SeptemberFest Set To Rock

Every Sunday morning, Siddhartha Khosla would wake up in his childhood bedroom with knots in his stomach.

He suffered from a mean case of stage fright.

“I started singing when I was 7 years old,” Mr. Khosla recalled during a telephone interview last week. “My mom used to make me sing in front of 150 people at our Hindu temple, and that was kind of scary. I did not like it.”

Nearly 30 years later, Mr. Khosla is over the fear. That’s good news for his nerves, as he’ll be performing—with his indie band Goldspot—for a considerably larger crowd on Saturday, September 29, during Southampton Village’s second annual SeptemberFest in Agawam Park.

“This is totally random and exciting,” the 35-year-old frontman and songwriter said of playing the festival. “I think I’ve been to the Hamptons once in my life and it was beautiful. And I’m looking forward to going back.”

Joining Goldspot on stage on Saturday will be headliner Rhett Miller & The Serial Lady Killers, as well as Miles to Dayton and local groups Project Vibe and Montauk Project, according to James Egan, the festival’s marketing and promotions consultant.

But first, the two-day festival will kick off on Friday night, September 28, with a party featuring music by New Life Crisis, followed by a free day of music, food, wine, art and history throughout the village on Saturday, Mr. Egan said.

“Last year, we had thousands of people. It was like a Fourth of July weekend,” he said during a telephone interview last week. “If we get good weather, we think it will outdo last year. It’s really a traditional harvest festival, just updated a little bit to have broader appeal.”

The park, which will host not only the “Concert in the Park” performances, but also a local clam chowder contest, isn’t the only festival hot spot. The streets will be abuzz with action—from street music performances all over the village by Nick Kerzner, Jim Turner, Leah Laurenti and Charles Certain, to name a few, to children’s crafts, hayrides and the Maniac Pumpkin Carvers.

SeptemberFest is right up Brian Kroll’s alley, he said. The Babylon High School chorus teacher is a harvest festival frequenter, and it was at the Pindar Harvest Festival in Peconic three years ago where he sealed his musical fate with folk-rock Long Island band Miles to Dayton.

“I had gone to see them there and they were on stage without a drummer, so I basically approached them at the show,” he recalled during a telephone interview last week, noting he’s played drums since age 10. “I’d always been drawn to the band. I saw them for the first time in 2007 at the Sayville Fall Festival. I just really dug the style. I really dug how the band didn’t have a specific music identity. That it was, and continues to be, about making good music. I was a fan first, drummer second.”

The band’s set list is unwritten, but it will likely lean toward their latest release, “Pass It On,” Mr. Kroll reported. Lately, the band has also been toying with improvisational exploration on stage, as well as unique covers.

“When we do a cover, we’re not trying to play it note for note,” he said. “In fact, we won’t do a cover if that’s the only way it can be done. There’s a lot of contemporary style in what we do, but our nature is rooted in Americana singer-songwriter folk, if you had to give it a name, which I don’t like doing. Miles to Dayton is Miles to Dayton.”

Mr. Khosla doesn’t particularly care for definitions either, he said. His sound is whatever naturally comes out, he reported, though he’s often been described as George Harrison meets an old film made in India, he continued.

“My parents, when they came from India to the U.S., they brought over all their old mix taps from India,” he said. “I grew up listening to all that music. They taught me how to sing and defined the way I look at music and melody, but I’m also a product of the West. I grew up listening to bands like the Beatles and REM.”

Classic 1960s songwriters heavily influenced “Rewind,” a song about regrets in the world of love and one of Goldspot’s biggest hits from the band’s first album, “Tally of the Yes Man.” In 2009, it was featured on the CBS sitcom, “How I Met Your Mother.”

Mr. Khosla said he anticipates playing it at SeptemberFest, but plans on mostly debuting new material from the band’s third studio album, which will drop sometime next year. It’s his best work yet, he said.

“There’s definitely been a turn, and I think it’s for the best,” he laughed. “Conceptually, its about my parents’ journey to the United States and so the album is a throwback in many ways. Back in the day, artists made concept records, and that’s what this is. It’s a real concept album, not about individual songs or singles. Musically, I think it’s a little bit more upbeat. I think people can dance to some of these tracks. I definitely dig deeper into my Indian roots.”

A first-generation Indian American, Mr. Khosla was born in Connecticut after his parents moved to the United States in the late 1970s with, literally, $8 between them, he said. While attending college and working full-time jobs, raising a newborn was too much, he said, so they sent 2-year-old Mr. Khosla back to India to live with his extended family for a few years.

“A lot of this record is about what I remember of that time and what people have told me about that time,” he said. “I was also inspired by reading. My dad has been writing a book and it’s all these vignettes and amazing and funny stories of what they went through. I’m remembering some of my childhood.”

SeptemberFest will kick off with a party featuring music by New Life Crisis on Friday, September 28, at 6:30 p.m. in Agawam Park in Southampton Village. Advance tickets are $25, or $35 at the site, and include complimentary wine and beer until 7:30 p.m. The harvest festival continues on Saturday, September 29, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with live music and entertainment, a farmers’ market, chowder contest and more throughout Southampton Village. The “Concert in the Park” performances will be held from noon to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Agawam Park. Admission is free. For a complete schedule, visit southamptonseptemberfest.com.