Music Sans Borders

Shridevi Keshavan,popularly known by her stage name Taamara,has been living San Francisco time for about a year now. This 26-year-old student with a diploma in Carnatic music at Mumbai University has her days packed. But as one half of the band,Gods Robots,making music with DJ,producer and multi-instrumentalist Janaka Selekta — her San Francisco-based bandmate — means working across continents. After forming their band in 2009,this duo attracted good responses for blending in stylised classical Indian nuances with high-energy western dance music influences. What has got them really excited is their first EP,Stormy Weather released on November 15.

“We were selected by the head of the content and streaming division of Bit Torrent as the only Asian band in the league,” says Taamara. She found brainstorming through Skype for their compositions very exciting. However,she now feels that working together will help them to finalise their tracks faster. “For one,there would be no heavy audio files bouncing back everyday. So yes,writing and composing for the EP was no cakewalk,but the release makes it all worth it. It has four songs,mainly pop with elements of electronica and reggae thrown in. It also features sarod virtuoso Alam Khan,the legendary Ali Akbar Khan’s son,in the song Falling,” she points out.