Where do we go now?

When the knockout punch of the pandemic was first dealt in March last year Jehangir Jehangir felt the blow in full force ldquoWe were like lsquoOh sht what are we going to do nowrsquordquo the cofounder of Kharrsquos Island City Studios recalls about those dark days of April and May 2020 adding that any initial hopes they had of the lockdown being fully lifted soon dissipated So he started picking up the pieces ldquoI spoke to a few people like Pradeep Mathews of Glassonion Studios and Aditya MC from Chennai who had started a bunch of livestreaming concerts and realised that thatrsquos where the market lies right nowrdquoThe people at Island City Studiosrsquo control room are given walkietalkies to communicate with those in the live room PicAtul KambleThe multiinstrumentalist and sound engineerrsquos assessment wasnrsquot wrong Over the past year and a half live virtual gigs have taken off within the Indian independent music space like never before But itrsquos not just that There have been other developments within the circuit mdash some innovations even mdash that stakeholders have relied on to keep swimming against the tide Indian audiences were introduced to online musical experiences with cinematic narratives with a music event titled Unrated in August last year Bigticket festivals like NH7 Weekender and Sunburn went virtual Indie musicians increasingly donned the hats of educators to keep their income from drying up now that physical live gigs were indefinitely stalled And tellingly they took time off to upskill their craft and rallied around each other more than earlier realising that they need to stay afloat together when they are all in the same boatJehangir Jehangir Soham Sarcar and Raghav MeattleBut where do these developments stand today What worked and what didnrsquot And which ones will stand the test of time even when things get back to normalSmall changes go a long waySingersongwriter Raghav Meattle for one feels that the future will see both virtual gigs and physical ones coexisting to a certain extent He tells us ldquoThe space is evolving over time and even when there are gigs on the ground later on they will be livestreamed for a wider audiencerdquo Jehangir meanwhile points out how they had to adapt over the course of last year and this one to improve the live setup at Island City Studios They did little things that added up to a lot Overhead lights were set up so that the videos shot in the space didnrsquot have lamps with ugly stands iPhones were replaced with DSLR cameras The people working in the studio were given walkietalkies so that there was constant communication between the live and control rooms ldquoBut the best thing I did was to invest in an Atom Mini a gadget that gives you four cameras and a companion app that allows a phone to indicate when the cameras have gone liverdquo he saysBuilding new experiencesThese lowinvestment but key adjustments meant that music studios mdash places that were earlier used primarily for recording audio mdash became venues for artistes to explore the audiovisual medium of live gigs without the quality being completely compromised Of course it canrsquot match up to the exhilaration of an offline gig but the way things stand itrsquos all that we have now Yet Soham Sarcar founder of experimental events company Transhuman Collective that organised Unrated an experiential music event feels that there is a sense of ennui about virtual concerts that is setting in among the audience ldquoThe truth is people are getting bored which is why you have fewer of them nowrdquo he tells us What Sarcar instead tried to do with Unrated is create a visual narrative set in outer space which had a musical backdrop of DJs playing sets ldquoThe main thing is that we didnrsquot try to replicate a physical environment We wanted to create an entirely new experience for peoplerdquo he saysIntegrating everything together in terms of the lights music and narrative was a technical challenge though But itrsquos been a learning experience and Sarcar reveals that they are already in the planning process for Unrated 20 next year which will be a bigger event with sponsors on board It goes to show that the myriad people behind the various pandemicinduced developments in the music industry arenrsquot planning to dump their efforts altogether when things get back to normalMusicians who turned educators will keep teaching students The sense of community built within the industry born during the toughest of times will not be forgotten soon The livestreaming space will possibly fit handinhand with physical performances as Meattle says And alternative music experiences with cinematic treatment might even be coopted by OTT platforms Sarcar believes and if that does indeed happen remember that you read it here first