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.
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.
In an exclusive video interview with INDIA New England News, Ms. Rao and Shukla talk about the founding, mission and growth of the band.
To watch the full interview, please click here, or on the image below.
The band members met as friends in the Boston area, and after playing and jamming together at each other’s homes they realized that they not only enjoyed each other’s company, but also enjoyed making music together. In 2018, they decided to play at the Arlington Porchfest as an informal way to get started, and that is how TaalMel was born.
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 lead vocalists. Kavitha Venkatesan, the band’s 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, the group formed TaalMel.
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.
