Backpage

VIRTUOSO

Although Raghunathan has never had formal piano training, his years spent practicing violin have given him a solid foundation in music theory.

ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON RD. DALLAS, TX 75230

MUSIC PRODUCTION Modern-day Mozart Over quarantine, while most of his peers were playing video games or binge watching the latest TV shows, sophomore Akash Raghunathan was pursuing a completely different passion.

32

Backpage

October 29, 2020

Jonathan Yin: What exactly are you doing when you say you’re making songs? Akash Raghunathan: I make pop music, like, mainly stuff that you’d hear in like 2015 – Bruno Mars, that kind of stuff.

JY: I don’t think there’s anyone else I know that does this kind of stuff. How did you get into such a unique hobby? AR: I was listening to a lot of music during quarantine, and I was like, ‘I want to make my own thing.’ So I just messed around with some software, and eventually, I happened to make something that sounded pretty good. I’ve spent a lot of time on that, especially during quarantine. I would have never done this if it weren’t for the coronavirus.

JY: What’s your favorite genre of music? Does it inspire the songs that you make? AR: Definitely throwback pop. My favorite song is Jealous by Labrinth, but nobody I’ve talked to so far knows anything about what that is. My favorite artist is by far Bruno Mars. He’s for sure a big inspiration for the music I make.

JY: Can you walk us through how you come up with a song? AR: If I get a new tune in my head, I have a MIDI piano that connects to my music software, and I put the tune in with the piano. I don’t play piano, but I know enough to use it. Then I can change up the sounds and add a bass and drums and then some other instruments, like guitar or whatever else sounds nice. I’ve been playing violin for a long time, so I have a pretty good musical background to work off of. haven’t really named them. I still need to write the lyrics and get a singer before they’re really done. I think they’re all pretty good, though.

JY: How much of a time commitment is making these songs? I don’t know too much about how much work it takes to produce something like that. AR: Since school started, I haven’t had much time to focus on making it a real thing, but now, since I’m kind of used to school, I’m looking to make it something bigger. Most of the work I did was over quarantine, when I had a lot more free time.

JY: How far have you come since you started making your songs? AR: I think I’ve come a pretty long way. My songs are technically not complete, because I don’t have someone who could sing, but I have around three or four that I think sound pretty nice. If I can get a singer, I think we could definitely put them out for people to listen to. I haven’t released anything to the public yet, but I’m working on that at the moment.

JY: What’s the next step for you? AR: I just got in contact with a music producer, and he’s been mentoring me for a bit now. We’re starting to mix my tracks, which is the technology part. Most things that you listen to are mixed in a way that be listened to with headphones or speakers or in your car or whatever, but what I have hasn’t been mixed yet. Now, I just have to find someone who can sing.

JY: Do you have any specific goals that you’d like to achieve? AR: Not really. I feel like it’s just the beginning, like I can move forward and really make something out of this. Right now, there are so many possibilities as to where I could take this, which is kind of cool. I’m really looking forward to seeing how far I can go with this.

STORY Jonathan Yin PHOTOS Ekansh Tambe

MIX MASTER

Adjusting volume sliders, Raghunathan adds a baseline to his newest track.

COOL CAT

Hands on the keyboard, Raghunathan tries out some new chords to find inspiration for his next song.