As an immigrant to the US and having grown up among many different cultures, my musical tastes are as much a melting pot as my adopted country. The 'Ragav' project is an east meets west fusion, that is a musical expression of this very melting pot of cultures. It fuses together genres as far away as South-Indian Carnatic, and progressive Metal. The song writing is emblematic of this same blend of cultures - from homefree, which is a positive spin on the immigrant experience in the US, to dual states of existence, which is a song that carries stereotypically Seattle-grunge themes of being lost among a chaotic world.
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Consequently, The Ragav project draws a diverse audience from a variety of different musical afflictions. There is a large closeted metalhead audience-base among the immigrant tech-community of Seattle that is eager for new original music, having followed bands such as Motherjane and Avial. There is also a new wave of local Seattle audiences from fans of bands such as Alice in Chains to those such as Porcupine Tree, that are also very receptive to this style of east-meets-west fusion-metal music.
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Apart from this solo project, I am also the bass player for Sugar Bones and Sludge Factory, two popular Seattle-based bands.
E-mail:
ragav.venkatesan@gmail.com
Instagram:
@ragav.music
Keg of Glory is a song valorizing Joshua Lyman from the legendary American TV show, "The West Wing". It is also about the characteristics of Joshua Lyman such as loyalty, sincerity and leadership. It is in honor of that person in our lives who has always been there pushing up onward and upward.
Varsha Srikeshava and I were jamming one day and suddenly got inspired to do a Carnatic fusion. Almost a year of hard work later we finished this song. But that was in 2019. After another four years later, I'm finally able to fine-tune this song to my liking and release it with my solo EP.
Shambo is a Thandavam. A Thandavam is a type of song that has intricate rhythm and is usually written to dance to. Shambo is a Shiva thandavam and is written for Shiva the destroyer to dance to. This song is special for me. This is the first song I wrote as part of 'Ragav' my solo project. This is also the only song in the EP that was not sung by me.