THE TOUGH GET GOING
MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST SHREYAS IYENGAR ON HOW HIS PANDEMIC-INSPIRED JAZZ ALBUM CAME ABOUT
The pandemic, a torn ligament and an ex-girlfriend’s saxophone resulted in the creation of Punebased Shreyas Iyengar’s debut jazz album, Tough Times. The multi-instrumentalist, who has been playing music professionally for 17 years, says he had been wanting to write music for himself, but a bulk of his composing was done for ads, TV shows and background scores. He has also performed with several bands and done some Bollywood gigs, which he doesn’t like to talk about. “You gotta do what you gotta do,” he shrugs.
The pandemic offered Iyengar some much-needed time to work on Tough Times. “During the lockdown, I started planning my day in such a way that I could dedicate time to different aspects of music,” he says. Apart from time, the next hurdle that stood in his way was finding a lead instrument for the project.
As a child, Iyengar attended Carnatic vocal lessons but says that once puberty kicked in, that all stopped. Inspired by Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, he turned to drums after passing Class 10 and soon started playing professionally. “The good thing about being a drummer is that you mostly practise at home with other musicians coming over. They invariably end up leaving their instruments behind. So, I was like, ‘Why not teach myself to play these instruments lying around?’,” he says.
This served Iyengar well in the long run. Around three years ago, an ex-girlfriend had a saxophone which she wasn’t interested in playing anymore. Iyengar picked it up around the time he was about to undergo knee surgery for an injury. “The funny thing is that the day before the surgery, we broke up. Usually, when I feel sorry for myself, my go-to would be drums, but since I couldn’t bang on them, I started learning how to play the sax instead.” It ended up bearing the melodic responsibility of Tough Times.
The pandemic also offered Iyengar inspiration. “The thing about being a middle-class Indian is that you don’t have much to write about… there is a nice, comfortable safety net behind you. So, with the pandemic, there was finally something significant I could write about,” he says. Iyengar approaches the album through the lens of empathy. “The plight of migrant labour, the problems domestic help went through, watching everyone around me going through a difficult time, that’s what was going on in my head,” he says.
Currently, Iyengar is working on a new EP, which he hopes to release in the next month or so. After a solo venture like Tough Times, Iyengar feels more confident collaborating. “The people I’m working with now all love to eat, so we just get together, eat well and make our music, which is quite nice.” ■
—Vijayeta Basu