Intimate & invested crowds

Bengaluru-based Mahesh Raghunandan, a singer and songwriter, has recently completed an eight-city tour with Sofar, an organisation that finds home venues for independent artistes.

- MAHESH RAGHUNANDAN | 33 | BENGALURU

While he still plays at pubs, music festivals and concerts, "since a musical artiste cannot sustain only on house concerts," he admits that home spaces are undeniably far more nerve-wracking than a larger stage.

"When the audience is small, and I am the only performer in front of them, sans band and fancy sound systems, I know all of their attention is entirely on me, and that definitely adds to the pressure as well as the adrenaline rush," says Raghunandan, 33. As a solo artiste and a singer-songwriter, house concerts do take up a larger chunk of his performance roster. Moreover, he says his music is far better suited to these intimate settings.