Glasgow Q&A: Kapil Seshasayee
Glasgow-based musical polymath Kapil Seshasayee shares some of his favourite things about the city
Where’s your favourite place in Glasgow?
We're spoilt for choice here so it's a tough call, but I'll go for The 13th Note. Excellent pub scran and an iconic venue downstairs. My favourite show that I've ever put on was in there: New York singer Shilpa Ray in 2017. The last time she'd played Scotland she was opening for Nick Cave in a much larger venue so this show was packed to the rafters and my now-wife was one of the supporting acts. A night that's gonna stick with me for sure.
How important is community where you live? How do you connect with the local community?
There's a lot of really pivotal community activity nucleated around another iconic venue, The Glad Cafe. I connected with the community not long after moving [to the Southside] by taking part in the Glad:Online project with local artist Greer Pester. We worked on a short documentary illuminating the efforts of community music workshops facilitated for non-able-bodied musicians and how these workshops have moved online since the pandemic. Sitting in on those online sessions was so inspiring.
How has the Glasgow music scene influenced you?
I promoted in Glasgow heavily between 2014 and 2019 and I've been back at a good few local shows since restrictions have eased a bit – Glasgow music past and present is always something that I look to for inspiration. The importance of a good live show is really important to me and that came off the back of seeing Glasgow bands like Thin Privilege and wanting to achieve the sort of energy they had onstage – I liked them so much that I absorbed half of that band into my current creative team!
What band/musician from Glasgow are you loving right now?
I'm really into Rev Magentic just now, which is the current project of Luke Sutherland who was in Long Fin Killie, one of my favourite Scottish bands. He's also on a few Mogwai classics.
What makes Glasgow unique?
For how small the city centre is, it's an intersection of so many different kinds of people who can all coexist in a way that I think few other places can manage. I grew up here and yet I'm always discovering new things 30+ years in – I'm having fun exploring the Southside having never visited.
What are you working on right now?
I'm working on my second album Laal – a concept album about the influence of Bollywood cinema. Expect that out in early 2022.
Kapil Seshasayee will be performing as part of The Dalmar Chorus at Common Ground Fest, QMU, 6 Nov, 4-10pm, free – register here