Sid Sriram

Growing up in the U.S., I'd siloed off my identities. While I was an Indian at home, I was an American at school. I have now embraced both the identities.

Growing up, everyone dreams of certain things, and they map out a direction that their life would take. Working with A. R. Rahman sir is one of my dreams, if not the biggest dream, realised.

Being an Indian in the U.S. and growing up in the suburbs were the two things that really shaped my outlook.

Growing up, any time I would sit down with my grandfather to learn or talk about Carnatic music, he would bring up G. N. Balasubramaniam. Listening to the recordings he would play me, I was dazzled by GNB's voice and how he was able to execute ideas that I could barely wrap my head around.

The youth is hungry for good music; I feel responsible and glad that I can be an agent who can mentally, emotionally stimulate them to listen to music outside of cinema.

Growing up in the U.S., music became a way for me to find my roots and anchor points.

My goal is to communicate how powerful the breaking down of artistic barriers can be when grounded in thought, intention, and a true understanding of all the forms that are being experimented with.

The performance of Carnatic music is multi-dimensional and layered. A performance is at once an artiste's cathartic process of personal exploration and an open energy exchange with the audience: a release and a conversation.

I owe so much of my musical growth to my exploration and performance of Carnatic music.

Being associated with songs that push boundaries is amazing. If the rest of my career consists of a majority of songs that are experimental, I'll be a happy man.

Thanks to my family and guru. They were quite confident that I could do it and think about music as a full-time career.

When I was younger and had made the decision to make a career in music, becoming famous was something that I dreamt about.