Women of Indian Rock: Suman Sridhar

Suman Sridhar | Photo: Taras Taraporevala Hair & Makeup: Tesoura Salon

Sadly, I have never had the opportunity to watch Suman perform. Living in Shillong, I rarely get the chance to listen to too many artists live unless we are sharing the stage with them. For me Suman’s confidence is what stands out most in her singing. She delivers her vocal melodies with subtlety and character. Many times, I found her style reminding me of old classic swing and bebop jazz tunes. Her songs had a very electronic feel, but again, vocally I was reminded of early jazz and a little beatnik poetry. She is also an equally good performer, her ability to add theatricality to her performance definitely adds more character to the overall performance. Recently, I have started playing a few gigs on my own when my band Soulmate doesn’t have gigs lined up. I call a bunch of my friends on stage and we have a blast. So if Suman ever wants to come up on stage and jam out some blues songs, that would be great. I would talk to her about life, love… all the things you talk about with other people. As for music, I was never one to talk about music, I’m no academic… I just feel it. So we wouldn’t discuss music, we’d just sing.