SRIRAM RAVISHANKAR a week’ s time, I get a call that I have to come to Mysore because I have won a prize. I thought I had won just an appreciation prize, but to my surprise, I had won first! That was the first point which started making me believe in myself that I can do music! I thought being in a bigger city would help me do more music, so I shifted to Mysore to join Ram Krishna Vidya Shala for high school. That was the place that really shaped my musical tastes.. A monk in that school used to punish me whenever I did any mistake by making me listen to music and do a 100 push ups. What a punishment! That was where I was exposed to a lot of fusion music by artists like Zakir Hussain, Yanni, etc. from the huge collection of music in the library. It was during this time that I also bought a keyboard and started meddling with all the tunes I had heard to, on the keyboard along with the other instruments I had access to,” Raj went on, as he was remembering and simultaneously being reminded of how all these experiences have melted into his personalty and music today.
He continued saying,“ Like any rebellious teen, I lost interest in music thinking all musicians die poor! So, I thought I will become an engineer. I gradually lost interest in all the subjects as they interested me lesser day by day! It was al about marks! Music came back to me as my escape. During my college days, I had a great gang of friends! That is where everything happened! It was like a rock n roll phase! That was the time I was exposed to a lot of bands- rock, metal, pop, popular music, electronic music, and what not! But whenever we attended inter-collegiate festivals to compete, I always hated the idea of covering songs and I always liked doing my own songs. Thats where my journey of composing started with my friend Job Kurien. From there on, I worked as a programmer for people like Prashanth Pillai, Ricky Kej doing albums, ads, and my own independent projects with Job and others. The first movie I scored the music for as an independent composer was this movie called
Harivu. Later on for Mandya to Mumbai and finally the big one Godhi Banna Sadharna Mykattu,” as his infectiously innocent smile spread across his face. His most recent release Pushpaka Vimana, is probably his best work yet!
Raj’ s works not only speak loudly of his influences as an independent musician, but also gives an insight into the depths of his personality, ideologies, and moralities as a musician. With his music, he is bringing new sounds to Kannada film music and largely altering the sensibilities of his audiences by pushing their boundaries of acceptance of what a“ typical Kannada film song” should sounds like. He has this ability to effortlessly fuse his melodies around the sounds that he wants to bring and the sounds that the narrative demands in a way that he paints a colourful soundscape in the minds of his listeners. He blends together sounds that his audiences are already aware of and cautiously but cleverly underlines his own sounds in a way that the listener readily embraces his music.
Raj’ s music doesn’ t have the usual formulas or signature sounds of what is usually termed to be a typical“ Kannada film song”. There are no loud drums, no typical regional grooves, no cliched lyrics, no sexy sounding chorus singing hook lines, stereotypical formulas, not even the usual biggies who can lend their stardom! It is his talent of being such a good melodist that keeps one hooked onto his music. There is probably a lot of resistance when you first listen to his music perhaps because you are in such disbelief of what you are listening to; but later on, his music grows on you- similar to how you would react to a Rahman song. It is his humility, child-like curiosity, and a vastly open mind that makes him stand out so prominently amongst his contemporaries.“ Music is a collaborative process. I wish to bring back many of the practices that were prevalent during the earlier times of film music and hopefully some of that charm too in my music,” he chuckles. Each of his piece echoes the honesty and purity of his intention with which he scores the melody for each of his song.
At the core, Raj is an ardent devotee of Carnatic music. He is inherently biased towards classical music in general, be it Indian or Western. It is around this core that his diverse range of influences from rock, electronic, pop, jazz, blues, soul, world music, RnB, folk, Hip Hop, dubstep, experimental to choral and orchestral music layer on top of each other making his identity as a composer so strong and well defined.
The Score Magazine
Photo Credits: Ananth Kamath www. thescoremagazine. com
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