that set it apart from regular fusion music. The fusion music that became popular in the 90s was mostly focused on bringing together musicians who simply jammed together on stage, with a few notable exceptions. While it had its own beauty, the songs lacked structure and direction. Three decades later people started to ask the question, ‘What’s next?'. I think the answer to that question is a form of music in which the blending of genres is only a means to an end and not an end in itself. The collaboration of diverse musicians that create a structured song with a definite story and direction - something that’s essentially Indian but global in nature. I believe that this is what IndoSoul is all about." - Karthick Iyer