And now for a Tiny Desert Concert, when we bring local bands into the KJZZ studios to play a couple songs for us and talk a bit about the music. Today we hear from Nirantha Balagopal of the band Language Barrier.
"A lot of my songs are conversations that I want to have with someone and I can't and I haven't figured out a way to have that conversation and my music is how I'm able to talk to them," Balagopa said of the band's title.
Their music is somewhat poppy, with tinges of sadness and thoughtful lyrics. Balagopal calls it "sad girl pop."
"Back in the 1990s there was this genre called emo, bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and American Football and the musicians in that band were often called sad boys and there was not a lot of female representation in that scene. So I always called myself a sad girl as like a defiant juxtaposition to the boys club that was the emo genre."
Full conversation
NIRANTHA BALAGOPAL: I just thought it was a funny phrase at first, when I first thought of it, but it's actually grown to match the music as we've grown as a band. A lot of my songs are conversations that I want to have with someone that I can't, and I haven't figured out a way, how to have that conversation, and my music is how I'm able to talk to them. So it's about that communication hurdle.
BRODIE: When you write a song that is basically something you'd like to say to somebody, like, how literal do you try to make that? Like, do you want the person to know that you're trying to say this to them?
BALAGOPAL: Yeah, and a lot of times they do know if it's about them.
BRODIE: Is that awkward?
BALAGOPAL: It can be, but I take it in stride.
BRODIE: So you described your music as sort of sad girl pop, like, what does that, what does that mean to you?
BALAGOPAL: Back in the 1990s there was this genre called emo bands, like Sunny Day Real Estate and American Football, and the musicians in that band were often called sad boys, and there was not a lot of female representation in that scene. So I always called myself a sad girl as like, a defiant juxtaposition to like the boys club that was the emo genre, and so it's carried over to my music, mostly because I only write songs when I'm sad.
BRODIE: Why is that?
BALAGOPAL: Because when I'm happy, I don't really have too much to say. I'm still trying to figure out how to write a happy song without sounding obnoxious or like shoving my happiness in someone's face.
BRODIE: So Nirantha, can you guys play us a song?
BALAGOPAL: Sure this song is called “Allow Me.”
[MUSIC]
BRODIE: You've said that you'd like to compare your band to a desert sunset. What do you mean by that?
BALAGOPAL: Yeah, I did say that. So we don't have any official recordings. We just have a couple demos that I did in my living room last year. We play live pretty frequently, like once every month or two, and every time we play, it's a different experience from the previous show.
Like, I call ourselves piano pop, but I don't even play piano at some of our shows. And there's four core members, but sometimes there's more or less of us, just depending on life circumstances. So we can kind of evolve and fit into those circumstances.
In comparison to the desert sunset, I think all of us really identify with the desert. We're all from here, and every sunset that you get in Arizona is different from the day before or the next day. So in that sense, every time you see Language Barrier, it'll never be the same sound twice, at least this far.
BRODIE: How do you think this place and in some sense, this vast desert in which we all live has influenced your music?
BALAGOPAL: I was actually just saying the other day that I think the desert is both oppressive and resilient, and I think that it causes a lot of creativity in our community. So I'm hoping that the oppressive heat that we're feeling right now inspires us to stay a little bit more and be creative.
But the desert is inspiring because it is really resilient. You wouldn't expect as much growth as there is here and I mean that in a couple different ways, we have Phoenix, which is, like, one of the biggest cities in the nation, coming out of this desert. But we also have a lot of green. In our own way, we have cactuses and palo verde trees. And I think it's just really amazing that there's a lot of growth in the desert. And in that way, like when I get sad, I can still get something good out of it, which is a song or two.
BRODIE: You mentioned that you don't really have any formal recordings other than what's been done in your living room or at performances. Do you expect that to change?
BALAGOPAL: I really hope so. The reason is circumstantial. I'm in grad school down in Tucson at the University of Arizona. The rest of the band lives here, so it's hard to get together, and when we do get together, it's usually because we're playing live.
BRODIE: And you're an engineering student, right?
BALAGOPAL: Yes.
BRODIE: That I mean, it's just such an interesting combination that you're a musician who obviously plays multiple instruments, you're an engineering student. I mean, is there, is there overlap between those two fields?
BALAGOPAL: I think that most people would say no, but I really believe that there is. I think for a lot of people who don't know science or engineering, they might not know how creative of a field it is. When you're an engineer, you're presented with a problem and you don't have a way to get to the solution, and there's no right answer ever. There's just multiple creative ways to get from the problem to the solution.
BRODIE: So Nirantha, can you play us one more song?
BALAGOPAL: Sure, this song is called “Fingers, Fists.”
If you’re in a band or know of one you’d like to hear on air, send us a note at [email protected].
