EP 17 Pranav Krishnan - The Moonlighter

In this episode, we dive into the life of the "new breed" of musicians who successfully juggle full-time professional careers with demanding, successful gigging schedules. Our guest is Pranav Krishnan, an established bass player on the scene.

Pranav shares his evolution from an aspiring guitarist inspired by Eddie Van Halen to a committed bassist, and how his understanding of performance has shifted from mere technical skill to captivating "showmanship." He gets into the practicalities of a working musician's life, detailing his meticulous preparation (including a strict checklist for every gig), his unique in-ear monitor mix, and his philosophy on gear—warning against the "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" trap.

Pranav also offers an honest look at the biggest challenge of live music: consistently translating practice-room perfection to the stage. Finally, he discusses the surprising way his organized, quiet personality informs his on-stage playing, and the mental tricks he uses to recover from inevitable mistakes during a live set.

Tune in to hear how Pranav Krishnan navigates the complex, two-sided world of a musician who lives by the mantra: "You have to look like the performer and not the musician."

Transcript

I've been observing of late that there is this new breed of young musicians who have full-time jobs and also manage to moonlight having successful and busy gigging careers. Bass player Pranav Krishnan is one of them. Hi Pranav, thank you for talking to me. 

Hello Arvind. Hi, good to be here. Thank you for having me. 

How's it going? How's the playing, all the gigs? Like what's the scene? Like you ask always. Yeah. So yeah, gigging has been going well. 

The gigging scene has been good to me for the past two years. I've been a bit active in the scene. And yeah, like I think I'm heading into some interesting stuff in my musical journey. 

And yeah, it's just in general, it's a very exciting journey that I'm looking at. Can you share some preview about what this interesting stuff may be? Yeah, I mean, so I've gotten back to taking my instrument more seriously, you know, practising. You know, like there are dreams, like every musician has the dream of like, you know, like they want to play in big stages. 

They want to perform with amazing artists, you know. But the behind the scenes of that is actually being incredibly good at your instrument. And that's just not negotiable. 

You have to be good in order to be like, work with like good artists and like put out great music. So that is what I realised it. And I took my practise more seriously. 

So I've been, you know, doing more of it in the past one year. Right now, it's been kind of in a rubble lately. But yeah, in general, me getting back to my instrument is like actually what's exciting. 

And I'm also building an act for myself, along with my friend Aditya Ravishankar, the violinist. So the band is yet to be named. We are yet to like put out our music. 

It's just in very nascent stages. But yeah, that is an exciting project that's, you know, coming out soon. Okay, this is great to hear. 

So we are talking about aspects of performance in this podcast. Yeah. What did what first drew you to performance? Why did you become a performer? Well, so like most bass players, the first exposure to music for me was I started out on guitar. 

And like when you're a guitarist, and like five years ago, not five years ago. So yeah, 10 years ago, when I started out on guitar, and YouTube was my main platform to learn. You can't but run into Eddie Van Halen. 

Right? So he is like the peak of performers for like, you just can't. He's very like flashy. He's 

brilliant. 

He's, you know, he can just hold an audience like that. And yeah, like looking at him, I wanted to be like that. Like I wanted to perform like that, like at the top of my musical abilities and all that. 

So yeah, playing the instrument, it just naturally fell into like, you know, I have to be a performer. I've never thought of other streams as much. So everybody even like anybody who picks up an instrument just wants to, you know, they want to perform somewhere. 

And that's, that's pretty much where it started. And I slowly discovered there's an instrument called the bass guitar. And it's been a total love story since then. 

And yeah, so performance is just ingrained since my the start of my musical journey, I'd say. What was the first live show that you saw which you went wow? Do you remember? Yeah, so the first show, it's a very fond memory for me. Not exactly the first show, but the first show that I that actually blew my mind. 

Because it was in 2019, I guess 1918. That time I was still in college. And so my friend's gang, my band in college, we were all fans of Urga, the band. 

Okay. Yeah. So we love them. 

Talking about Urga, I was just speaking to Pradeep yesterday. So yeah, so Pradeep and Bharath and these that was sort of kind of we'd like to think it was an underground thing back then. Now they are like more well known and they're like truly amazing. 

But yeah, in 2019, they announced that they are performing in Chennai. So I wasn't in Chennai at that time. I was in college in Thanjavur. 

So a bunch of my friends, we, we just, we decided, okay, hey, Urga, we've always listened to them on YouTube and Spotify and all that. Now it's a chance to like, go see them live. And then we went and it was actually a festival. 

And Urga was set to perform on Sunday night. We had actually booked our return tickets on Sunday night. And we realised the festival was sort of going into that late, late scenes. 

And we noticed we couldn't catch Urga. Like if we, if we have to go catch our bus to go back to college the next day, we, we couldn't, you know, we had to miss that show. But that was the show we all came for. 

We, of course, we saw all the other amazing acts. But yeah, but then we decided, okay, you know, it's okay. Let's miss our bus. 

We'll figure out something. We'll catch a bus in the middle of the night. We don't care.
 We just want to catch Urga today. And then we stayed back and that was truly an amazing, you 

know, concert for us. So I'm personally a fan of smaller, more packed venues. 

And that was the kind of thing that happened that day. I think that was the first time, you know, that made me sort of tell this because I experienced, you know, the, like the loud sounds in a very small space. And that has a sort of a vibe to it. 

And it was, of course, indie music. And I was just drawn to that performance. So I think like if I have to single out just that one performance, I would say that show was like, it also influenced me in a huge way to like, you know, perform like them. 

Yeah, that was one performance that stands out. How was your understanding of performance evolved from the time you started till now, when you're relatively more experienced and established? Yeah. Initially, I thought performance was all about knowing how to play your instrument. 

You know, yeah, of course, it's a given. You have to know, you know, you have to know to play well. But like as and when I grew into and started doing more gigs with, you know, other artists, I realised playing your instrument well is only half of the story of a performance. 

The remaining half is actually going out and performing, quote unquote. It means like having fun on stage, interacting with the artists on stage, like being more vocal and interacting with the audience. All that kind of stuff is what makes a performance a performance. 

So, yeah, you have to look like the performer and not the musician is my answer. And these past, I think, what, two years have taught me that to a huge extent. Take me through your preparation process. 

If you have a gig coming up tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow is a very short time. But of course, okay, let me take at it in like two ways. 

Yeah. So let's take case one where the gig is tomorrow. I have only one day to prepare like maybe 25 songs. 

And case two where a gig is like maybe two, three weeks away. And I have to prepare. So case one. 

So the primary objective would be to get through the gig. Like be as a bass player. My role is to be the supportive member and like drive the music. 

So make sure that point number one is very clear and it's established. So go through all the songs as fast as you can, chart them out, prepare like perfect charts, add cues in your charts. That's how I prepare. 

Because one day is not enough time to actually memorise all the material. If you are already familiar with the songs, it's way better. It helps a lot. 

You will just naturally play it. But if a lot of songs are new, charts are the way to go. So case one is where tomorrow is the gig. 

Today, overnight preparation. It is like fully chart it out and go have a good gig. And let's go to case two, which is the ideal case where I want to be. 

So case two, let's say the music is still new. I would still prepare charts. But since I have the time, I would try to memorise the music. 

Because I used to do this thing where, okay, I have charts. Like, why should I memorise the music? I can just look at my charts and play the gig. But then as I started understanding the performance aspect of it, I just can't be looking down on a screen or a sheet of paper throughout the gig. 

I need to be more interactive and be an integral part of the performance. So yeah, if I have like two or three weeks, I would try to memorise most of the set. If it's a new act I'm playing with, yeah, of course, I try to memorise most of it. 

If it's regular acts that I've always played with, it's just memory. I just don't carry notes. So yeah, like, in case they are a bit challenging, if the songs are a bit challenging, what I do is take the easiest parts of the songs, like easily memorisable parts of the songs, memorise them, and actually go to the chart only for the difficult parts during the performance. 

So that at least half the time you are engaged with the performance. Yeah, that's how I would go about it. What about non-musical preparation? Like, do you have like a routine of how you eat or sleep? Yeah, definitely get good sleep. 

But I think most musicians are deprived of that on gig day. But yeah, if I'm travelling, like, try to, if the band themselves are the organisers, and they have a management company doing it for them, it helps a lot. Because the burden on the musicians to actually manage the logistics and all that has been outsourced to somebody else. 

Just the ideal case. So like, try to keep it light on yourself. Be prepared. 

Like, I always have a list of things that I need to carry to a gig. It's always on my phone. Okay, you like have a checklist? Yeah, I have a checklist basically. 

So that I go through that in every gig. So that, you know, I don't miss that extra cable, which I need it when I need it the most. So have a list and make sure, like, that list has gear and also non-gear stuff, like musical gear and also like clothes, whatever, toiletries, whatever you have, whatever you want to carry. 

So have that ready. I have that ready. And like, I go through that list and keep everything ready. 

And it's also like mental preparation, right? So it's very important to actually relax yourself right before the performance. You know, like if you are tensed up, your body just shows it and 

mentally you're just blocked in a way. It never works out well, like if you are, you know, you are like in a hurry and learning songs right before the set. 

There are cases where it happens, where suddenly last minute changes come to the set. But yeah, like most of the time it doesn't happen, right? So it's on the musician, the performer to actually prepare well in advance and like, you know, properly prepare right in front of the gig so that you can be relaxed. You can open up your mind and actually play better if you are, you know, not looking at or listening to the music right before your performance time. 

So yeah, so it's equally a mental game as well, right? Like being mentally relaxed and prepared. Yeah, that's my process. So how important is your gear to you? Are you a severe gearhead? Yeah, I have this term called GAS. 

It's called Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I think most musicians are caught in that trap, including me. Nobody escapes that. 

Everybody goes into that trap. I would say it's very important to have good sounding gear that you understand how you can use and like, like how you operate, you should know how to operate it well and get the sounds that you want out of it. And once you get a decent sound, I think it's fine. 

Like don't go to that next shiny trophies is my approach, right? I used to be that person who was like, okay, now I have this gear. Stage two of this gear is that gear. And I want to buy that. 

Lately, I've realised that's not actually needed. There's this point of diminishing returns where like, okay, if you go from level one to level two, you'll hear a huge difference in how it sounds. That sounds really nice to play. 

The way it impacts your performance in a positive way. Like you are able to literally play, feel your instrument in a much better way and all that. But yeah, once it crosses that point of diminishing returns, I think musicians, we all need to be aware that, okay, this is getting into a territory where, you know, there's only very little, you know, audible difference. 

Do you really want that for the cost that you're paying and all that? So yeah, gear, very important. It's your partner that nobody else has control over. It's very essential to your performance. 

Make sure it's well maintained, well oiled and all that. But yeah, don't obsess over it. Someday, if you are asked, like as a bass player, if I'm asked to perform without my processor or amp or whatever, I should be able to still play my instrument well. 

Absolutely. Yes. Without running into confidence issues.
 Right. So I'd say that is my approach to gear. Like have good gear, but don't obsess over it.
 Yes. Very well said. What about, do you have like a process you follow during soundcheck? 

Yeah. 

Interesting. Nice topic. So yeah, of course, the typical, for like mostly commercial acts, the process is like drummer, bassist, guitarist, and then if there's a percussionist, and then the lead instrumentalist or vocalist, that's how it goes. 

Right. So initially, like right when the drummer is setting up, I go and set up my gear. I make sure it's in tune. 

I actually warm up right when the drummer is actually preparing because when we actually play during soundcheck, in most cases, what happens is, we play with a different dynamic during soundcheck and during showtime, it's like completely different. Sometimes it's unavoidable. It happens because in the heat of the moment during the performance, we just tend to play a lot harder and louder. 

But yeah, it's best to actually balance it out and like be well warmed up and play as if, soundcheck as if you are actually performing is a very good approach. That's why I warm up before soundcheck and not just the show. So that I can, my fingers are heated up and they are more comfortable playing what they're playing. 

So first do like an initial in-ear check. Make sure all your signals are going to the front of house, all that. And then everybody does their turn and then it goes to the monitor check. 

I am very, you know, I tend to keep the tweaks to a minimal because initially, I'm talking about initially, don't tweak too much because everybody is still figuring out the sound with the venue, with the audio equipment they've got and all that. So initially, just try to, you know, don't bother the engineer too much with so many, I want little of guitar, more of this, more of that. But yeah, initially, it's fine. 

Like just make sure everything works and signal flows. And then once you go to the monitoring setup is when you actually make like proper tweaks. And yeah, nowadays, I think there's like amazing technology to like, even you can do your monitor mix on your phone, right? Yeah, I would always prefer that over bothering an engineer with like, hey, I want little bit this, little bit that. 

Yeah, I would like to remove that stage so that we, the musicians have complete control over what we hear. So my in-ear mix, I think it will be a bit unique to me as a bass player. So if I have to draw like a visual graph or like a visual, what to say, a visual representation of sorts. 

The loudest will, of course, be my instrument. The second loudest will be the drums. Because I want to know and I want to be in lockstep with the drummer, right? That's what basses are doing. 

And the next level would be click. And in case there are tracks and cues and all that, that would be the next level, followed by the lead vocalist or instrumentalist. Because I want to know 

where the song is going. 

I can't fly blind. And then comes the harmonic layer of all the guitars, keyboards and all that. So levels wise, this is how my in-ears are usually set up. 

In most cases, I'll be standing or sitting right near the drummer, where I'll just hear the drummer. You'll hear the cymbal in your ear. So some basses, I think they go deaf on one. 

Yeah, so that's pretty much how my in-ear mix is set. And I think there is this lost art of playing with wedges, monitor wedges. I understand the challenges that come with it. 

There's a lot of bleed going on. And it's a lot harder to... All those problems are there. But I would prefer that over... Yeah, definitely. 

Yeah, you'll just feel the whole music in your body and not just in your ears. So, yeah, it's soundcheck. And then after soundcheck, go back, relax, test change and prep mentally for the show. 

And then, yeah, that's my soundcheck. Is there a gap between what you practise and what you can play on stage? Oh, yeah, definitely. So I think it comes to a point where we are always, as musicians, we obsess over the cooler things and we want to learn them. 

The gap is where we learn a certain concept. Let's say I'm learning RPGOs, dominant 7 RPGOs, moving in interval of minor thirds, like diminished intervals. I need to know how to apply them. 

So that's where the gap actually comes, where what we practise doesn't necessarily translate to what we play on stage. And also the second thing, like, for example, right now, I'm into jazz. I'm learning a lot of techniques, picking up a lot of techniques from jazz. 

But I'm not playing jazz gigs as much. I play very different kind of gigs. So that's the second case where what we practise doesn't exactly carry over to our performance. 

But I will say, learning as many genres or as many styles as possible is very essential to being a more well-versed musician. So it helps to bring in a different flavour. Most bands actually prefer it, in Chennai scene at least, where, you know, okay, I don't just sound like just this one genre. 

I can bring in elements from the other genre and make the music more interesting. Like, it can have more interactive elements to it with the musicians and all that. So, yeah, practise. 

I love to practise whatever I want, and not everything necessarily transfers to the stage. But that's fine. You can't expect it to happen immediately. 

It's always in your arsenal. And it can come out. It will come out naturally someday when the situation is right. 

Yeah. Is there some kind of a spiritual aspect to performing? Or is it just a means of 

communication? You know, I've not gone too deeply into spiritualism, connecting it. No, whatever word, whatever. 

I'm just using the word spiritualism. It's not like... So is there something beyond? A feeling that's closer to you. Like, apart from just, you know... Or is it just a direct means of communication, playing on stage? I'd say it is a means of communication. 

So music in general is sort of seen as a different language that we speak, right? So, yeah, I would kind of say it has a communication element to it. But there is also that realist in me that says like, how will you communicate? Like, go there and eat something. How will you communicate that to music? So that kind of like, you know, an opposing thing comes into my mind. 

But yeah, I think I've not delved into that much. How does your identity or your personal history inform your performance? Does it? Interesting. Yeah, I think it does. 

So my personal identity... I'm usually this quieter, more mellow person. But I actually... My musical journey started out with listening to a lot of metal. So it's not necessarily that, you know, quiet people don't listen to loud music or very energetic music. 

That's not the case. Actually, nowadays, most metal, hardcore metal musicians seem to be the most, like, sweetest, soft days. Yeah, they're more respectful. 

So because all the aggression goes out into the music, in real world, you're like more relaxed and all that. Yeah, so personality wise, I think I wanted to be that rebel. And that's when you get into that metal scene, right? The metal music. 

So that's where I started. And slowly, my personality actually started... starts showing in how I play, actually. In general, I'm a person who is more organised, who sticks to a schedule. 

Who's not okay with ad hoc plans. You know, I want my schedule to not change. Okay. 

Right. And that reflects in my playing, actually. So if I... There could be an improvisational element to it. 

We'll come to that. But you're already preempted here. Yeah. 

Yeah, so that is fine. I love improvisation, like spontaneous moments during the performance. I'm talking about the notes I play and, you know, the kind of melodies I play. 

I tend to keep it more rigid. I tend to keep it more simple. So I don't tend to overcomplicate stuff so that I throw off other musicians. 

So that kind of comes into play. Because, you know, that's how my personality connects into my playing. So which is why I wouldn't be a great candidate for like highly technical music. 

Like what's the current metal scene that's going on. Right. I wouldn't be a great candidate for that. 

So, yeah, I think personality totally has something. It has major influence over how musicians play their instrument. How do you deal with unexpected things during a live performance? Mistakes. 

You can make mistakes. Your band can make mistakes. Something can go wrong in the venue. Yeah. Some cable. Your guitar doesn't work. 

Yeah. What happened? How do you deal with it? How do you... How do you recover? Right. So let's say there's an equipment failure. 

You just can't do anything about it. You have to leave it to the tech team for them to figure out. If they are a good tech team, they would immediately be on it. 

So there's no need to panic and be on their tails. Like, hey, go, go figure out. You shouldn't really show that on stage. 

Just continue playing in case you have... Like if you're a guitarist or a bassist or a keyboardist. If you have... If your onstage amps and things are still working, but let's, for example, say the PA is not... You're not coming out on the PA. It's fine. 

Just keep still keep performing. Don't lose the groove or don't let it affect, you know, your own pace. So this is one case where, okay, there is an equipment failure. 

How do I deal with it? You just don't deal with it. You keep doing a job. People are there behind you to figure out all that for you. 

So you don't have to worry. And the second is the mistake on our part. Like when we play, what do we do if we make a mistake? So this thing comes with a lot of playing repetitive, you know, doing a lot of gigs, playing a lot, where you are really good at covering up your mistakes. 

It doesn't sound like a mistake anymore. You just immediately pivot to a, you know, to a different approach or a different melody or whatever. So there's this very famous video on YouTube, where John Mayer, when he's playing the Gravity solo, it's like a legendary solo, right? You just, at the starting of the solo, you just can't get it wrong. 

You shouldn't because everybody expects that melody. But John Mayer gets it wrong. So a musician of his stature, mistakes still happen. 

And he makes a mistake. And he immediately goes into a different kind of a... He knows that he made a mistake and even the audience knows. But he just drives it to a different direction where, hey, you know what? This is where the mistake has generated a new thing altogether. 

Right. And it has become like a totally new sound. Oh, wow. 

That is like, it is still cool. I know it's a mistake, but it's still cool kind of way. So, yeah, with mistakes, I think if a musician is just starting out, like every level of musician will still make mistakes on stage. 

Everybody makes mistakes. When you're starting out, sometimes it'll just show on your face. It'll make a weird face like, oh, no, I made a mistake. 

But later on, you realise the trick is in not making that face. Right. You just carry on as it was meant to be. 

And, yeah, just don't be afraid of making so many mistakes on stage, I would say. That would be the best approach. What is the most challenging aspect of performing? The most challenging aspect. 

There are a lot of challenges, actually. It's hard to narrow down one. OK, one or two, whatever. 

It's actually transferring whatever you rehearsed onto the stage, I would say, is the biggest challenge. As a band, I would have played something more interesting. Oh, I need to remember this at the gig. 

So that kind of thing tends to happen. But most of the time on stage, sometimes you're not mentally calm. Or something happens where you're in a different mind space. 

You actually don't transfer whatever you played at the rehearsal to the stage. So that is one major challenge that I would say happens. Because I will put all the effort to make that perfect bass line sound really nice, play nice melodies and all that. 

But sometimes it just won't come out. Yeah, it doesn't come out on stage. And the solution to that is actually, if you are playing in a regular act, you just keep doing it over and over and over and again. And at one point, it just flows. You're just very comfortable in your shoes. 

You don't have to consciously think about transferring everything from rehearsal to your stage, because rehearsal doesn't happen. You're just so used to it. It's just a gig straight away. 

Right. So, yeah, I would say that that one thing is a major challenge, because I tend to freelance a lot with a lot of bands. And like at rehearsal is this new band that I'm playing with. 

And it usually doesn't, you know, carry on to the stage. So I would say that's that's the biggest challenge for me. How do you perceive your audience? What's your relationship with them? You like to are they just as observers or you like to interact with them? Do you like? Yeah, I mean, stuff to please the audience. 

More at almost 99% of the gigs. I'm a sideman. I'm a supporting member of the music.
 So I don't get to directly talk to them. Oh, no, that is Bruce Lee. He just jumped out of the dark. 

Right. So most of the time, I don't get to directly speak to the audience. You don't have to speak to them. 

Yeah. Even like the way you perform. Correct. 

But I always tend to smile at them. Because like, let's say there is this one person. It's a small crowd. 

It's a let's imagine it's a moving crowd. But this one person, you manage to get their attention and they are now looking at you. You just smile at them and like continue playing you have you have fun. 

They will definitely smile back at you. And their whole perception of your act, the whole band changes instantly. And that tends to attract more audience like even in a moving crowd, there'll be certain people like grouping up and like seeing because the musicians are having so much fun on stage. 

They want to do that. They want to like club together and watch this amazing performance. So my relationship with the audience is Yeah, I can't directly speak to you. 

But I'm but I'm speaking to you through my performance. Okay, by actually looking at you and smiling at you and playing to the best of my abilities and all that. That is my relationship with the audience. 

How important is persona and stage appearance to you? Yeah, there's still a lot of development for me going on there. Okay. Yeah, it's it's definitely important. 

I think major acts around the world are they they tend to spend so much attention and money on you know, appearance. Yeah. Like there are two extremes to it. 

There are certain rock bands, punk bands that do the opposite of you know, yeah, and it's still its own thing. Like they are very conscious that you know, hey, I'm gonna wear whatever. And that is going to be the thing that attracts audience. 

And you have this opposite side where like people are properly dressed up. Like, depending on the gig, they're either suited up, or they have a special costume for the event, whatever. And I think it's like very important. 

Yeah. Like, like I said, initially, half of it is playing your instrument, the remaining half is just what you look like and what you are doing on stage. Right. 

And the way you look is very, very important. Because people listen with their eyes. Yeah, it's very, it's very common. 

It happens in every art form. Yeah. So dressing up well is as much as I'm preaching it. 

I think I'm still bad at it. Because in general, I'm not that visual aesthetics person. I'm trying to get better at it. 

But yeah, definitely agree with you know, the visual appearance is definitely an integral part of performance. What about personality? Are you like the same person on and off stage? No, definitely not. Okay. 

So off stage, I would look, I mean, I would be this very quiet, very calm person who is, you know, just minding their business and stuff like that. But on stage, I tend to be the opposite sometimes, depending on the gig I play. So in some gigs, you're, you have to be okay, like calm yourself. 

Don't be don't do it. Don't go overboard kind of a gig, where it's like a quieter setup and a more mellow sound. In some gigs, you have to be that extra person. 

The showman. Yeah, exactly. That showmanship has to come out. 

And yeah, in those gigs, I do tend to step into a different shoe altogether. And I've been doing it on and off for a long time. It just doesn't feel weird anymore. 

It's just another persona that I'm stepping into on stage, and it comes out only on stage. I can't do that when I'm, you know, walking around in the audience. Yeah. 

Yeah. And I think every musician will have that persona types where, you know, they just create 

a mental persona initially. Fake it till you make it. 

They just keep doing it over and over again. And it just becomes a natural thing, what you do on stage. Yeah. 

What is your expectation of a show promoter or an organiser? Promoters, organisers. First of all, they need to connect the act with the audience. I would say that is one major point. 

That's the first point that should hit. So imagine there's a like, for example, it's a private event, and they are approaching this event management slash organiser, they need to know, okay, where is this client from? Are they from Bangalore? Are they from Hyderabad? What language do they speak? What musical genres are more popular with their community and all that? And they have to sort of connect the right act with the client or audience, right? I think that is stage one, where you just don't make a mistake in that, first of all, because I've been to plenty of gigs where, you know, the organiser gives a brief where, hey, the audience, most of them are Hindi, and maybe 20% of them are Tamil. And then we go with a 80% Hindi set list. 

And then you see that it's the opposite. Okay, 80% are Tamil. And so that kind of, that is the point one, I would say, where you need to connect the audience with the right kind of act, first of all. 

And then second, if they are also handling the artist management part of it, it's just making it easy for the band or the artist. That's the most important thing. Like, there has to be a certain level of trust between both of them, where, okay, we are both working towards giving a great performance. 

The band says, these are my requirements, I would need these things to actually put up a great performance. I hope, like, let's work together on getting it done, so that we are all on the same page, kind of thing, where the organiser has to, like, meet the requirements, or at least halfway, if every requirement can't be met, at least make some way, something that can be, you know, that we can, you know, meet halfway and all that. So this is the sort of relationship I see with artists and organisers. 

Have you had like a bad experience? Oh, yeah. Can you tell me about it without, you don't need to name any names? Yeah, I'm not naming names. So this was a very recent thing where we had a gig in, it was in Karnataka. 

I don't remember the name of the place. It was so remote. It was basically a village. 

But there was this one, like, huge marriage hall, where all the, you know, the HNI people, they do their weddings and stuff. It was kind of that gig. And usually, this act that I usually perform with, they usually negotiate with the client for, hey, you are supposed to handle all the travel and stuff. 

So either we book it, or you do it. But, you know, you just have to reimburse and all that. They 

did do it. 

But then they said, you are supposed to book your own tickets and all that. We did it because we didn't, it was such a remote place, there were not many options. And we actually, we booked a bus, and then we reach the bus stand and we look at the bus. 

And it looks like the bus is going to break down tomorrow. That's how the bus looked. So it was, we just refused to get onto the bus. 

Because we said, it said it's an AC bus. There was no AC. There were no windows.
 It was just open spaces. And there was no bed virtually inside. Like, there's no sleeper. 

And it's a 14 hour, 15 hour travel. It's that far. So we just decided, no, this is not going to work for 15 hours. 

We'll just hire our own travel tempo. We just hired a tempo. And it was the most gruelling travel that I've ever done. 

And I think the musicians who came with me would say the same thing. And we get to the venue. And basically, there's, there's nobody to tell us where to go, what to do, help us out with, you know, stay, where are you gonna, like, go and keep your stuff first? What's the transport like between the stay and the venue? Nothing was there. 

And we had to basically figure everything out for ourselves. And in a place where we don't speak the language they speak. And we were just scared to be there, honestly. 

So that and then the return again from there was the same challenge where we had to do our own thing, own travel thing. I would say that if I had to single out one event, that was the worst gig I've ever had. Yeah. 

My next question talks about money. But I guess this doesn't apply to you because you I know you have a job, which pays you well and all that. But what advice would you give to other performers who depend on performance for a livelihood? Yeah. 

Any kind of money advice? The way I look at it is, if you are not a prodigy, you are not the Jacob Colliers of the world, you just know, music is, you know, it could be a tricky thing, making money out in music, you just have to do something else, other than your performance that has to generate revenue for you. It could be anything in the world, it could still be inside music, you can be a producer, you could be an engineer, or you could teach something. Or maybe like me, if you if you could have a day job, and maybe you bring those skills to your music. 

And those things are very important, because it's basically, it's just risk management, where, okay, you are just diversifying your portfolio and saying, Oh, hey, okay, because the gigs that performers get are not always consistent. COVID was the biggest lesson, right? Like, everybody just scrambled immediately, and they pivoted to something that they knew, either from the 

past or whatever they did. So it is a valuable lesson, like, have something on the side that could also generate revenue for you. 

And yeah, that that would be my advice. What about like personal struggles, personal challenges in your relationship? How does that like affect? Suppose you have a show today, and there's something else going on? Does that affect you while you're on stage? It's totally block it out and are able to forget it. So I would say it affects me until I get on stage. 

So right before the moment, like even during preparation stage, if there's some personal issue going on, it's always on my mind. But I have this, I would say it's a quality, whether I don't know if it's good or bad. But obsession is the word, where if I start doing something, I just obsess over it and forget everything else. 

So that kind of helps me personally. So even during preparing for a gig, most of the time, even though it's there in my mind, I don't let it affect me completely, because I'm so in love with music and what I'm doing right now. And on stage, you just step into this completely different persona, where you just everything else goes out, you are just there in the moment, playing your music. 

Yeah, right. So for me, it does affect affect my, you know, performance and all that. But I would say, I am relatively good at managing it. 

Because, you know, it's the way it's just the person I am. Because I could easily, you know, weed out all the other things. And there's just focus on this music thing, because I'm so in love with it. 

Right. So, yeah. Do you have any kind of physical and mental exercise routine? For a performance? No, just in life, because performing is strenuous, sometimes you need to play for three hours on stage. 

As much as fitness is important, I don't go to the gym yet. But I think, yeah, it's, it's very essential. I've, I used to be a gym head back in college and all that. 

And even now, there are those, you know, spontaneous bursts where, you know, for a week, I just exercise at home and all that. And it's the day is just totally different. That whole day, you're just more energy, you have more energy, you have more focus, just just a 15-20 minute workout in the morning. 

And I definitely wouldn't, you know, I definitely know the benefits of actually exercising and keeping your body fit and healthy. And you it even comes to what you eat. It's even the feeling sometimes for me, if I, let's say today, I everything I ate was like healthy, I would actually feel more happier. 

And it has nothing to do with actually, you know, the actual food going inside and making you feel good. It's just a mental thing where, okay, I did, I did not put my body through any bad things today. So everything is going to be good, that kind of a mindset. 

So fitness and food, it's definitely an important, you know, aspect of being like, musicians in part are athletes. Like you, you do use your muscles and all that very intricate, fine motor movements. So all the fitness stuff is like, extremely important. 

That reminds me, I need to go and renew my gym membership. Wonderful. Well said. 

I hope it's a fresh start. Yeah, thank you. What about external stimulants, alcohol, drugs? I'm personally not into all that. 

I think, but I understand when, I don't know about, you know, the non-legal stuff. But alcohol, I know it, sometimes it helps people perform better. I know that for a fact. 

I've seen them just having one drink and going on stage. And then, you know, at a dry event where, you know, they don't have that and they're just a bit more pissed off. I've seen that. 

But you like playing sober? Yeah, always. Because I don't want anything to, you know, affect my brain or how I think and all that. I want to be at my absolute peak. 

So I never do it for performance. What's the unique element in a live performance that can never be found in a recorded medium? The spontaneousness. So there will be these specific moments. 

You could listen to a band on record for the longest time, you could have been listening to them. But you would, like as an audience, you would go to their concert and then expect the same thing to be played. And then it's, there's this specific part that's like completely different. 

So Snarky Puppy has this, they very, very consciously do it, where they never keep it exactly as on the record. It's always a different thing. So like their song, the general melody, the harmony of the song, not the harmony, maybe the melody stays the same. 

But there's a lot of, you know, other elements going on, like maybe rhythmically, it's completely different one day. So I think that improvisational element is, you know, that is definitely what you would not get from just listening to a record, you have to experience that. So we are living in one very digital world today. 

Like, I think lots of people really think that a 15 second reel, where someone we don't even know if they perform playing it really is what performance is. In this environment, what do you think is the importance of live performance and doing shows? And does it have more value coming in the future, with all these new technologies coming? See, why do we actually start learning music? Why do we pick up an instrument? It's so that we can go perform for a bunch of people, and we are all happy, right? That's why basically music exists fundamentally. So with social media, it's very easy to be thrown off. 

So it happened to me, where, okay, bass guitar, I have to learn these cool things, these flashy things, where I have to go blow people's minds. I used to be in that mindset for the longest 

time, because when I started learning that, I basically learned, I'm self-taught and I learned on YouTube. And everything you see on YouTube is just, most of it is just flashy, right? But slowly, I figured out that, see, the flashy bit is just 10% of the song. 

What are you doing for the remaining 90% of the song? It's your basics, it's your foundation. Bread and butter. Yeah. 

So you kind of have to get that down first. It's okay if you miss a flashy moment, but you can't miss 90% of the song, right? So I would focus mainly on getting the basics right, being a solid groove, like building a solid groove for the song, instead of being that flashy, hey, did you see what I did? So it's cool. It's necessary to have all that. 

But first make sure, you know, social media doesn't put you off into believing that, you know, that is what being a musician is. No, musician is making people feel something, right? So I think it's very hard to actually bypass the whole social media effect. It's still, even though I'm, I'm conscious now, it still affects me to a certain extent where I'm being blown away by this amazing bass player who's 11 years old. 

Yeah. All this stuff. Yeah. 

And it's also not just like playing your instrument. It's who you are, how you, how you interact with people, how easy, how easygoing are you? All this stuff, right? All those things make you a musician. It's not just the 15 second flashy bit that you can play. 

So yeah, it's very hard to ignore social media and it's a very essential tool also today to actually like put out your content and bring a name for yourself. But yeah, like try to keep it to a minimum and focus on the bread and butter as you're saying. Wonderful. 

How do you define success and failure in a performance? In a performance specifically? How do you, after a show, how will you say it's a success? You just feel good. That's a success. Okay. 

So I think for me it boils down, if I have to be very, what to say, very getting down to the like integrity. Yeah. I would say if I make more mistakes and I fail to cover them up, that's a bad gig. 

Okay. And if it's a good gig, it doesn't matter if I, you know, played the most challenging parts correctly. It's about, okay, I literally saw the audience having fun. 

They came back to me after the gig and they said, Hey, we loved your performance. What do you guys do? This, that and all. So for me, that is why we performed, right? So that the audience, we were able to, even if there are two people in the audience, we managed to get their attention and they are happy and they left happy. 

They're going to have a happy day. So that I think defines success in a performance. Wonderful. 

Yeah. We're almost at the end. If you have to distil the essence of what a performance is in one philosophy or one sentence, what would it be? I would say, it is the best self that you can be. 

That, you know, wait, let me rephrase that. So you've been doing, building your skills. You've been focussing on like, when you're learning music, you are actually in a sense, becoming a better version of yourself. 

And a performance is just a way to show yourself and to the world that, Hey, this is the best version of myself. And it's not in a show-off way, but it's in a way that they actually see and, you know, Hey, I love the best version of yourself. You should do it more. 

That's what the audience says, right? They love your performance. I would say, summing up in one line, I would say that is what a performance is. Do you have like a dream venue you want to play in? I would really want to play, what's the place? The venue of Queen, the Live Aid concert. 

O2. Wembley. Wembley.
 Yes. So I'm a big time Foo Fighters fan. And I just go crazy over David Grohl. 

I have posters of him in my studio and all that. So they have played this one gig in Wembley stadium. It was, I think in 2013, 14, I don't know, around that time. 

They've been a band for like, yeah, it should be, it should have been like more than 10 years by then. But then David Grohl, in that concert, during one song, he will tear up because he just connects with the people and the venue. He understands the history behind that venue, right? So he would just tear up. 

And that made me tear up. Okay. So it's like, he's a very emotional guy in a way. 

But I could literally see, okay, he has played to these, to this kind of crowd, his music a lot of times. But why is it making him feel that way? So at that time, I think that was the largest, you know, crowd that Foo Fighters had played for. And it was, I think, 50, 60,000 people, something like that. 

It was like Wembley stadium, but full capacity like that. And ever since I saw that performance, it was still online. I've still not seen Foo Fighters live. 

I would love to. But yeah, I would say Wembley is something that... Brilliant. I hope to see you there sometime. 

What is performance to you in one word? Performance. It's just happiness for me. Brilliant, Pranav. 

This has been very fascinating. Thank you. Thank you so much. 

Thank you for talking to me. Thank you for having me here. It was a pleasure actually getting to know myself by speaking out. 

Yeah, it's great fun because everyone is talking a lot about... Yeah, people like to talk a lot. Hope 

I wish the best for the podcast. Thank you.
 Thank you. And we'll meet again soon. Thanks.
 Thank you.