BOSTON–TaalMel, a musical band that brings together rhythms (Taal) and harmonies (Mel) from the two rich musical cultures of India and the West, is relatively new to Boston. The band made its first major public debut to the Indian-American community last month with a big bang at a Saheli fundraiser in Lexington, MA.
Members of the band love experimenting with Indian and Western classical and pop styles, ranging from Carnatic and Indian film music to blues and rock. Members of the band are Karthik Balasubramaniam: electric/acoustic guitar; Kamal Dasu: drums; Al Day: bass guitar; Smriti Rao: vocals; Rahul Shukla: acoustic guitar; Simu Thomas: keyboards; and Kavitha Venkatesan: vocals.
Here is a Q/A with TaalMel band via email:
INDIA New England News: When and how was Taal Mel founded?
TaalMel: We met as friends here in the Boston area, and after playing and jamming together at each other’s homes we realized that we not only enjoyed each other’s company, but we also enjoyed making music together. In 2018, we decided to play at the Arlington Porchfest as an informal way to get started, and that is how TaalMel was born.
INE: Who are the founders of the band?
TM: Karthik Balasubramaniam and Smriti Rao are married – a love of music being one of the things that brought them together. Karthik plays guitar and sings, and Smriti is one of our lead vocalists. Kavitha Venkatesan, our other lead vocalist, is trained in the Carnatic music tradition. Together with Kamal Dasu, TaalMel’s drummer (who also plays drums for the band Din Check!), and Rahul Shukla, who plays acoustic guitar, sings, and dabbles in the harmonica and several other instruments, we formed TaalMel.
Simu Thomas, who plays keyboards – and is often the person who pushes us to perfect our song arrangements – joined the band in 2019. Finally, Al Day, who is our wonderful bassist, joined TaalMel this year.
None of this would be possible without the patience and support of the band members’ amazing life partners, who run errands and pick up kids while we are at practice, but still find the time and energy to cheer for us.
INE: Their professional life?
TM: In their ‘real’ lives, Karthik is Vice Presdent of Global Commercial Operations; Smriti is Professor of Economics; Kavitha is Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy for Oncology; Kamal is Master Engineer; Rahul is Managing Director, Advisor in Climate/Sustainability Tech; Simu is Global Vice President, Health Economics and Outcomes Research; and Al Day is Senior Trial Counsel.
INE: What is the mission of the band?
TM: TaalMel hopes to bring together rhythms (Taal) and harmonies (Mel) from the multiple rich musical cultures that we are lucky enough to be part of, both in India and here in the US. We love experimenting with Indian and Western classical and pop styles, ranging from Carnatic or Hindustani music and Indian film music, to Blues and Rock.
INE: When we listened to your band’s performance at Saheli event, your productions were very different than usual band. What do you want to accomplish?
TM: Other than Kavitha, who is a trained Carnatic singer, we are all self-taught. From a young age, we’ve each found ways to keep music in our lives because it brings us so much joy to play and sing.
Our musical tastes vary quite a bit given our different backgrounds, so we try to find ways to blend those tastes and play the music that we enjoy. We hope that the joy we feel will be transmitted to the audience. We also hope that every time we play the audience will hear something familiar, but also maybe something new, so that we explore and experiment together.
INE: Who is your target audience?
TM: Anyone who loves music and is willing to experiment along with us. If you’d like to sample our music, find us at: https://www.youtube.com/@taalmeltheband3964/videos
INE: What has your band done/performed since its founding?
TM: Apart from playing at several Arlington and Lexington porchfests, we have played at the Arlington Center for the Arts annual benefit concert, at the Town Tavern in Arlington, and now at SurSaheli 2023.
INE: How has it been received so far?
TM: We think – we hope– people have appreciated our musical experiments. We hope we are becoming better musicians as we practice and play together, and hopefully audiences can hear and feel that.
