​An online guided listening session: 10% talk, 90% music

​Come discover some fun new tunes, hang out with a nice community, and just lose yourself in some excellent music. In these sessions, I take you through some of my favourite songs (usually some shade of rock / metal), accompanied by some trivia and bad jokes.

​What this particular session is all about

​"Hey wow, {this_famous_artist} also has a song like THIS?!"

​I love finding deep cuts, and a band going slightly outside their perceived style. Maybe even showing that a one-hit wonder had a second (if slightly obscure) song!

​This session is all about that. Underrated songs from artists who you know and love. All of which are in my favourites folder. You will love some, question some, but you will certainly be surprised!

​PS: No, registration is not mandatory - I will be sharing the Zoom link on our Announcement community anyway on the day. This is just for convenience / calendar adding, putting event details in one place, etc. I'm not going to harvest or sell your data.

​How it works

​When the session starts (31 Oct, 6PM IST), open the Zoom link. Yes, Zoom. That one. Don't worry, it'll be the most fun you've used the damn platform for. Keep a streaming service of your choice open: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube. Chuck will give 2-3 minutes of banter / intro to the song, and then give you the link for the upcoming song on all these platforms. Click whichever works for you, enjoy. Reconvene at the end of each song. Repeat.

​(Spotify Jam is too inconvenient and platform-specific; and running music through Zoom degrades audio quality. The above format - while a bit inconvenient - offers the best experience. Promise).

​Recommended: Use laptop. When Zoom & streaming are used from a mobile device together, the audio doesn't work very well.

​Tip: The chat is normally full of good banter. There's music reco, community vibes and (often) roasting the poor host. If you like, you can participate. If you find it distracting, hide the chat. Whatever bloats your foat.

​About the host

​Deepak 'Chuck' Gopalakrishnan loves introducing people to new music they'll hopefully love. He's a fan of most forms of guitar music: Metallica, Pink Floyd, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, The Beatles and Oasis probably are his top artists. He loves the diversity of Indian rock and metal. He overthinks about how technology impacts culture (especially music) and often pontificates on it to his poor Substack subscribers. He co-runs a marketing consultancy, two programs aimed at Indian millennials to improve their relationship with themselves, and a whole bunch of creative projects. He has the waveforms of his five favourite songs - and yes, there is an excel stretching to 50 - tattooed on himself. He never knows when to stop when writing about himself in the third person.

​Say hi on Instagram.

​This is my song-a-day announcement community on WhatsApp.

​Past listening sessions

​I ran several listening sessions during the pandemic and they kept some of us - mostly me - sane. Now, by popular demand - mostly me - these sessions are back! I ran one on 17 Oct and it was, dare I say, well-received. The theme was just songs I was obsessed with of late. The playlists for those are below.

​Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2kk8kSWB8JFvBzokfKNWxa?si=9099aa37e9a543c7

​YouTube: Watch on YouTube