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Over the years there have been a number of artists who’ve tried to amalgamate classic Indian styles with Western genres of music and bring homegrown sounds into the mainstream of global consciousness. Very few of these artists have done so with the technical deftness and the assuredness of Chennai-born, California-raised musician Sid Sriram.
Sid’s rise from Berklee graduate to rubbing shoulders with legends such as A.R Rahman and headlining iconic stages across the world has captured a cult following and has also positioned him as someone at the forefront of South Asian representation in the global music zeitgeist. Over the course of a relatively short space of time, his musical ability and creative vision have allowed him to carve out a niche that intersects diverse musical worlds; seamlessly going from distinctly Carnatic stylings to Frank Ocean-esque vocal runs in the space of a few bars. Watching Sid in full flow is a sublime lesson in both technique and compositional ability and you’re often left stupified by the sheer level of proficiency you’d need to be at to even replicate his musical confluences.
While a certain level of confidence is a prerequisite for any musician looking to make their mark on the world, Sid exudes an almost Jordan-esque aura of someone who’s spent years of blood, sweat, and tears finding their artistic self. There’s an electricity and a synchronicity to Sid’s music that can only come when someone puts in the time and dedicates themselves to honing and fine-tuning their art.
From a very young age, Sid always had a sense that music was something he was born to do. He spent his early years in Freemont Califonia and was almost immediately introduced to the world of Carnatic music, aided largely by his mother who taught the art form professionally. As he grew older he began to foray into popular American genres of music and discovered both a love and an affinity for all of them.
“I had a deep sort of understanding; a sense of purpose that I had something within me that could be used as a powerful tool,” explains Sid “That’s kind of been my core compass my whole life.”
It was at the Berklee School Of Music that Sid truly began to experiment and explore the sounds and styles that have now become his signature. This was where the blueprint for the artist we now know was first set into motion.
His first taste of mainstream success in the West was a high-production quality YouTube cover of Frank Ocean’s ‘We All Try’, which caught the attention of both the internet and recording labels alike in 2011. While he thought this was going to be his big break, it didn’t end up happening for him. Sid emphasizes that, in many ways, this was a blessing in disguise as it set him on the path that he currently finds himself on.
After meeting A.R. Rahman while still at Berklee, his career was kick-started in India. He recorded songs for a number of Tamil films including ‘Adiye’, which he did in his final semester. The song was featured in the 2013 movie, ‘Kadal’.
His early experiences recording in Indian cinema gave him both a taste of what a career in music would look like and a deeper sense of self. Sid asserts that, in many ways, living in India was integral to helping him gain a better understanding of his own heritage, artistry, and classical influences.
“Growing up in the States in the 90s, we had no one to look up to from our own culture. There was no one who looked like me, so there was definitely an identity crisis that I had to work through. What really allowed me to break through that and understand the spectrum of who I was, was getting to live in India and form my own relationship with the place. Before then it was always just the typical NRI thing of visiting relatives here for a bit. Once I built my own ecosystem here, I was able to truly reconnect with the depths of who I am.”
Sid Sriram
The lockdowns brought on by the 2020 global pandemic was when he reaffirmed his connection with his own culturally hybrid form of artistic expression and it is this seed that was the catalyst for his most recent album — ‘Sidharth’, which he says is both an emphatic statement of purpose and an expression of his own sense of self. It’s an album where everything he’s learned, practiced, imbibed and experimented with musically over the course of his life comes to the fore. The tracklist spans the breadth of the genres that have shaped him and are all sublime intersections of Carnatic, soul, R&B, and jazz. The album was produced by Bon Iver collaborator Ryan Olsen in his studio in Minneapolis and features inputs from Justin Vernon himself as well as the rest of Sid’s live band, all of whom he emphasizes have become like family to him.
“I realized that as I started vocalizing, I was able to shapeshift between R&B, soul and Carnatic elements without having to think about it. It became an expression and a melodic outpouring that was coming from a space of intuition. It wasn’t a calculated or contrived.”
Through years of practice, the coexistence of these diverse sounds had embedded themselves in Sid’s subconscious in such a way that when he sang during the sessions, it became a kaleidoscopic expression of all of his influences coming seamlessly in and out of each other. For Sid, this album was the first time he felt his artistry become an effortless, organic, and subconscious expression.
In May, Sid staked his claim as one of the primary flagbearers for South Asian artistry in the United States via a scintillating performance on NPR’s acclaimed live music performance series ‘Tiny Desk’. For the entirety of the performance, Sid takes us on a transcendental journey across the styles and sounds that have shaped his artistry and pays tribute to both his cultural and musical roots. It brought together everything his fans and admirers know and love about his music and presented it to a whole new world of listeners.
“I knew going into it that this was going to be a lot of viewers’ first introduction to me. With that in mind, I also knew this was going to be an opportunity to put forth something truly impactful. I registered that in my brain and then I forgot about it because if you go into something thinking about the fact that this is going to be super significant, that’s going to be on your mind instead of the music.”
‘Sidharth’ had already been completed by this time so it was less about finding or creating material and more about how to take what he had created and give it the impact and poignancy that the occasion demanded. The challenge with Tiny Desk was interpreting his songs for a space that can be more than a little chaotic for bands and artists alike.
“The hardest part about it is the fact that you’re in an actual office when you perform there and we have a very large ensemble. We had to figure out how we were going to keep things quiet and dynamic and to not have anything too overpowering.”
Sid Sriram
It’s clear to see, when you watch the performance, that their meticulous preparation undoubtedly paid off. Sid and his band rose to the occasion and put on what can only be described as a watershed moment for South Asian artistry.
“At the time when we were doing the recording, I didn’t really understand how much cultural significance this was going to have, I was just focused on making sure we performed the shit out of those songs. Once it came out, it was very clear what it meant to so many people. I think it spoke to many folks in an almost spiritual way. I’m very grateful because that Tiny Desk performance feels like a very strong statement of who I am.”
It’s clear that Sid’s roots and his cultural heritage as a South Asian mean a great deal to him and his words reflect an awareness and a maturity far beyond his years.
“For a lot of the world, the Indian and South Asian experience is still looked at as a tiny, narrow sliver rather than a series of infinite perspectives. India alone is such a diverse country and with that will come a multitude of different forms of expressions and influences. I do see here in the West, there’s still an expectation for us to fit in a very tiny constrained stereotype.”
Sid Sriram
As he puts it, the only way artists can defy this stereotype is to “express fearlessly” and refuse to conform to these stereotypes or expectations. He asserts that what is necessary now is being unapologetically yourself whether that means making a pop-punk record, infusing aspects of your cultural heritage or even making an album full of accordion covers. According to Sid, the name of the game going forward is “unapologetic authenticity”.
‘Sidharth’ and all that’s gone into creating it, is going to be the focal point of his upcoming performance at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai this weekend on Friday, November 25 and in many ways, it is a poetic and resonant homecoming for the multifaceted artist.
“Normally I spend about eight months a year in India but this year I came back to the States in January and I haven’t been back since. This is going to be my first time back this whole year. That’s quite profound for me and I know there’s going to be a lot of emotional potency to the show.”
The concert also represents the first time the album is going to be performed in Asia and Sid’s looking forward to bringing everything it has to offer to Bombay and the NMACC.
“I’ve seen how much of a cultural centre the NMACC is becoming for both classical and modern experimental forms of art. I’ve never been there before and so this is going to be my first time but I can’t wait to experience the facilities there. ‘Sidharth’ is a unique musical expression and I think the space is perfect for it.”
It’s no secret that Indian crowds are among the most vibrant in the whole world and Sid’s effusive in his praise for both Mumbai audiences as well as homegrown audiences on the whole.
“Every time I’m here, you can tell that people really listen to the music they consume. What makes me really proud to be from here is the fact that music very vibrantly lives in the very core of our being. When you perform here, you really feel that resonance on a deep, almost subconscious level. There’s a genuine passion and love for music and I can’t wait to perform the album.”
Sid Sriram and his band will be performing at the NMACC in Mumbai on November 25.
You can buy your tickets here.
