SU freshman singer Padma embraces indie genre with emotive lyrics, performances
Courtesy of Maurisa McKay and Rashelle Palmer
Padma began producing her own music during the pandemic when she had ample free time and now, uses it as a means of self expression.
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In a small cafe in Framingham, Massachusetts, open mic nights inspired Padma Mynampaty’s love of music. Every time Centre Music House, a local music school, would partner with B Sisters Cafe to host the open mic night, Padma would make an effort to go.
“It’s such a cool environment to be surrounded by other artists, because that’s something I’ve just haven’t been exposed to for a lot of my life,” Padma said.
Mynampaty, who goes by the artist name Padma, has stepped into the campus music scene in her first semester at SU. As a freshman in the Bandier Program, she uses the skills she learns in class and lectures to write and produce her own music. Since she began making music during the pandemic, Padma’s embraced the indie pop genre and released several singles, and is releasing an EP, “Daisy,” next week.
Since attending the open mic nights, she’s made an effort to seek out and develop that same community of musicians and artists while at Syracuse University. Between her studies in the Bandier Program and the concerts she performs with her band, Mynampaty now has more exposure to that artistic environment.
When she decided she wanted to take the stage as a performer, Padma knew she would need to decide on a stage name. For her, though, the question didn’t require much thought.
“I thought it’d be cool to just go by one name, be one of those artists, like a Beyoncé or Cher kind of thing,” Padma said.
Before writing and performing her own music, Padma started out like many other musicians by playing covers. She often turned to Coldplay tracks, and “Vienna” by Billy Joel, a song that her father first introduced to her.
During her freshman year of high school, Padma decided it was time to try her hand at writing her own music. Using her guitar, which she’d been learning to play since she was eight years old, Padma set to work on her discography.
“I’ve kind of been performing my whole life, and always writing poems or little phrases down since as long as I can remember,” Padma said. “I was just like, ‘I might as well try this out because I’ve been performing other people’s songs.’”
When quarantine left Padma with an influx of free time, she took it upon herself to learn the production side of music. She downloaded Logic Pro, a music recording and production software, and began producing her tracks. By combining her lyrics and guitar with bass, ukulele and piano, she mixed and mastered parts of her catalog to get them ready for release.
Since then, Padma has started performing concerts and house shows in the campus area. She reached out to friends and other students in the Bandier Program and found four musicians to form the rest of her band.
Padma’s listeners — both live and listening to recordings — comment on her lyricism. For Romy Van Almen, a freshman in the Bandier Program and the bass player in Padma’s band, a strength of Padma’s music is the depth and storytelling ability in each song.
“She’s such a great writer, and she can create such a beautiful song based off of some random thing that happened to her,” Van Almen said.
When Padma was looking for a drummer, she was referred to Giulianna Iapalucci, a sophomore sound recording technology student. After the two started talking, Iapalucci began drumming in Padma’s band for local shows. Similar to Padma, Iapalucci is grateful for the opportunity to perform in a fun and accepting environment.
“It’s not like other bands, where I walk in and it feels like work, work work,” Lapalucci said. “I walk in, and it’s fun, but we still are productive. We just all get each other and share ideas and Padma’s always willing to hear them and work with them.”
Padma’s first performance was at a recital in September, but since then, she’s performed at venues like the Westcott Theatre and The Garden. Padma also took to the screen, taping performances for Loud and Clear, a student-run video production group through Orange Television Network.
Beyond the newfound opportunities to perform, though, the band has allowed Padma to perform in a fun and comfortable environment alongside good friends. The most special thing for Padma about performing, though, is the audience. Seeing how her music is able to impact and move an audience shows her that her music means something to others, like it does to her.
“I had the show before break at The Garden, and people were singing every lyric to one of my songs, not even just the hook but all the verses and everything,” Padma said. “That was super super sweet, just hearing other people sing words that I wrote in my bedroom back in (Massachusetts).”
To Padma, the most significant part of her music is how she can use it to reflect on and chronicle her life. Her songs and lyrics are a way for her to look back on her own experiences and share them with others who could have something in common.
“It’s everything to me because I can put how I’m feeling in a three minute song, and then maybe someone else has felt the same way,” Padma said. “So they listen to it, and that becomes part of their life as well.”
Published on December 5, 2022 at 11:11 pm
Contact Abby: avpresso@syr.edu | @abbyvp08
