BENGALURU: There is nothing like good soulful music which can help you get through any mood of the day. If you are always on the lookout for such music, then sound engineer Anish Ponnanna’s The Engineer’s Pick, which includes curated Indian songs with minimalistic style, is something you should check out. After the popularity of Season 1 which featured artistes like MD Pallavi, Shilpa Mudbi, etc, Ponnanna is out with his Season 2 and is already making some waves, with the YouTube channel clocking 66,000 followers.
Going back to how it all started, Ponnanna says the idea was to create a platform for “lesser-known yet talented artistes” who would get a platform to showcase their experiments. “As a sound engineer, I was frustrated with how musicians almost never get to express their music to its full potential due to reasons like event manager restrictions, clients requirement, bad acoustics at a venue, etc. So I decided to create an environment where the performers had nothing between them and their music,” says Ponnanna, who has worked with bands like Indian Ocean, Swarathma, and music producer Clinton Cerejo.
Getting into the details about how the songs were composed and recorded, Ponnanna says that once he picks the two artistes, he gives leeway to the singer to pick the song and lets both artistes come up with their own composition. To capture their raw emotions, the video is recorded in one take and is treated like a live show.
The final audio is released with minimum treatment as he believes that music should be accepted with its imperfections. For instance, an episode features Kannada playback singer Aishwarya Rangarajan, and musician Dr Prakash Sontakke who is known for his mastery of the Hawaiian slide guitar. If heard carefully, the sound of Rangarajan’s bangles is also apparent. And Ponnanna has retained this.
Currently in Kodagu, Ponnanna travels to Bengaluru for all the shoots and recordings of the videos. Without much planning in mind, the 31-year old sound engineer started this idea in 2018. While the second season got pushed to the end of 2019, it’s now taking off with sponsors having come on board. “Right now there are around five episodes which are already shot and will be out soon,” he says, adding that projects of such nature don’t yield much monetary benefits.”However, I am doing this purely for the love of music,” he says.