THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Asiatic melodies and gritty electronic music have always been a natural fit. With musicians like Nucleya, Su Real, Bandish Projekt and Mr Doss championing the bass movement, this fringe subgenre has now firmly established itself within the Indian independent music scene.
Enter Ritviz Srivastava. Three years ago, this music producer/songwriter took the scene by storm by creating unique soundscapes that combine his love for bass and classical Hindustani music, through an EP titled Vizdumb (released on UK’s Relentik Records).
“From engaging in daily riyaz at 4 am to performing in sold-out festivals like NH7 Weekender, my life has turned into quite a roller coaster ride since 2013,” shares Srivastava, who recently gave an inspiring talk at TEDx Pune on his unique creative process.
Going experimental
Following the immense success of his genre-defying releases like Mukti, a bootleg remix of Cash Cash’s Take Me Home and his brand new EP Yuv, the 20-year-old is currently on a nine-stop tour of India with gigs in cities including Kochi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
“What’s exciting for me on this tour is the fact that I’ll have to deconstruct my quintessential trap/rap/electronic compositions to a mellow vibe for acoustic venues like The Muse Room in Kochi.
But, I also get to turn it up a notch for the 60-90 minute show at Bengaluru’s Indigo Live,” says the classically trained singer, who has been perfecting his vocal skills for the past decade by practising in genres like Dhrupad and Khayal.