BENGALURU: The first floor of Centerstage Music Rehearsal Studio in Kasturi Nagar starts reverberating with music at 6am. A group of artistes, led by Bryden Lewis and Parth Chandramani, gathers here to practise for their upcoming performance, Ultimate Pop Jugalbandi. This small studio is where the duo bring their music compositions to life.
“I began my music profession over a decade ago in college. I got a chance to work with Bangalore-based progressive rock icons, Slain. Parth and I met while working with The Raghu Dixit Project, with whom we made our foray into Bollywood as assistant composers for Yash Raj Films in 2014. That was the beginning of Bryden-Parth project,” recalls Bryden, 30.
Bryden-Parth project, a 9-member band, marks the coming together of Bryden’s knowledge of Western music and Parth’s background in Indian classical music. “I have been playing the flute since a tender age. I was tutored by Pandit Pravin Godkhindi, which gave me a strong base to contest in MTV’s band hunt, ‘Rock On’, and become a winner,” 26 year-old Parth says.
The duo has worked on movies like Bewakoofiyan, starring Sonam Kapoor and Ayushman Khurana. They have also collaborated with some big names in Bollywood, such as Vishal-Shekhar and Harshdeep Kaur for live shows. “In 2018, we collaborated with Punjabi superstar Guru Randhawa for the premiere of Season 8 of Royal Stag Barrel Select MTV Unplugged, along with The Choral Riff. Bryden had the opportunity to rearrange and produce some of Guru’s popular songs for the show, and we also played a Bryden-Parth original, which we will also play at our show on Saturday,” Parth says.
The Choral Riff is an ensemble choir managed and produced by Bryden, comprising nine singers. “They’ve performed with us and Guru Randhawa and with Benny Dayal on the ZEE5 production, Lockdown, and have also performed live with singers like Jonita Gandhi. Besides the harmony, they create an almost-theatrical experience for the audience,” Bryden points out.
The team has over 1.80 lakh subscribers on YouTube, the main platform where they release covers. Some of their videos have garnered over 12 million views. “While social media is a great platform, the quality of the work shouldn’t suffer for the sake of shares or likes. You must always serve the music first,” Bryden adds.
This weekend, the duo is going to perform a different mix of Indian and Western music. “We are calling it Ultimate Pop Jugalbandi because the songs are a blend of two larger-than-life musical genres – English Pop and Bollywood. It’s dedicated to our travels, the people we’ve met, languages we’ve learnt, cultures we’ve experienced, our musical influences. We will be playing music from our upcoming album live for the first time.”
The performance will be held at Forum Shantiniketan Mall, Whitefield Main Road, on August 3.
