Artist Session #18 - Spryk (IND) Unveils Afterglow: A New Chapter in Audiovisual Innovation

By Akriti

Contributor: Shashwat Hota

For over six years now, I’ve followed Spryk’s journey as he’s blurred the lines between sound and sight, beginning with my very first piece on his audiovisual project, ‘Strange Movements’ in 2017, coincidentally which is also where I met Srishti as my editor.  Back then, watching him fuse sound with live visuals felt like a glimpse into something transformative. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing his AV sets and witnessing the infectious energy of his DJ sets. Spryk’s latest project, Afterglow, doesn't just show his technical prowess; it highlights a deeper emotional evolution, refining his voice while staying rooted in his beginnings. I’m of the firm belief that as artists, we grow not only by honing our craft but by embracing nuance which helps us grow as people first. Tejas has done just that, shaping Afterglow into an intimate, immersive experience that balances innovation with introspection.

Tejas Nair, better known as Spryk, is a Mumbai-based new media artist whose work pushes the boundaries of sound, visual art, and immersive storytelling. His interdisciplinary approach, blending electronic music with real-time generative visuals, has set him apart in India’s art and music scene. Over the years, he’s been a driving force in collectives like Eyemyth and Skip-A-Beat, nurturing community-driven art that fuses local culture with global electronic influences. With Afterglow, his latest EP, Spryk continues this evolution—crafting soundscapes that feel deeply personal yet futuristic, an exploration of how technology can amplify human emotion.

In our conversation with Spryk, he opened up about the deeply personal journey behind this EP and the creative milestones that shaped it. We delve into his early days discovering Indian classical music through tabla lessons, which sparked his fascination with rhythm and sound. That journey eventually led him into electronic music production, fueled by an early curiosity about technology and digital storytelling. For Afterglow, he shared how he wanted to merge the precision of tech with the warmth of human emotion—crafting intimate, expansive sounds using tools like voice synthesis, sample manipulation, and generative visuals that respond to real-time music inputs. Reflecting on his work with community-driven collectives like Eyemyth and HDMI Parivaar, Spryk highlighted the importance of India’s cultural landscape in shaping his art. Afterglow feels like a natural evolution, blending traditional influences with a futuristic aesthetic that resonates locally and globally. Please read through our conversation and get a glimpse into his approach to merging sound and visuals, the impact of community on his art, and his vision for India’s creative future.

Akriti: What are some of your earliest and most cherished memories of music? How did you get into electronic music production and audiovisual arts?

Tejas Nair: My earliest memories of music are closely tied to radio, cassette tapes and the sounds that would fill our home. My first introduction was Indian classical music through learning the Tabla for over 8 years. The study of rhythm led me down a rabbit hole of various styles of music, and that blend of genres shaped my tastes from an early age. I remember being mesmerized at a cousin's home when I first discovered Limewire and found a whole new universe of music. That moment of discovering P2P sharing over the internet planted the seeds for many of my creative explorations.

Electronic music came into my life a bit later, though it was almost inevitable given how deeply I was drawn to music, technology and art all through school and college. I started by experimenting with free softwares on an old computer in school. Around the 8th grade in high school, I got a second-hand laptop and downloaded Fruity Loops to start messing around with DAWs and synthesizers. Over the years, I spent a lot of time learning DJing, messing about with video and images, and taught myself some really basic graphic design tools. I was always fascinated by new software coming out at the time, and what really captured me was the idea of crafting entire worlds out of sounds, creating immersive experiences that went beyond music and merged with visuals. That’s when I knew I wanted to dig deeper into the audiovisual space—it felt like a natural evolution of my love for storytelling through different mediums.

Akriti: In Afterglow, how do you integrate the technological elements central to your work with the human, emotional experience of sound? Are there specific tools or techniques you used this time that helped push that boundary further?

Tejas: With Afterglow, I wanted to bridge that gap between technology and emotion in a way that felt organic, almost like a dialogue between the two. Electronic music can sometimes feel cold or detached, but I’ve always believed that technology, when used correctly, can amplify the emotional core of sound rather than dilute it. For this EP, I spent a lot of time experimenting with voice synthesis, sample manipulation and pitch processing to create sounds that feel intimate and expansive simultaneously.

One specific tool that helped push these boundaries was generative visuals that responded to real-time musical and audio inputs. This allowed me to create a live, evolving connection between the visual and sonic landscapes, especially in the live AV performances. This symbiosis is a key part of my creative process, and with Afterglow, I was able to refine it further—melding human emotion with a digital aesthetic to create something that feels both futuristic and deeply personal.

Akriti: Your 2020 album APEX was lauded for its profound exploration of music, technology, and humanity. How has your understanding of this relationship evolved in Afterglow, and what new approaches have you brought to this EP compared to your previous work?

Tejas: With APEX, I was deeply focused on exploring the intersection of the organic and the digital—how technology could mirror or enhance the human experience. I saw it as a journey of discovery, figuring out how those worlds collide. After APEX, I spent time reflecting on what it means to communicate more directly through sound, stripping away some of the more conceptual layers and focusing on connection and storytelling.

In Afterglow, I wanted to push that further by being more intentional about creating spaces that felt intimate and meditative yet still futuristic. I think I’ve also become more attuned to the nuances of sound design and how even the smallest choices can have a huge emotional impact. Compared to APEX, there’s a more refined sense of balance between intensity and softness in Afterglow—it feels like a more mature exploration of that relationship between technology and humanity. In essence, I wrote Afterglow as a show rather than an EP. I wrote the music for the performance first and then kind of extracted music from the show that I felt would work well as a purely listening experience. I also used analogue tools a lot more this time, allowing more fluid, unpredictable elements to seep into the music, which I feel added to the emotional depth of the tracks.

Akriti: As someone deeply rooted in the Indian electronic music scene and involved with projects like Eyemyth, Skip-a-beat and HDMI Parivaar, how does the cultural and community landscape around you shape the narrative of Afterglow?

Tejas: The cultural landscape in India, especially the underground scene, has always been a huge inspiration for me. Building and being a part of collectives like Skip-a-beat, EyeMyth festival, HDMI Parivaar, and Madras Medai in the past has really opened my eyes to the power of community-driven art and dialogue. There’s a sense of shared ownership in these spaces, where we’re all pushing boundaries together, creating new narratives that fuse traditional Indian cultural elements with contemporary electronic sounds.

With Afterglow, I felt the need to reflect on my experience of living in and navigating this constantly evolving cultural space. The EP is very much a product of this dialogue—between tradition and modernity, individual and community. Everything I make is heavily influenced by conversations I have with my peers and friends and learnings from these community spaces.

Shashwat: Being at the forefront of artistic mergers incorporating cultural nuances, like your work reimagining Mumbai as a utopian city of the future, where do you feel India stands in presenting ideas in such grandiosity while staying true to its roots? What needs to be done to strengthen its progress?

Tejas: India is such a rich canvas for reimagining futures because it’s a place where the past, present, and future collide in fascinating ways. There’s an incredible amount of creativity and innovation happening in the Indian music and arts scene, and we’re starting to see more artists push boundaries in ways that feel both global and deeply rooted in local culture. A lot of my work through festivals, collaborative projects, and cultural programming has been focused on this emerging scene. That being said, there’s still room to grow when it comes to infrastructural support, especially in terms of nurturing the arts and providing platforms for this kind of work.

To strengthen this progress, I think there needs to be a more sustained effort to build networks that can support artists not just in major cities but across India. We also need more cross-disciplinary collaboration between tech, art, and cultural preservation to ensure we’re telling stories that honour our roots while looking forward. A large part of my efforts to build towards this has been in my touring effort to self-produce the shows. This way, my team and I have 100% control for the most part in terms of the people we bring on board and how we do things. It’s a high-risk, high-reward way of doing things, and I enjoy it a lot more.

Akriti: In your AV live performances, the interplay between visuals and physical space is key. How do you envision this balance translating into the listener’s experience of Afterglow, particularly for those who may first encounter it on Spotify or Apple Music?

Tejas: For me, the visual element of my shows has always been about expanding the narrative of the music, giving it a dimension that can’t be fully captured by sound alone. However, when people listen to Afterglow on platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, I hope that the music can evoke versions of those visual and spatial elements in their minds. Even without the physical space or live visuals, the goal is for listeners to feel like they’re being transported into another world, where the music can create vivid mental imagery and emotional landscapes. Ideally, the music can conjure up the same sense of movement and depth that people experience during AV shows.

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Hivewire is an independent music industry publication launched in June 2023 by Srishti Das and supported by Akriti, Shashwat Hota and Yatin Srivastava. This dynamic newsletter offers a unique perspective on the music industry, focusing on emerging markets and the rapidly growing music cultures gradually making their mark globally.