Ethnic and electric

Filter Coffee’s Shriram and Swarupa talk about creating ‘ethnotronic’ music

There are a lot of fusion bands today that bring together different genres of music to more often than not, make confusion. Fortunately, Filter Coffee is not one of them. With Shriram Sampath on flutes and Swarupa Ananth on the percussion instruments, the duo makes ‘ethnotronic’ music that not only sounds great but also transports you to another dimension. After having performed at the prestigious Alchemy festival, the band talks to us about their beginnings, the recent performance and more.

Shriram tells us, “We met over 10 years ago and got to know each other since we lived in the same locality. We used to be a part of several bands then and eventually got bored of making other people’s music and wanted to make our own. We started as a five-piece band but eventually jobs took over and both of us recognised we had similar goals when it came to the kind of music we wanted to make.” Swarupa continues, “We started Filter Coffee three years ago and got picked up to perform at Southbank. Honestly, fusing electronic and classical Indian and folk music together was not a conscious decision. We enjoyed how it sounded and it also worked for both old and young audiences. Clasical is our first love and we wanted to bring sounds from all corners of the country together as well, since India is so diverse and rich.”

Talking about their gig at the Alchemy festival in London, Swarupa says, “It was fabulous. It’s one of the biggest fests that celebrates South Asian culture. We were invited to play at the launch party as well, so in a way we opened for other performers like Ustad Zakir Hussain and Shankar Ehsaan Loy.” Shriram talks about meeting the tabla maestro, “Zakir Hussain was sweet enough to attend our performance and tell the crowd about us. He even stayed till the end of our performance and told us we played well. It was overwhelming and nerve-wracking at the same time. But he’s such a calming presence.”

They’re also planning to introduce a new set called Urban Grooves. “Urban Grooves is the best thing to happen to us since our album release! We launched it at Alchemy, where we played audiovisuals while we were performing. The small visuals were given to us by filmmaker friends from all around the world and lent a completely different feel to the performance. We plan to take it to schools, corporates, everywhere.” The duo is visiting Europe again to perform at a few venues and even at a yoga festival! Swarupa says on a concluding note, “We’re the kind of people who enjoy performing live and then taking it to the studio to make changes based on how the music reacts. Our only goal for the future is to keep performing continuously.”