TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

Once again, thank you for listening to TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I’m DOING and sharing it with your friends and family, and for following along on all that social media. If you’re enjoying these episodes, please take a moment to submit a kind rating and review, as it’s very much appreciated. There’s truly something to be said about things that offer harmony, especially when the things that are harmonizing may seem like they are contrasting. I personally love it when an experience can offer power and peace at the same time, or when you can feel a racing speedy quality to something in your soul yet feel completely serene with a sense of belonging. For Sid Sriram, there is a quality inherent in the Carnatic music of South India that he describes as “universal truth”. Sid was born in Chennai and grew up in Fremont, California where learning from his mother, a Carnatic music teacher, and training at Boston’s Berklee college of music have allowed him to share this truth with audiences in India and across the world, as one of the most popular Indian film industry singers of the past decade. For his latest offering, Sid has a new English-language album releasing this month called Sidharth, where now that soulful blending and harmony are the product of many formative experiences and an obvious confluence of traditions.
The album was offered fuel and spark in Minneapolis, where intensive and intimate musical exploration brought Sid’s California upbringing and Indian traditions together as a unique and truly comforting discovery that simply felt like home. A few months ago, Sid had performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and the weave of R/B, soul, pop, Carnatic, indie, and jazz traditions was incredibly palpable. He embarks on a USA tour this September and we caught up recently for a chat about the new album, about the creative experience, and even about the power of silence. But we started by talking about the thought that goes into preparation and practice.