Get Your Spook On with an Audio-Visual Horror Storytelling Livestream

What started off as a horror storytelling and music podcast adapted for Instagram is now having its first digital livestream on September 12th, as Mumbai artist Raman Iyer (formerly of folk-fusion group Neeraj Arya’s Kabir Cafe) gears up for Face Your Fears.

Iyer tells us that he began hosting Midnight Musings in April as a daily series for storytelling as well as an outlet to write music, plus initiate conversations with the music community. “I’ve been creating fresh music for these stories.” One of the instalments in the series is called Face Your Fear Fridays, in which he saw bigger potential and is now converting into a “digital live horror experience” with help from musicians Viveick Rajagopalan, K.C. Loy, plus a discussion with paranormal investigator Jay Alani. The digital event — which is being streamed out of fellow artist Sherrin Varghese’s The Circuit space and aired via Art Square Feet (co-founded by Rajagopalan) — is hosted by author Himika Ganguly.

Iyer, Rajagopalan and Loy have worked on music for the show that will be performed, including a specially composed, aptly mystique-heavy track called “Face Your Fears.” Featuring guitars by prog band Coshish’s guitarist Shrikant Sreenivasan and produced by drummer Gautam Deb, the song will also go up on streaming platforms following the event. Iyer adds, “We [Rajagopalan, Iyer and Loy] are also performing songs together, so apart from stories, there also is live music that does the opposite of healing.”

As much as livestream experiences are about creating an immersive environment — Face Your Fears mentions that you should turn off all lights and use headphones or speakers during the event — Iyer didn’t want to stretch it out beyond an hour. “Digitally, it’s too much to hold people beyond a while. They’ve been working from home constantly and on weekends, it’s taking a hit for not just this event, really. Any event on weekends, people don’t want to look at screens.”

As of now, Iyer is testing the waters with this digital edition and if all goes well, there might be another event soon enough. He says, “Let’s see that if they want more, then maybe I can curate such events in the future.”

Get tickets for Face Your Fears on September 12th, 10 pm onward here.