The Poet’s Stories

Sitting in his room with his dusty desktop at his home in Chennai,Kishore Krishna began recording music. His thoughts took shape through lyrics and tunes; his experiences became stories. Adam and the Fish Eyed Poets was born in late 2008. This one-man ‘bedroom’ band began paying tribute to the poets of the modern era with its intense albums – Snakeism and Dead Loops. The third – this time with three other musicians – is near completion,and Pune will get to hear some of the songs today evening at the band’s performance at High Spirits,Koregaon Park.

“My process starts with character building. I find people with strange situations. His character may be aware of the situation but he can’t do much. I try to find out what loop he’s in and tell that story through my music,” says Kishore. He captures despair in a way that doesn’t necessarily make you feel bad; it’s pleasing unconventional music. Six months back,after the completion of his second album – Dead Loops,he teamed up with three musicians –Prabhu Muralee (drums),Nischint Murari (guitar/bass),Abhinav Krishnaswamy (guitar/bass/vocals). “I’d already written half of the third album – Songs From An Island – and so I got together with them to take it forward,” Kishore says. The new album is interestingly focussed on the arranged marriage of two main characters. The album spans 30 years of their lives and has 21 songs. “I need to say something with the albums. It needs to be specific and topical. I can’t just randomly put together music,” Kishore adds.

Their music is a mix of the Stats/Volt era Rhythm and Blues and the aggressive post punk acts of the late 70s. Unfortunately,they hardly get gigs in Chennai. They’ve played more in Bengaluru and are now touring other cities. They recently played at Blue Frog,Mumbai. “Chennai doesn’t get the mix we’re doing. But then it’s also because we don’t conform to the jazz-funk style of accepted music,” he says. Do we sense a shift in base soon? “Yes,yes. We’re eyeing Bengaluru and Mumbai. Let’s see. We are just waiting for our drummer to finish with college,” says the self-taught musician. He hails the boom in the Indian music scene. “Songwriting is being taken seriously by bands and people are using music to identify themselves. There are so many music festivals – we played in Bengaluru for Oktoberfest and unfortunately missed out on the NH7 in Pune. But I love this phase – it’s an exciting time for Indian Indie,” he says.