Ep 26. Karthick Iyer - The violinist entrepreneur

This episode of Stage Matters features a fascinating conversation with Karthick Iyer, the highly accomplished violinist and founder of the popular band, IndoSoul.

Karthik offers a deep dive into the complex world of professional performance, detailing his journey from a traditional Carnatic musician to an international showman and, ultimately, a music entrepreneur.

Key Discussion Points:

• The Performer's Evolution: Karthik outlines the distinct phases of his performing life, from overcoming stage fright in his early years, to mastering technical skills in the studio, and finally embracing the role of a "showman" on large international stages with acts like Raghu Dixit.
• Philosophy and Technique: He discusses the vital difference between clinical technique and being in "the zone," prioritizing the latter as a deeply spiritual and relatable experience for both the artist and the audience. He also explains how IndoSoul balances planned arrangements with completely improvisational solos.
• Preparation and Gear: Learn about his unique pre-show routine, including his strict avoidance of eating before a show, and the evolution of his sophisticated, MIDI-controlled violin rig designed to keep his hands and feet free for movement and expression.
• The Business of Music: Karthik candidly addresses the financial realities of a performing artist. He shares his successful model for building IndoSoul as a brand—where commercial gigs feed the passion projects (Indie music)—and offers sound financial advice for young musicians on savings, emergency funds, and avoiding artistic idealism.
• Life on the Road: He touches upon the physical and mental toll of long shows, his strategies for managing violin-related physical issues (cervical prolapse), and the magical, irreplaceable energy exchange that defines a live performance.

Transcript

Hi, Karthik. Thank you. Hi, Aravind.
 And welcome to Stage Matters. Thank you. Nice to be here. 

So, how did it all begin for you? How did you get into performing? I started learning at the age of 8. So, around 12, 13. In 1998, I started performing at M.O.P. Vaishnava College. Behind that, there is a stage that is where all youth association of classical music. 

So, we performed together, kids of my age and stuff like that. So, that was the starting of my performances and starting of getting inspired by music. Okay, wonderful. 

So, from the beginning then to now, how has your understanding of performing evolved? Oh, wow. That's a large question. I think it went in many phases. 

There was the phase of basically dealing with being on stage and performing. That was something that I had to overcome. But then it was also about when I entered the whole recording phase after college, I started to work with music directors, playing with a click and playing in a more controlled sort of environment. 

It was more about how I should sound and stuff like that. So, I approached things a bit academically, technically. So, it was about improving myself technically. 

So that when I want to express myself, all the questions are out of the way, right. When I started to play with Raghu Dixit, I think 2008, 9, 9, 10. That was more about moving around, standing up and playing, which was new to me as a Carnatic violinist. 

So, being more of a showman, we played for large crowds. And I joined Raghu at the time when he was going international. So, we had large crowds in different places, Europe, America, Australia, etc. 

So, that was a phase. Then Indoor Soul started. That was totally about everything but performance. 

That was more about how to deal with clients, how to deal, how to sort out stage management, how to manage the artists, how to work together, how to get the best sort of artists and stuff like that. So, that was a very different phase of performance. But I think it's pretty integral, I guess, if you have a band. 

So, I would say those are the various evolutionary steps that have been there. Can you remember a pivotal performance that you watched when you were in your formative years? And you looked at it and said, wow, this is what I want to do. Is there something like that? You 

know, I was travelling in London with my wife. 

I'm going to use the term performance in a very generic sense. Because I watched, I went to the one of the theatres there in Broadway. Broadway is London or is it the West End? West End. 

West End. So, in the West End and caught a performance of Billy Elliot. Okay. 

For me, the way they were synchronised with each other, the lighting, the whole experience part of it was extremely interesting for me. Okay. I wish there's something like that here in Chennai. 

Yeah. But Chennai is very different, obviously. But, you know, that left a very deep imprint on me. 

Wonderful. Can you take me through your preparation process, assuming you have a show coming up, say, tomorrow or the next two days? I just like to be as much as possible by myself. Be in my own space. 

I try and get all the detail-orientated stuff, set lists and all that out of the way and on paper so that I don't have to think about all that. And for me, my space is just about just keeping composed, being in my own space and being a bit reserved in a sense. So that, yeah, by the time I get to the performance, there's not too many things on my mind. 

And then after that, the performance takes over. Okay. So, what is your relationship with the gear and equipment? Oh, gear and equipment, it's been a very good relationship. 

I've changed the gear that I work with over four, five times by now. I started with the Boss GT6, which was loaned to me by a friend. And that's what I did all the tours with Raghu with. 

And then with some inputs from Vikram, my guitarist, Vikram, whom you know and who has been here on the podcast as well. Who also built my pedalboard. Who also built it. 

He's built everyone's pedalboard. So I moved completely analogue with the pedalboard. Okay. 

Then I got back. I couldn't deal with too many pedals and all that. So I got back to an FX8, which was great. 

And then now I've moved on to an Apollo Twin with my laptop main stage and maybe a couple of pedals. Where everything is MIDI controlled. Whatever triggers, backing tracks we have, we also have a MIDI clock running, which triggers all my patches so that my legs are free. 

I can move around. I don't need to reach out and change the patches. So that's kept me in good stead. 

Although I've been very excited with pedals, I will have to say, whatever pedals I get, I merely scratch the surface. For the violin, you know, the distortion doesn't, it's not my style. I haven't 

tried amping it too much. 

So for me, it's more of a good preamp, good EQ, reverb, delay, maybe an octaver on top of that. That's pretty much it. So all my setups have been overqualified for my requirements. 

But in a sense, I just like to have the good gear, giving me a good tone and everything. Just on a tangent, I remember getting you to play distortion violin for one of the scores that we were doing. Right, okay. 

Heavy stuff. No, it's very nice. In a controlled environment, it works very well. 

In a live sense with Indoor Soul, since Vikram's bringing the distortion and people expect me to sound like a violinist, so it just doesn't make sense. But yeah, I understand. Those kind of things, it's very nice to go for something wacky and novel. 

Going back to the preparation thing, is there some kind of a diet you have or things you don't eat or drink before a show? I don't eat before a show. So say a show is typically at 7 o'clock. My lunch, 1-1.30. After that, maybe a coffee. 

It's very rare that I even munch on snacks. And there I differ very much with my musicians. They all like to not be on an empty stomach while performing. 

But for me, I can't eat. If I eat, I get very uncomfortable. I feel like it pulls me down in terms of being able to express. 

Okay, interesting. Because I think you're the first person who's saying this. Really? Everyone has said that they want to eat something. 

Or have a snack. Yeah, I try and avoid it. I mean, I wouldn't mind a snack, but I know that it doesn't work well. 

Okay. So can you take me through your soundcheck process? What is it that you are looking for? What is it that you're trying to hear? How elaborate is it? Our soundcheck process is pretty elaborate, I would say. It's very organised and elaborate. 

Where everyone gets their own time to check their monitors. So the musicians are just performing for one person who's checking his monitors. And we cycle through, ensure everyone is fine. 

And then once we do a round, maybe we open it up for the sound engineer to do the FOH and make sure he's fine. And then we have one more round of corrections. And by which time we are very clear. 

And of course, the line check and all that happens. The stage managers, the sound engineer, they take care of it before we arrive. And we go staggered as well. 

The other musicians, drums, all those happen. And so basically everything happens in steps. Okay. 

And sort of as a tried and tested process that we've achieved over the years. And we have settled down with it. Okay, wonderful. 

So beyond skill and technique, which, of course, every one of you has in abundance. Do you think there's something more profound, more like even spiritual or something in an act of performance? 100%, 100%. I feel like sometimes when I look at what I've been pursuing over the years, I think to myself, maybe the technique is a bit overrated. 

I mean, it's very important. I don't want folks to get me wrong. But after a point of time, it's about being in the zone. 

If you were to tell me, hey, would you like to be in the zone with 80% technique versus having a 95% technique and just being able to clinically sort it out, I would choose the former. Because I feel like mistakes here and there, stuff is human. I feel people relate to it. 

People relate to a certain character that comes from a certain human flaw. But being in the space which I have when I'm playing certain Carnatic songs and I close my eyes and I feel like I'm, I feel like there's no thought at that point of time. For me, that's a very deeply spiritual experience. 

I don't have that every time I perform. But it comes and goes, especially when I'm working on my solos and I'm playing something that requires me to express something very improvisational. Since you talked about improvisation, how much of a balance do you put between improvisation and planning and rehearsal? So, we are very planned when it comes to the songs and the arrangements and stuff like that. 

I think we are a bit more planned than I think we should be, to be frank. But it's just worked out that when you keep playing gigs week in and week out, there's a certain method to the madness that comes. But the solos are all very improvisational. 

I never play the same solo twice unless it's a hook. But I never play the same solo twice. So it's always different from gig to gig. 

So it's sort of like the out-of-box thinking is within a box. Because I feel like, you know, when we started, and even now to a large extent, fusion music, you know, it's a very abused generic term. It just meant five great artists just meet on the stage and jam and they're all great. 

They have virtuoso qualities, prowess. But what does the listener take back home with him or her? It just can't be awe. Awe doesn't last for a long time. 

But when people come together and create something that's memorable, that requires planning, that requires a structure. So I feel like that's where we are different as a quote- 

unquote fusion band. We didn't call ourselves a fusion band for a long time. 

We still don't. But I feel like there needs to be some sort of a story, some sort of a drama, something. But that comes only from a certain foundation from which you're expressing, right? What is the most challenging aspect of performing? And is there some aspect of performing that you don't like? Oh, I don't enjoy the travelling. 

I'm a bit of an introvert. I would love to stay in my studio and, you know, sort of work on endlessly. So I don't enjoy the travelling as much, the morning flights and stuff like that. 

As time goes, I am liking it lesser and lesser. I wouldn't call it a challenging aspect, but that's probably something that I don't prefer after a lot of things. Apart from that, yeah, it's become pretty internalised at the moment. 

So I wouldn't talk of any specific challenge. There have been challenges. There have been times where we don't have enough time to soundcheck. 

There have been times where, you know, suddenly we are given a brief. They say, hey, play Tamil A.R. Rahman songs. And we go and we find the crowd to be a fully Hindi-speaking crowd or a Hindi-dancing crowd. 

So all those things we've sort of conquered over time. So a lot of small, mini challenges that we have worked towards. At the moment, I feel like it's pretty chill. 

My new zone is to be an enabler, to be sort of a mentor who can get younger musicians to come together, play. And that's sort of my present challenge. So what is the role of the audience? Are they like passive observers or active part of your performance process? Well, OK, that's a good question, especially because most of the concerts that we do are wedding concerts. 

Again, in Chennai or anywhere in India, we musicians as professionals, we have it good because we have this access to wedding and corporate concerts. And I travelled to the U.S. last year. I was speaking to a few musicians there. 

They don't have it as good as we do, for sure. You know, here you can make a decent living playing these private shows. But of course, the flip side is you don't have a sit-down audience most of the times. 

My aim, mission and a challenge initially, but what we have achieved is to have a very interactive set. A lot of mashups, a lot of medleys and a decent amount of crowd work with respect to just throwing out our expression into the crowd, which is which is not the same as playing well. You know, you could have a I used to be a classical musician, which is like, you know, closing my eyes and just being within myself and getting the best out musically. 

But this is about looking into the crowd and you're almost physically throwing out. So with a 

combination of all these things, we achieve a partial sit down audience, even in a private concert where we are not the main agenda. So I wouldn't I wouldn't ascribe a role to the audience because I feel like they enjoy music. 

They come sit. I've never felt like the audience and stuff like that. But of course, there are like minded audience or non like minded audience, which is which is part of the parcel. 

But for me, it's about them being. It'll be nice for us as well as for them, to be frank, to be open minded and enjoy good music, which I feel like the crowds in Bangalore are excellent at. I love the Bangalore audience because, you know, they're very open minded. 

They love good music. They don't have any prerequisite of music. I listen to this music. 

I listen to that music. So that way, as someone who comes from an indie sort of a background as well, I love Bangalore for that. And yeah, that's it's a good it's a good it's a good vibe to have as a musician. 

How did you make the transition from being the introverted internal musician to the performer? You just talked about it. Yeah, no, it's I think I try and plan and sort out, as I said, try and get a lot of things out of the way. So for me, it's it's been a it was a slow process in the starting, but it was more about. 

OK, what is the difference between us playing here and playing in a stage? Because the the music is the same, but it's just that resonance or that two way communication between us and that means a lot to me. And I ensure that that connect is there not just from a musical perspective, but also from a body language perspective. So that has made me much more open in terms of looking into the crowd, smiling. 

You know, we are a very happy band. So that has an effect on people as well. And I guess over time, it's it's just happened that way. 

Wonderful. So how do you react to audience feedback? Do you like kind of factor it in and changing your set or changing your music? Definitely. I think I think the most amount of you know what people come and say when we started out playing, Funnily, people used to come and say, hey, what is that? It's a very fancy looking violin because the electric violin was still nascent when I started playing. 

Obviously, there was Balabhaskar, Ganesh Kumaresh who were established on the classical stream and stuff like that, but it's still new. Now, everyone understands what an electric violin is. I do get questions, but it's few and far in between. 

But now the main feedback is like, you know, you guys are great, but I just love the fact that you enjoy what you guys are doing. And that's the main feedback that we receive. OK. 

Right. So, I mean, I just take it as a good validation that we are in a good place as a band and 

we are in a good place on stage communicating with the audience. In terms of critical feedback, I think the one off ones do happen about maybe the sound levels and stuff like that, which, you know, because we cater to a slightly diverse age group. 

You know, if we play Raghuvamsa Sudha in our own contemporary version, that's equally palatable to 25, 30 year old and equally to his or her parents because everyone enjoys. So sometimes it's impossible to give everyone the experience that need, especially with the limitations of the auditoriums and stuff that we have as well. So that's a feedback that we do have from time to time. 

And we try and I mean, we have super sound engineers who are great at getting everything together. But I guess you can't make everyone happy at some level. I guess part of your challenge is that you're playing half the time in spaces that are not primarily designed for music. 

Exactly, that's true. So we've done a lot of things. We've gone taken off the monitors, gone into click and we've working out with more tops and so that we don't need to throw as much. 

You don't need we can have enough headroom. We've done a lot of things, you know, with with our sound engineers and stuff like that. In terms of your back to your question of feedback, I tend to take feedback positively. 

Like you say, like you say in products, you say customer is king. I feel like I would be playing here in the studio if I did not want to go out and showcase my music and have that relationship with the listener. So I take what they say very seriously. 

But I'm numb to the compliments and all that, because for me, it's more about, hey, what what is it that we can get to the next level? What is it that we can improve? So I look out for the small things here and there where, you know, we could sort of improve or opportunities for us to evolve rather than improve. What do you think is the role of an organiser or the one who hires you? What do you expect from them? I think the role of the organiser, it needs to be. Consistent. 

Coherent, clear communication. This is what I feel is very important. See, I have my own team. 

Early on, I was very clear about how I wanted to structure our communications and stuff like that. I wasn't having a great time speaking with the clients, negotiating and all that as an artist. So I got my people. 

I hired people to do that within my organisation. So we have a lot of structures and stuff in place. All we need is for the organiser or the event manager to be very clear, you know, what are the timings? What is the duration? What is the kind of crowd they're working with? These are our needs. 

Can we can we do this stuff like that? We try and it will be great if we can not have to firefight 

the last minute, which does happen a lot. Again, we learn to deal with it and move on. But that would be my ideal expectations. 

How important is stage persona and appearance to you? It is to me, left to me, I feel like. More than the appearance, I would say what is important is the connect with the audience. That is very important, I would say. 

But I would say ever since COVID, I'm noticing a shift in the audience expectations and mentalities. I feel like people want more drama. I think it's maybe spending two, three years in lockdowns just being absorbed in Instagram reels or something like that. 

I think we are in a phase where it's not enough to be a purist musician who's created what he or she does. Can you do something else? Can the musician, can the singer also dance? Can the dancer also sing? I'm not talking about the whole. experience of the performance, which can just be purely musical, purely just dance, purely theatre. But I think people are looking for, I think the tastes have evolved after COVID and I think it's everything in the life is a circle. So at some point of time, it's going to come back. 

But yeah, I feel like those sort of things have changed. And you sort of notice that in terms of various artists and how they are, you know, what kind of people are attending and stuff like that. So the performance aspect, I feel has become more and more important, which includes your question of appearance and everything, of course. 

Okay, wonderful. Let's talk about a very important thing, money. I've been asking everyone who I've been talking with about their relationship with money, because making money as a performer, you know, is very, very difficult, making a consistent living. 

And you are one person I see as a, as we talked before, a live music entrepreneur. And I think you made Indosoul into a kind of a brand. You have multiple bands under the same umbrella. 

And what was the journey? What are the challenges? How did you? How did you come up with this whole thing? I like to put a layer of naturally as a person, I just like to organise things, which I think is a rarity. You know, as a musician, I realised that. And I think that's one of my, my strengths. 

So my relationship with money is very clear, because I am also, I'm also a businessman at the end of the day. And I'm very clear that I'm a businessman as the years go by, I'm more and more, I understand that this is a business, right. So the first things first, one thing that I was super clear on is, we are going to be a practical band, which means I started Indosoul, saying that, you know, I want to do Carnatic infused indie music. 

But then, that's a pipe dream for you to say, I'll make my living because the second you are taking this up as a profession, your relationship with the music changes, whether you like it or not, it changes. So I was like, we're going to do film music as well, you know, and then after a point of time, running behind revenues, running behind volumes and stuff like that, means that we went a bit more behind the film music. And every corner that we turn, we pull it back, we release an album of indie, which I feel is at the heart and soul of the band. 

And that's what keeps us together also, because that's the layer where everyone, it means something to be part of Indosoul, at the heart of that feeling is our indie music. But indie music doesn't pay. In fact, indie music, if anything, we've just spent a lot of money. 

If I were to look at it purely as a businessman, the ROI is like, poor, extremely poor. So for me, one feeds the other, you do commercial gigs, and maybe you get a bit of money out of that, 

and you do this, stuff like that. With COVID, things coming to a stop. 

I started an institute, we called it Violent Technique with Karthik Iyer initially, now it's become Soul Swara, which is a self-paced course. And that's, I hire, we have about 10-11 teachers as faculty who are doing online classes. Now I'm coming up with a self-paced course, and we have people who are product consultants and all that. 

So money is very important. You need money to express yourself, take your story, whatever your story is, across to people. So that requires choosing a stream where you can earn revenues, and then how do you manage that revenue? How do you skilfully navigate your way into keeping, not just earning money, but keeping on evolving, investing back, not just a gear, but investing back into videos, this, that, stuff like that. 

So it's an interesting dynamic. It's a very important dynamic, I feel, for anyone who wants to create a product, not just perform. There's a difference between performing and creating a product. 

And I feel, yeah, all these thinkings, thinking comes into the fore. You have like any financial advice for upcoming artists and performers who are breaking in? See, apart from the functional financial advice, which I think is very important, you know, save, have earmark an amount that you want to save, have an emergency fund stashed, because we found out during COVID, like, you know, I had to eat up into my savings, but I was happy that I had savings to start with, right? So I feel, once I got married, I did go to a financial advisor, and that threw a lot of light into, you know, have an emergency fund, have this X amount, X percentage that goes into savings and stuff like that. So all that is important. 

The important thing is, wherever you are at, you're playing Bollywood music, we are playing recordings, or you're teaching, figure out how you're moving forward, figure out how we are looking at yourself at in a year, in two years, in five years. And definitely for all the 20, 21, 22, 23 year old, the young musicians who are just starting into music after their college degrees or whatever, you know, just make the best out of it, because there's going to be a time where you're 27, 28, when you need to basically, you know, be in a good state, things are expected out of you, let's say, in a simplistic way. So it's important to have that in your mind in terms of a short term, medium term, long term as to what you're earning and stuff like that. 

I'm keeping this as generic as possible, because different people have different relationships with money, right? But it's important not to dismiss it as, you know, how creative people can sometimes be a bit idealistic, right? I used to be that. Yeah. So don't be idealistic, because it will come and bite you in the back one day. 

That's pretty much what I would say. After that, how intense or how casual you want to be is your decision, and you live with it. But I think it needs to be factored in. 

Wonderful. This is, I think, very sound advice for future generations. Playing a long show is very 

strenuous, both physically and mentally as well. 

So do you, like, have any kind of a regimen, workout, meditation, anything like that? You know, it's funny. Long shows are a bit tough. From a physical perspective, I've been dealing with certain neck issues and stuff like that, which are very common across violinists. 

I've changed my posture. I do a lot of counter exercises to counter certain postures that I get into while playing a two-hour, three-hour concert. That's on the physical side. 

So did you have to, like, consult somebody to... 100%. There was a point in time where I couldn't lift my right arm. Okay. 

I had a cervical disc prolapse, and I couldn't lift my right arm. And I played two, three shows with that, with the tip of the bow and stuff like that, because I'd committed to them. So I've seen a very bad side of it. 

I have consulted, you know, massage therapy, physiotherapists, sports medicine people, and all that. Finally, I have an exercise, which I know whenever, you know, I need to get back to it, I get back to it, I feel much better, easier. And, you know, basically, yeah, there's no issue as such, as long as I keep doing the exercises. 

That's on the physical level. On the mental level, I've already spoken about what is before the concert, I end up being very spaced out after a concert. And I love to indulge in a nice dessert after a concert, or a nice meal or a nice dessert, even if I'm, you know, not eating too much late in the night, which I do a lot of times, but after a concert, it's always like, you know, indulge something, you're sort of on a high, right? The performance takes you on a high. 

So you want to somehow... It takes me like a long time for me to wind down and sleep after. Yeah, yeah. So you tend to bring it down. 

I don't know if it's the best way to do it. But that's just my way of doing it. Okay, wonderful. 

What has been your relationship with external stimulants, like alcohol, or maybe drugs, weed, whatever? Before a performance only, I'm not... Oh, before a performance, yeah, I've dabbled with that, with alcohol, with weed, many years ago, many, many years ago. But, you know, it's a bit... Ever since I became a frontman, I haven't done it much. And now most of the shows that I play are with IndoSoul. 

So I don't dabble in it before a concert, because, yeah, there's just a lot of things that are happening. And I want to basically keep an eye out and not go into my zone, which is nice to do. I've tried that with a few of the bands that I was playing as a freelancer, as one of the guys types. 

It's enjoyable for some part, but in general, I don't drink or smoke before. But you don't have a problem if other people do it? No, I don't have any issues. See, I think I trust everyone to give 

their 100% on stage, and if they're doing it with stimulants, without stimulants, that's up to them. 

So I don't have a, I don't necessarily have a problem. Don't just fuck up the scene. Yeah, I don't, I don't. 

Yeah, I don't have any moral hang ups or anything about this or that. I mean, I could very much because I come from a classical sort of a field. I'm very far away from being a traditional classical musician. 

I think it is good in certain senses, it opens up your mind. It's, I appreciate what it brings. But somewhere down the line, I don't think it's sustainable. 

Right? Especially as you age. Yeah, as you age, or as you do it more and more often. You know, there's this meditation on one end. 

There is intoxicants on one end. There's like two great violinists, Stéphane Grappelli and Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin was more on the yoga and stuff like that. 

Grappelli is more on, you know, he'd have a drink before the day, night before and stuff like that. I think both help to get the job done. But you know, one is more sustainable than the other, for sure. 

Okay. So actually, very well, brilliantly said. Yeah. 

What do you think is so unique about a live performance that you can never get in a recorded medium? The live performance is, I mean, it's just that, right? It's just the fact that it's live. It's the fact that someone is receiving what you're saying, without the barrier of a screen in between or a speaker in between. I feel that makes, there's an energy, there's a connection. 

Right? Like, let's say me and you are speaking virtually, it would be very different from us sitting across each other, sharing one mic, which is beautiful as well. So there is a difference. And that's the essential difference. 

Also, the fact that there are many people around, like, say, you have an audience of 500, 600 people. It's all energy, right? It's everyone's throwing out energy. If it's just not us throwing energy, we get a lot of energy back from the crowd as well. 

So that energy that comes between the resonance that happens, that is what is magical. And all that is not there when you're listening to a recorded performance. A recorded performance, of course, has many more aspects to it. 

But this sort of in that moment, in that feel, that direct communication, that is very special for me. So we are in an increasingly digitised world, everything is, we are talking about people making 15 second reels, and that is the height of achievement. What is your, do you see a hope in actual live performance for the future? In this kind of environment, AI is taking over lots of 

people's things? Well, let's, I mean, let's break that down, because there is a short form and the long form, and then there is AI, right? I feel everything goes through in a cycle, like you see, you see, in the same time that short form is taken over, you also notice a long form podcasts, three hours, four, five hours and all that. 

They are doing fantastically well, and there are people who are willing to listen and stuff like that. So I do not think that will ever become redundant. But as a musician, as somewhat of a purist, I do get frustrated with the needs imposed by the whole 15 second, 30 second, I do not like it. 

As a musician, we had to deal with the video aspect of it. I would love it if I could just release it on an audio streaming platform and not think about the video to start with. But then we are forced to contend with the video aspect of it, which is very important. 

YouTube is very important for all of us. But then this whole short form thing, I do not mind it when it is a commissioned work like an ad, because that is bread and butter. But as an expression, I am not very interested in the short form part of it, because for me, you have a story to say, you take your time, and you leave an impact, and there are the lulls, there are the crest of the wave, there is a trough of the wave, there is our silence. 

I do not like the whole real format as much. We try our best to keep up with it and maybe take a clip of a song. But that is pretty much where it is. 

I really like what is happening on the AI front. On one end, you could say it is taking people's jobs. But on the other end, you could look at the opportunity where you could, a small business owner like myself or an individual can use leverage AI to do much more. 

For example, we are working on an indie song called Guiding Light. I am creating the artwork through Midjourney, the Spotify thumbnail, I am creating it through Midjourney. Now, let us just look at this whole situation. 

One could come and say, hey, I am taking the job away from a graphic designer who could have done that. But from my position, as someone who also has a job to do, I am doing it for, A, I am doing it for a small amount of money. But we will park that to a side. 

Let us say I can offer a graphic designer, but I am able to discuss with Vikram and come up with various scenarios. And I am able to discuss, hey, do we want a modern abstract sketch? Or do we want to go for a Renaissance sort of a sketch? Do you want to go for a watermark sort of a feel? Do you want to put a lighthouse in it to show a guiding light? Do you want the background to be a wave? Or do you want an astronaut to be? You know, the opportunities that you have is amazing. And recently, I came up on a Google tool, which I will share the name with you if you are interested. 

Let us say we had a video shooting us right now with two cameras, one on you, one on me. That tool, you can just feed in both the cameras. Based on the voice and the speaking, it will 

generate subtitles. 

It will generate the edit as well. So imagine. It kind of edits according to who is active. 

It enables you to do more. And I feel products, everything will become much more cheaper. Then what is it that people will probably need in 20 years is they will just need to have a purpose, because everything would have become cheaper. 

That is one way of looking at it. It is changing so rapidly that you can, it is like a political opinion, right? Everyone has an opinion. Everyone is on a different side of the spectrum. 

But I feel like it will make lives easier. And as a musician, I have been working with some voice models which change my voice to someone else's voice. I feel they are still nascent. 

I cannot use them in my productions. I do not know what your feeling is about it. Happy to. No, I agree. Yeah, still. But I am welcoming. 

I am welcoming of technology. I really like it. Right now, as a small business owner, I am using tools. 

I am automating. We have succeeded in automating a set list. So with my team, we figured out, OK, client says they want 30% Tamil, 50% Hindi, 20% Carnatic, 120 minutes. 

And I have a master set list. I will just put it to chat GPT and I will get a set list. So we have done all those automations. 

So I am trying to use AI to get the grunt work out of the way, because unlike corporate sort of companies, as an artistic company, there is certain restrictions on the margins you have. So if you can get more bang for your buck using tools like AI, that is just awesome. What I am more interested is, do you see AI as an ally in a live performance? And if so, what kind of use case do you? That is a good question. 

I feel like there will be a point in time where lights, this is just one factor that comes to my mind. If you are playing music, if AI can digest that music, it can understand the metronome, it can understand the tempo, it can understand where the drums are playing, it can understand everything. What if that can be mapped onto the lights? What if you can create the visualisation? What if you can enhance the experience? Again, I am a musician and I have the music sorted. 

So again, I am looking at, hey, what can I add value outside of the music? So stuff like that, I think it can really help enhance the stuff like this. And you already have the mastering plugins, which are also AI. So what if you can have an instant calibration done of a hall, however bad it is? And the AI with the GPU speeds and all that, what if it can just do a minute, extremely high resolution calibration where you are getting into each hertz and sorting it out, thereby giving a much more refined sound even in a bad hall. 

These all would be awesome. Brilliant. So how do you define success or failure of a performance? Very simple. 

If the crowd is, the guests are happy, I find it to be successful. And I would say that there are times when I feel like we have not played at our best, where we felt like the crowd was super appreciative. There are times where we have played extremely well, but the crowd might not have been that receptive. 

For me, it all boils down to how the audience is receiving our music. Okay, wonderful. We are almost at the end. 

If you have to distil the essence of performance into one idea, what would it be? I feel like all of us have some sort of a truth that we want to express. There is a lot of riffraff around. I do not know if riffraff is the right word, but there's a lot of other layers around, you know, what kind of performances am I playing? What's the audience? How much am I getting paid? Stuff like that. 

But beyond all that, I feel like there is a certain truth that all of us want to express. And this is what we are doing as musicians in a performance. So it takes the right kind of energy, the right kind of day for someone on a given performance. 

Possibly, it would be great if it's the right kind of crowd, but again, it's very internal, where you're able to express that sort of a sound. You're not performing. Every song you perform might not be your absolute favourites, which is why when I play certain pieces of music, I just go silent. 

And I'm just there with the music. And for me, that is pure joy. And I feel that is where you're getting closer to the truth. 

And I feel like when you express that truth, I feel people will resonate because it's inherently a very human sort of a connection. You know, when there's an aura, a person enters a room and he or she has an aura, you can sense it. And that's the same way with the musician, right? When the musician is expressing something in a very honest manner, I feel people resonate to it, nevertheless. 

And I feel that is the thing that everyone should look to achieve in how much ever they can and try and align towards that, choose the right kind of concerts, maybe do whatever activities you need to do that morning of the show to sort of get into that mood, maybe sort out your technique, get out questions about technique out of the way, so that you can be in that moment and resonate with the audience. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Karthik. 

This has been like super eye opening and a lot of brilliant ideas have come out. So grateful for that. Pleasure. 

Pleasure. Good luck. Good to speak with you.