The lockdown has been a universal challenge, and independent musicians in Chennai too faced an increasingly difficult time. Sameer Sethi, a Chennai-based music entrepreneur says, “During the lockdown, we realised that the gamut of musicians had taken a backseat. No one had anything to do for about eight months.”
Sameer therefore came up with an idea to form a community that would not just help independent musicians but also serve as a record label. “To help independent musicians and performing artists during this period, we formed a music community platform called Circle Of Love. This is a place for artists and performers to present their music and for fans to discover artists,” Sameer says.
Circle of Love is not just a platform for showcasing indie musicians but also a record label that helps them produce content. “We are also a foundation for artist initiatives. We would like to work with traditional artists, too, making them collaborate with new ones,” Sameer says. “This is the first of its kind in South India,” he adds.
Sameer
The performances are streamed free on Circle of Love's social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Centre Stage is Circle of Love’s first performance initiative and its first season was launched recently. Six upcoming names from the Indian independent music scene are part of it - The Easy Wanderlings, Mali, Jbabe, Profanyty, Stevie and Henny.
Manny, an established DJ and a reputed underground music expert, helped curate this season. The music videos with these artists were shot during the lockdown. “These are high production videos, and we’ve tried to capture the real effect of a music concert,” Manny adds. Their first video premiered early October.
Manny
“Ours is a platform that will help the artist with everything right from producing it to marketing it. A lot of young, new singers have contacted us and it's great,” Sameer says and adds, “We really wanted to do something for the community. We want to push regional artists along with independent artists.”
“People think Chennai is on the backtrack when it comes to music though big musicians like AR Rahman, Anirudh… everyone’s out of here. I want to bring Chennai to the forefront. The kind of musicians we have here are brilliant. We are still untapped,” Sameer concludes.
The first season of Centre Stage will have Mali’s performance premiering on November 19 followed by Profanayty on November 26. Season 1 of Centre Stage can be watched on Facebook (fb.com/circleoflovein) and Instagram (@circleoflovein).