We had the opportunity to have a wonderful interview with the trio that is The Music of Sound. This interview has stories about their approach, style, what each member brings and their journey to come. Read their unique story below and check out their new single, Cold Weather Man as well!:
1) Your music has an interesting storytelling approach. How do you go about composition?
Sherin: I believe there’s no set way or guidelines for songwriting. Neil comes up with ideas every day—one day he might hum a chorus, and the next day he’ll have the whole song finished. We never struggle with writer’s block because he’s always full of ideas and finds inspiration instantly, which is amazing.
Elena: There are many ways to go about composition; sometimes it comes straight to you, allowing you to develop these ideas into a larger composition. Other times you just have to play around until you find a melody or harmony you like. Personally I find that once I have a small idea, it’s then much easier to create more just from that one idea. Luckily our composer Neil always has amazing ideas at the ready!
Neil: There is no one set way. Sometimes I have some music in my head and, being classically trained, I will already have worked out most of the instrumental elements before I sit at the piano and play around with it. Then I will come up with words and melody to fit the song. Other times, I really want to write about a particular subject and the lyrical content might drive how I write the music. Or it can be a bit of both where I have a musical idea I want to develop but the key lyrical concept arrives at the same time and I work on both simultaneously.
2) Each of you in the band come from different genres and talents in music. How did you distill on this performance style?
Sherin: I grew up in South India, where I was initially exposed to regional music, including Indian classical and Western-Indian fusion music, mostly through movies. As I got older, I started listening to more mainstream international genres like pop and rock. Before moving to the UK, my knowledge of music was quite limited to these popular styles. However, since coming to the UK, I've been attending gigs and discovering a variety of new genres. This has inspired me to experiment with my singing style, allowing me to adapt and apply the most suitable style to the songs Neil composes. As the lead singer of our band, this creative process is an exciting part of my journey.
Elena: For me and Neil we both have our musical background in classical music. I think for me, this background shows itself when I begin learning and developing the music. I always try to make sure that I can give my best performance, so my learning process is always quite thorough, even if a piece is ‘easy’ to learn. For instance I start by just playing the song note by note, and then I slowly add dynamics/expressions and then maybe even changes in vibrato. I love that each of us have a unique performance style, I find it very enjoyable playing with Sherry since both our backgrounds in music are quite contrasting!
Neil: I think what has happened is that each band member’s style has changed the direction of the band and the songwriting has been instinctively adapted to reflect that. Elena and I are both classical musicians but I have been writing and playing pop (in all manner of genres) for a long time too and Elena has a lot of experience professionally for such a young person. Sherin grew up in South India so her exposure to Western Pop was mainly through movies. She only came to the UK in late 2022 so she has been consuming so much new music and bringing her unique style to that. They are both so talented which makes it so much fun writing for them. Also, our influences are not obvious. A few people, including Adam Walton on BBC Radio Wales, have mentioned the David Lynch/Twin Peaks aura about the music. We have influences we can hear like Cocteau Twins, Julee Cruise, Chromatics, Keane and various others that most people would probably find baffling like Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan! It’s there in the chords we use and some of the harmonies.
Through the waves of music
3) How has your journey been so far? What process do you follow to compose music?
Sherin: As the lead singer of the group, my main contribution is vocal production. While Neil handles the arrangements and compositions, I focus on experimenting with ways to enhance the melody and add style to the melody according to the theme.
Elena: As the flautist, my contribution is mainly performing and playing in the recordings for the songs. I really enjoy being able to bring Neil’s compositions to life and look forward to playing his future work!
Neil: I formed the band in 2017 when I was invited to play the BBC Introducing Stage at Latitude as a solo artist and I decided I wanted to do it as a band. The line-up has changed so many times. We started as an experimental contemporary classical and electronic instrumental act with me conducting the other musicians! Somehow we have evolved into a cinematic Dreampop trio and working with these two brilliant young women has changed everything about the songs and how we perform them.
Storytelling addictions
4) Cold Weather Man has a fantastic metaphor behind it as well. Tell me about the musicality of it all?
Sherin: ‘Cold Weather Man’ is the song we always use to close our set. After playing some gigs, we noticed it gets a huge reaction from the audience. It’s a fun song to sing along to, with a catchy and singable chorus that's great for live performances. We believe ‘Cold Weather Man’ is one of the best songs we’ve created and released.
Elena: Cold Weather Man I would argue is definitely one of our most popular songs. I specifically remember at one of our gigs I invited a group of my friends to come watch and they instantly loved it! It was great seeing them and others in our audience sing along and dance to our music.
Neil: I wanted to depict this lonely and eccentric character who hides away during the summer months but emerges as the cold weather comes and he can walk around in his big coat and visit all the places he wants to see. If you watch the video, it’s actually me playing the Cold Weather Man! But you never see my face! Sherin had to spend a lot of time walking behind me and filming! I have come across similar characters at different times. People write them off as weirdos but, when you talk to them, you discover they know so much about what is happening around them. That was why I referenced The Beatles’ ‘The Fool On The Hill’ because it has a similar empathy behind it. Paul McCartney wrote that song and he is one of my musical heroes.
The story of the origin
5) The Music of Sound has a unique origin story. Is the songwriting process inclusive or finished layer by layer from members of the band?
Sherin: Neil has a great approach to songwriting. As he mentioned, he draws inspiration from different artists and genres, blending them into a unique sound, which is really cool. While the songwriting process is primarily Neil’s role, I also contribute by supporting his compositions with my ideas.
Elena: Neil is the main songwriter and composer of our music. I think that me and Sherin both agree he is a great composer and we love being able to perform his compositions together. Personally, as a performer, I love being able to add the expressions to his compositions like dynamics and vibrato that really bring the music to life in a way that midi instruments can’t.
Neil: It varies. With Cold Weather Man, it started with the hook really, which I knew would suit Sherin’s beautiful voice, and the song was built around that but also, because we have Elena who is such a brilliant musician and we kind of use the flute and piano like other bands would use synth and guitar, I wanted the riff that plays in open fourths over the bassline to be shared by those two key sounds. There aren’t many straight major or minor chords in ‘Cold Weather Man’. The piano plays in open fourths and fifths most of the time and then uses arpeggios in the bridge. That is quite unusual for a pop song but it is also an example of the piano being used like a guitar.
Future projects and endeavours
6) What is next for The Music of Sound? Is there a tour to support the album release?
Sherin: We’re gradually gaining traction with different audiences and building our fan base. Going on tour next year would be incredible! Even more exciting, though, is that we have more releases planned, including an EP, where I'll continue to strengthen and refine my craft as a new singer.
Elena: At the minute, we’re focusing on releasing all of our songs, so our audience can look forward to listening to all of our new singles! However, being able to do a tour next year would be amazing and definitely something we would love to do at some point in the future!
Neil: We are hoping to tour in Spring 2025. At the moment, we are holding off on releasing any albums until we have built a bigger following and more momentum but this series of singles we are putting out will be consolidated into an EP in the Spring.
Listen to the beautiful song here:
Check out the pop playlist here as well!