Hear Alt Pop Group Chennai Street Band’s Debut LP ‘Payanangal’

In 2015 when Tamil Nadu’s Chennai Street Band formed with just composer/producer Srihari Jagannathan and drummer Goutham Healer they were initially playing a lot of commercial gigs. “We played film music predominantly,” says Jagannathan. After meeting guitarists Akshay Yesodharan and Renin Raphael, bassist Adithya Gopi and keyboardist Sebastian Satish at a gig was when they began working on their own material. Now, the group is out with their debut seven-track album Payanangal.

The new LP – which the band started tracking in 2017 – includes everything from pop offerings (“Nadodi,” “Yaaro Aval”), ballads “Paravaigal Naam” and the title track) and rock songs (“Mayavi,” “Vaazhkai Oru Vattam”). Jagannathan tells us that the inspiration for the songs comes from his time traveling on solo trips. He says, “I met people from all across the globe who were like-minded. I used to journal my thoughts after hearing their stories; it kind of made me realize we are all the same. It was liberating and life-changing for me.” He adds, “[The record is] a cycle of life.”

Payanangal was recorded at Voice and Vision Studios in Chennai and predominantly produced by Jagannathan. The record was mixed by engineers Pradvay Sivashankar and Vivek Thomas. Next, Chennai Street Band is working on music videos for “Nadodi,” “Yaaro Aval” and “Mayavi.” On the live front, a tour is in the pipeline. The band also has plans to start work on a Hindi EP titled Safarnama at the beginning of next year. “We want to tour, perform live and take the music to as many music festivals as we can,” says Jagannathan.

Stream the album on Spotify below: