There’s creation. And then there’s magic. When you’re harnessing the energy of the collective conscious and channeling it into art, you’re pushing the boundaries of creation, and reaching the territory of magic. Let me tell you a story.
One balmy July night in Singapore, I dreamt of a riff. It was haunting, beautiful and stuck in my head. Thankfully, I remembered the next morning and quickly put it on record. The working title was ‘dreamsong‘. However, in spite of many hours of noodling, I realized that the song as a whole was going nowhere. A few days passed and slightly disappointed, I packed my bags and headed to Berlin for an interview with SoundCloud.
It was the day of the interview, I got to the office nice and early. The person with whom I was to chat was running 10 minutes late, and I couldn’t help but eye a nice acoustic guitar lying in the room. I picked it up and started noodling, and man she was a beautiful sounding guitar! 2 minutes in, I had a chorus for dreamsong. Post-interviews, I hurried to my hotel, fired up the REC button and hummed the chorus into my phone. Now back in Singapore, I realized the song was progressing nicely. But by this time, I was hit by another creative block – while the song had a great build and a chorus – it lacked body. Not wanting to drop the ball, I decided to ask for help. For those who remember, I asked you, via a SoundCloud private track.
What resulted was an enthused display of community songwriting at its best, suggestions flying left right center – some great ones, some slightly crazy ones 
but overall, it was amazing crowd-sourced creation at play.
I was inspired, and the song finally went from a little idea in a dream, to a 10 minute long episode. HUGE thanks and special mentions to SoundClouders ethb, Adi, Thiman, Justin, Savi3now, Samiran, Vivek, Kapil and Shravan who helped shape dreamsong into the Idealist. Look what we’ve created!
In fact, you know – I am so stoked about this. I want to preview Miles, the new album to a select, super exclusive group of just TEN people, via SoundCloud private tracks and get your feedback. Let’s do it again.
What’s even more awesome? The best contributors will be credited on the album, and will also get a signed copy of the album shipped to you, wherever in the world you are. Yes!
Fill out the form below and I’ll be in touch once I have something to share. And please share this with your friends who would appreciate progressive music. The more people we have, the higher the probability of magic.
I LOVE it when magic happens.
- Sridhar
Update: This filled up real quick, and there are 25+ people on the list. Wow – I love you all!
