Agam - A Contemporary Carnatic Rock act

Searching for Heavens

2009-11-16T00:14:00.000-08:00

We had a small lull period after the release of the Oohlalala album (which featured our single Lakshiya Paadhai) on Aug 7 by Dr. ArRahman, as most of the band members were busy with their professional commitments.
Last week we had a request from Yahoo! Employee Foundation India to compose a song for a charitable cause in support for the underprivileged children in one of the largest slums in Bangalore
.
Sachin Grover came up with an amazing poetry in Urdu within a day, reflecting on the theme of poverty and compassion.

Two days of intense jamming gave birth to "Searching for Heavens".
We recorded the song @ Music Mint and the whole process (writing lyrics/composition/recording/production) was completed in 5 days.
Annada Prasanna Pattanaik (Popularly known as Butto) played some out of the world flute pieces for the song and it was a honor for us to be just part of the whole experience.
One can listen to the song here
We hope you like the song.

Regards
Agam

Searching for Heavens - Lyrics

Agam at Yahoo!

2008-09-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

A memorable day..

Agam performed at Yahoo!, Bangalore office to create awareness on Bihar flood relief initiatives and generate funds for the cause. We got 1 day prior notice for the show and it was mammoth effort to arrange the logistics on a busy week day. But the enthu which Agam'ites displayed brought back the nostalgic memories of Oohlalala.

Back 2 Practice

Krishna and Suraj joined the bandwagon and the practice started @ 9 pm and it went all the way upto 3 am. Harish's rendering of Maa during the practice from Taare Zameen Par almost brought tears to few eyes. Ganesh was as free flowing as usual on the keys. Vicky was as progressive as always improvising on the Bass with zeal. Suraj strumming blended with Agam seamlessly. Krishna's aalap's kept our ears open until 3 am. Swami had to juggle between practice, logistics and meetings.

Jamming for a cause

Agam took half day off for a good cause and performed at Yahoo!.

Agam enjoyed every bit of it and it was very satisfying experience for Agam.

We had great audience and the response was very good.

Harish's rendering of Tu Hi Re is the talk of the Yahoo! town :) and if not for anything we sincerely hope that Agam won the hearts of a handful people in Yahoo!

Note of Thanks

Agam Thanks Rima and Yahoo! for providing us an oppurtunity to help...

An appeal for help.

2008-09-08T02:29:00.000-07:00

Download Agam's music and donate generously.

Track Listings

1. Searching for Heavens: This song was created for a charitable cause for support of underprivileged children in one of the largest slums in Bangalore .
2. Mystical Abheri: This song tries to captures the poetic mood of Love and Longing in Raag Reethi Gowlai and Abheri
3. Nothing but Hope (Hindi): This song was created for the "CanConquer Cancer" initiative and it was aimed at building the essential weapon - the "confidence" for the victims and they loved ones to conquer cancer
4. Amma- Origin of my Soul: The blended emotions of gratitude,longing, nostalgia and anxiety revolving around Mother and Motherhood gave birth to this song. In this song we tried to capture the selfless nature of Motherhood and it was conceived as a Lullaby for a Mother
5. Brahma's Dance: Instrumental fusion
6. Amma - Origin of my Soul: Solo piece by Harish

Music The Agam Way! by Agam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at agamtheband.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at agamtheband.blogspot.com.
Credits
Music: Agam
Vocals: Harish Sivaramakrishnan, Padmaja Swetha, Shyam, Krishna, Ganesh
Violin: Harish Sivaramakrishnan
Flute: Annada Prasanna Pattanaik aka Flute Butto
Bass, Lead Guitar: Vignesh
Keys: Ganesh, TPK
Lyrics: Swamy
Arrangement: Harish, Ganesh
Additional Programming: Ganesh, Vignesh
Sound Engineer: Gokul Abhishek
Recorded @: MusicMint, Bangalore
Contact us @ agamtheband@gmail.com

1 day @ AM Studio

2008-09-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Agam was fortunate to record their first single @ Rahman sir's AM Studios. It was a great experience and probably we still haven't realized that it was a reality.

Some memories ...

Agam in AM studio

One of the several toys in ARR's studio

Agam's lead singer Harish in action

Press Coverage

2008-09-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

New India Express, Chennai, Oct 23 2007

Band Profile

2008-09-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Harish Sivaramakrishnan (Vodka)

A trained carnatic musician and a violinist, Harish is the lead vocalist for Agam. With his interest spanning across the myriad forms of music ranging from carnatic to Hindustani to ghazals to sufiyana to asian underground his compositions are an amalgamation of carnatic raagas with complex rhythm structures and time signatures that define the character of Agam's music. Harish has several years of experience as a solo musician and a studio artiste with innumerable radio jingles that he has lent voice for. With his soulful rendering, Harish has an innate talent to add creative dimensions to a song without altering the intended theme and the expressions at ease . A R Rahman called his singing "Really fantastic!"

Ganesh Ram Nagarajan (GNR)

Ganesh is a self taught Percussionist. Ganesh's playing style is subtle & aesthetic with an incredible abililty to play complex beat cycles with panache. Ganesh grew up on a staple diet of south indian music and indian fusion, which shaped his playing style which borrows heavily from the rhythm structures of south indian classical percussion instruments. Ganesh also brings to the band his expertise as a live musician from the innumerable stage shows that he has performed across India for many years.

Vignesh Lakshminarayanan (Vicky)

Vignesh is the bass guitarist of Agam. A big enthusiast of jazz-style of playing the bass guitar, he idolizes Victor Wooten. As a composer, he wishes to take Indian classical music to a western paradigm by using ragas to produce catchy western tunes. A very progressive musician, Vignesh’s primary interest is in bringing out new musical flavors through unconventional beat patterns and meters. He is a thorough and an unbiased critic of music, a lucid thinker and a keen listener.

Praveen Kumar (TPK)

Praveen (TPK) is the youngest member of the band. He is best known for his unique chord patterns and the heavy distortion leads with a refreshing carnatic hue. A modest and simple guy, Praveen is the key behind the rich and rounded backgrounds and interludes that defines the signature Agam sound. Apart from Guitars he is also a highly accomplished keyboardist & a hardcore Iron Maiden fan.

Sivakumar Nagarajan (Shiva)

Siva brings in immense value to the Rhythm sections and he can play a variety of percussion instruments with precision. He is an objective critique and his vast experience in music significantly influences our music productions. Siva has accompanied renowned musicians like L.Subramaniam & has extensively toured the world.

Swaminathan Seetharaman (Swamy)

The key driving force behind Agam – Musician, poet, Keyboardist, Band manager – Swamy likes to don multiple hats at the same time and does the same with un-paralleled panache. An avid music lover with fascination for raaga’s and scales, Swamy is that key entity that makes the music of Agam tick. An extremely talented poet, Swamy pens the lyrics for all the compositions of Agam.

Who is Agam?

2008-09-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

History:
Early 2003, Just out of college Harish and Ganesh Ram decides to continue their musical journey which started as part of their college band by jamming up in their apartment. The idea of playing and composing original music was always something that excited them and more and more they jammed together, their music started taking a new definition. Late 2004, Harish & Ganesh composed the instrumental piece Brahma’s dance, which gained them instant recognition across the music circuits and blogosphere and under the name project f6, Harish & Ganesh performed live at many prestigious venues like unmaad 2004.

The band took a critical turning point when Ganesh met Swaminathan (Swamy) during a live performance. Swamy was a musician with impeccable sense of raga’s and scales, an amazing tamil poet and a spectacular composer. The initial spark was so intense that in no time the band did its first collaborative effort – a Tamil lullaby – Ammu. This song was a runaway hit in the blogsphere with more than 8100 hits till date. The success of ammu was followed by Aarariro – another tamil compostion that won many fans for the trio in the blogosphere. Through the songs and the innumerable jamming sessions that the trio had, their music was now taking a much more distinct style – A style that had a clear thematic significance both in the music as well as the poetry. Agam was born. The English – Hindi – Tamil composition “Hope “in support of the Can Conquer Cancer initiative won the third place in the international blogging competition in support of the Cancer victims. Agam released the song Lakshiya Paadhai in the blogosphere as a dedication to the non profitable organization, “The Rakum School of Blind www.rakum.org” and phelped them raise funds.

At a point when we were wondering about avenues to take our efforts to the next level, Saregama’s Oohlalala (Band Hunt Talent Show) came as a blessing to Agam.
Musically Shree Apollo (Apollo is the God of Music in Greek) aka Shree ARRahman was the backbone of this show and we all thought that there couldn’t have a better opportunity than this. At this point Vignesh, TPK, Shrek, Naren and Sowmya joined the band. We went through pain stacking weeks of practice, travel (driving between Bangalore and Chennai), sacrifices with mixed emotions and experiences. With AR Rahman’s blessings we are the winners of Oohlalala 2007 and this is a key milestone in Agam’s musical career.

Agam also features and collaborates musicians like Shyam, Padmaja, Kashyap, Narendra, Krishna to name a few.