Second Sight is the sonically kaleidoscopic, lyrically rich brainchild of Anusha Ramasubramoney and Pushkar Srivatsal. Reflecting the influence of alternative soul, RnB, Latin jazz, and acoustic folk, Second Sight’s sound takes different forms – it ranges from sparse and poetic, to heavily groove centric, and is fiercely driven by storytelling. Formed in late 2015, when Anusha and Pushkar met at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, Second Sight has so far released their critically acclaimed debut EP, ‘The Violet Hour’ (2018), and their R&B/hip hop single ‘One’ (2019). The band is currently working on a full-length album as a quintet with Ralph Menezes on bass, Jigar Shah on drums, and Jayakrishnan Unnithan on keys, and will be releasing singles from the same, before the album releases in 2021.
In support of their debut EP, the duo went on a multi-city tour in association with LVNG in November 2018 and had a sold-out launch show at G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture.
Here is Second Sight in a conversation with GOGO Magazine.
1) When did your journey as a duo begin?
Pushkar and I met at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, where we were the only two students majoring in Vocals. We realised that both of us listened to similar kinds of music and it felt very easy to make music with each other. It continued from there; Pushkar moved to Mumbai and now we are here.
2) Which was your first song?
The first song we wrote together is probably one of our favourite songs to perform. It’s called ‘Follow You’. And incidentally, we wrote it within a fortnight of meeting each other, which showed us that there is really something here. There were no expectations when we wrote the song, it just flowed, and I think there is a raw quality to the emotions in the song which always comes through when we perform it. Luca Pertracca was such an incredible collaborator on the record, and his string arrangement took the song to another level.
3) Which has been your most memorable live performance?
The launch of our EP ‘The Violet Hour’. The venue was the black box at G5A, and we could do anything with the space. We put it in a lot of time and effort into making sure the show sounded and looked good – and it paid off! The turnout was incredible, it was more than a house full. The way we felt when the audience sang with us, and laughed with us and responded to us – that feeling is irreplaceable. We had a few friends who went out on a limb to help us with that show and we couldn’t have done it without them!
4) Who has been your inspiration?
We each have artists we listen to separately; but together, the artists who inspire our songwriting are – Hiatus Kaiyote, The Civil Wars, Jordan Rakei, Kings of Convenience, Lianne La Havas, Jono McCleery. Both of us are drawn to interesting harmony, and groove and also story telling and a lot of feel.Â
5) Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
Hopefully a few albums down, and still being able to sustain being independent musicians. Mostly, still in love with the process of making things.
6) Which is your most preferred genre?
This is always a difficult question to answer because we both draw from, and compose within a wide variety of genres. We write the song acoustically first and then flesh the arrangements out as we seem fit, and that takes us to all kinds of different places genres, and this will be apparent when our album comes out.Â
7) Tell us about your latest track.
Dim Lights is a song that came about as a commentary on how lack of consequences and accountability can bring out the worst in us. We see it on social media as troll culture, and also on TV news, as a parody of journalism and TRP mongering. It was written more than a year ago, but recorded/produced over the last three months when we decided that we needed to put music out somehow. We’re very lucky to have our bandmates Ralph, Jigar and JK, who are firstly, amazing musicians, but also were excited to just make it happen, and remotely that too. Pushkar mixed the song, and Thomas Juth mastered it. The amazing lyric video was created by Kenrick D’Cunha and Darren Patrao, and the artwork was made by the brilliant Robert Thompson.
You can find the song here:
8) How was life in quarantine?
Life in quarantine has been more productive for us, luckily, and it has forced us to learn/polish other skills that have enabled us to be able to work on the album with the least amount of dependence. It hasn’t been great in terms of gigs and we’ve been lucky that we have other things to depend on financially, but we do hope to be back on stage performing in front of people soon 🙂
FOLLOW SECOND SIGHT
INSTAGRAM: @secondsightmusic
The handles of the band members are as follows:
Pushkar – @pushkar.srivatsal
Anusha – @nushious
Ralph – @ralphmenzs
Jayakrishnan – @jay.unnithan
jigar – @itsjigarshah
Checkout more such content at: https://gogomagazine.in/category/magazine/music/
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