Playing games with music

Itrsquos March 2021 and itrsquos time to focus on the positives Itrsquos time that we dug a little deeper and realised that last yearrsquos lockdown did throw up a few pleasant surprises within the music industry Sure compared to live gigs the advent of digital concerts was like serving a paltry meal as opposed to a sevencourse banquet But itrsquos also true that a whole bunch of musicians started thinking out of the box to overcome their enforced lack of revenue in that period coming up with technological innovations that they might not have spent time thinking about had it been a normal situationA screenshot of what the gaming version of Apex will look likeOne such example is Apex a project that Mumbaibased electronic music producer Tejas Nair aka Spryk had been meaning to launch in March 2020 before the lockdown threw cold water on his plans Its embryo was formed in 2019 when the organisers of Magnetic Fields commissioned him to create an exclusive set for the festival in Rajasthan one which explored the cusp of music and technology Nair tells us ldquoI had been sitting on the idea of Apex for quite some time I had been wondering about how human beings are obsessed with the idea of constantly moving forward without caring about whether it is actually beneficial or notrdquoHe thus roped in lighting wizard Naveen Deshpande and visual artist Yash Chandak to create a 50minute performance with holographic embellishments ldquoThat was the first iteration of Apexrdquo Nair says adding that when it received a fair amount of critical acclaim they decided to take the show on the road planning the first gig of an extensive tour on March 19 2020 The timing of course couldnrsquot have been worse And when he realised that the pandemic had tied his hands Nair went back to the drawing board He says ldquoIt led me down the path of exploring how I can showcase the project without gathering people at a live venuerdquoTejas Nair aka SprykThe result is a truly innovative concept that he conceived with the help of his team at Vitamin E a creative studio that he has cofounded They built a web browsersupported interactive platform where users can register themselves and book a slot to experience the second avatar created for Apex In this iteration the web browser essentially turns into a video game mdash it becomes a threedimensional openworld environment on the lines of Grand Theft Auto You the user are the central character in this world that has Nairrsquos music as the soundtrack and once you enter it you use the W A S and D buttons on your keyboard to navigate the fictitious place ldquoYou can jump dance run faster whatever The 3D landscape comes alive and the environment is built to narrate a story But even though you are engaged in a video game there is no mission that you have to complete Itrsquos about bringing the videogame experience to musical concerts mdash rather than just consuming the information you get to immerse yourself in the artistersquos workrdquo Nair explainsWe for one have never heard of such an innovation being previously attempted in India We had earlier written about Unrated a virtual immersive 3D experience launched in July last year where the viewers were taken aboard a digital space station where a bunch of DJs performed sets as animated astronauts But Apex is different Itrsquos a lot more interactive since users become characters themselves Nair tells us that now that live gigs have started again he is kicking off the initial Apex tour hersquod planned last year with the inaugural show slated for Delhi on March 6 the Mumbai gig will be held at AntiSocial on March 26 This reignited tour will witness him returning to his interest in rendering the cusp of technology and music in a physical manner A scaleddown version of it is already available online since international electronic gig organisers Boiler Room had asked him to create it for their Self Isolation series But what we are most interested in trying out is the gaming version of Apex which though delayed will launch in the near futureAnd itrsquos important to note here that the innovation wouldnrsquot have been attempted had the lockdown not thrown the creative industries out of gear So yes it was indeed an incredibly difficult period But still we can thank God for small mercies Log on to Boiler Room on YouTube