Sushma Soma Brings ‘Home SOS’ Concert Experience to Bengaluru This Week

Sushma Soma feels like she’s using the word “exciting” too much. She says with a laugh over a video call from Singapore, “Can we scrap that? It’s truly exciting, though.” The Singapore-based artist and vocalist is talking about bringing her show Home SOS: Sounds of Sustainability to Bengaluru on January 20th, at the Bangalore Creative Circus.

Produced and stage as more than just a concert, the artist’s experiential show also wants to be a call to action to save the planet and how we can make more “conscious, earth-friendly choices” in our lives. While the likes of percussionist Praveen Sparsh and Bharatnatyam choreographer and dance Mythili Prakash originally crafted the production with Soma, the live concert experience includes nadaswaram artist Adyar D. Balasubramani, N. Deepan on parai, M. Rajendran on thamuru, percussionist Sumesh Narayanan and M Vijay on satti.

While there have been previous performances in Singapore, the album Home – created with American Carnatic vocalist and artist Aditya Prakash – and its message is being adapted to local audiences this week, which Soma says is no small task. “I’m almost nervous because I’m no environmental expert, right. I’m not someone who studied it. I’m using music as my tool. So yes, I have to make sure that my facts are right,” she says.

The artist is working with environment sustainability firm Skrap as an “engagement partner” at the concert, while non-profit organization Slam Out Loud will start off with an interaction featuring children. It’s a move that signals the importance of telling different generations about whom the world is being left behind for. Soma is also working on focusing on Bengaluru-specific environmental and civic causes to weave into the narrative of the show. “Issues are more complex in India [than Singapore],” she says. In a bid to make people rethink everyday choices and consumer choices,” Soma is keen to see audience reactions. “I think that’s what I love about working on Home, because it’s not just that I’ve done it, and then it’s static and it doesn’t grow. Every city that I do it in, the main intention of it is to is to start conversations,” she adds.

It takes on a different arc compared to the album’s flow, one that also incorporates her co-artists taking the lead as well as audience participation. Soma says, “There is a piece of with the audience… we did that in Singapore as well. It was really nice because I think it’s a coming together of community and reminding ourselves that it has to start from us, collectively.”

Key highlights off the album include songs like “Grief,” which is among other songs like “The Elephant’s Funeral” and “War” which the artist says have taken on different meanings for her in the last year. It was in May 2023 that Soma’s husband Shrinivas Sainis summited the peak of Mount Everest but could not make it back down. Songs off the album that originally dealt with environmental anxiety were uncovering more personal interpretations for the artist. “It’s changed with me and it continues to be a personal story,” she says. Her upcoming EP, which Soma began recording in December, is dedicated to the mountain expedition that Sainis took on.

Get details for Sushma Soma’s Home SOS: Sounds of Sustainability concert here.