Musician Varijashree Venugopal on her latest single ‘Jaathre’

Varijashree Venugopal reflects on her musical journey, releasing 'Jaathre (Live)' from upcoming album Vari (The Live Sessions).

For Varijashree Venugopal, the stage has been a second home since the age of four. “Music runs in my blood,” says the Grammy-nominated musician. With the release of her first single ‘Jaathre (Live)‘ from the album Vari (The Live Sessions), Varijashree reflects on her musical journey so far.

“This album is a spin-off to my previous album Vari, which was released last year. That was my first original music album,” she says. “After we played a few live concerts, we decided to record and film the sound and energy of the performance.”

The upcoming album is a live performance curation of seven selected songs from Vari, arranged for a six-piece band, of which ‘Jaathre’ is the seventh track. “The song is quite dear to the team,” she says. “We received a lot of lovely responses, especially for this song.”

On the choice of the term jaathre, which generally refers to a village carnival, Varijashree explains, “This song is a meeting between the Carnatic raga Hemavathi and Indian grooves. We always enjoy playing it live.” The album, Varijashree says is more than a project. “It is a memory that documents the entire journey.”

Live energy is so different from what is produced and recorded, says Varijashree. “It has to be condensed, restructured, and formatted into a live group set.” The band was directed by Grammy-winning artiste Michael League and includes a stellar lineup of musicians including Pramath Kiran (percussions and co-arrangement), Jayachandra Rao (mridangam), Apoorva Krishna (violin), Vivek Santhosh (keys and synths), and Praveen Rao (harmonium).

Varijashree describes her relationship with music as ‘organic’ and considers herself lucky to have been raised in an atmosphere that turned her passion into a profession. “Both my parents are musicians. That is where it started, and I am blessed to have such a strong foundation in Carnatic music.”

Apparently responding to music when she was 18 months old, Varijashree says, “I’ve been told that I would repeat musical phrases, even though I couldn’t speak properly. By the age of four, I was giving little stage performances.”