How Sherrin Varghese’s Music Series Led to the Creation of a Livestream Studio During the Pandemic

When musician Sherrin Varghese started recording his online music series The Circuit with a range of artists, it was purely with the intention to chronicle the rich diversity within indie music. The first season of the interview-and-concert livestream hosted from his living room last year brought together names such as alt-rock and pop bands Daira, Sharma and the Besharams and The Shubhangi Joshi Collective to scene regulars like Sidd Coutto and Shibani Kashyap, among others. “What started as seven episodes turned into 20, and I gained immense respect and appreciation from the musician and artist community for the same,” says Varghese, who produced, directed, and launched the series on his YouTube channel. With each new episode, the member of A Band Of Boys discovered a whole new range of opportunities for livestream concerts in India. The pandemic only brought along more learnings.

As Varghese started hunting for a new studio space (outside of his living room, this time) for season two of The Circuit, the demand for well-produced digital concerts was rising too. “Remote entertainment revealed itself as the need of the hour… So I decided to sublet the space to artists and give them a platform with facilities to capture, record, stream, mix and balance, along with backline, equipment and instruments. The studio is spread across 400 square feet and can host online concerts and gigs at 1080p, 50fps,” he says.

The Circuit has now evolved from being Varghese’s passion project to a community-centric enterprise fostering collaborations. Today it is a platform, a venue, and a multi-track/multi-cam audio-video suite rolling in one. “Not that other studios are not providing the same but the economics, quality, and efficiency with which we are doing this is making a difference to artists right now, who want to earn their living doing live online concerts privately for their clients or via ticketed models during these COVID times… Everyone is just trying to survive,” says Varghese. His plans for the future include launching season two of the music series as well as developing the studio as a publishing house with its own catalog of fresh music. “The wonderful 20 years of artist life with A Band Of Boys, and my solo career as a singer, music composer-producer and actor, has given me a lot. In this third innings of my career, I want to give back to society what art and music has given to me,” he says.

Also, The Circuit is hiring, informs Varghese. “I’d like to use this opportunity to invite professionals, namely a D.O.P/editor, studio assistant, and social media manager to send their resume to thecircuitindia@gmail.com.”