What made you fall in love with music ?
When I was a little kid , my younger sister fell seriously ill , and it was a scary time for my parents . They did everything in their power to make her feel better , at one such instance they bought her this giant doll , and just so I wouldn ’ t ’ t feel too left out , they got me a tiny red toy keyboard . My grandmother would come over and teach me to play simple things like ‘ Mary had a little lamb ’ and apparently , I picked up tunes really quick and kept asking for more and that led to formal music lessons , singing in the choir , stage performances etc . There wasn ’ t ’ t an actual moment when I fell in love with music , more like it was just an inherent part of me , almost like breathing , and the influence / impact music had on me just kept snowballing until I decided to pursue it professionally !
Who / what inspired you to start making your own music ?
Nobody , but I did it anyway , hahaha ! I used to write silly poems as a kid , and moody verses as a teenager . I was also studying classical piano and singing in various choirs . At some point it must ’ ve occurred to me that nobody really reads poetry anymore , so my musical education & verse writing just sort of became a single creative outlet . Making music & writing songs has always been about expressing myself , even before it turned into my profession .
Can you describe the kind of music you create ? What is your creative process like ?
There is this beautiful quote by one of my favourite poets William Wordsworth - ‘ poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion ’. Well , that ’ s the kind of music I create , it ’ s pure emotional catharsis for me , whether I ’ m happy , sad or having an existential crisis ! All of the songs on ‘ Flavors ’ are deeply personal and resonate with different stages in my life .
Tell us about your debut solo album , Flavors ?
You get a little bit of everything , that ’ s partly why we called it ‘ Flavors ’ ! If you listen to the album , you will realise that no two songs sound the same . Each song has its own vibe , genre & mood . All my lyrics are based on events / people in my life , mostly about falling in & out of love , though I don ’ t do any actual namedropping , haha ! Musically , we ’ ve covered everything from blues to electro funk pop . It ’ s an album we are extremely proud of !
In this day and age , a lot of artists are choosing to just release singles , what made you choose the album route ?
We did oscillate between releasing them as singles or as an album , and I have released independent singles earlier , both in Tamil & in English . But there ’ s something definitive about putting an album out there , it ’ s like telling a story- You want to tell the whole story , not just parts of it . It ’ s also like ticking items off my list- release an album , done ! Now it ’ s time to get cracking on the next one !
Did you enjoy the entire album-making process ? Can we expect more albums from you in the future ?
To be honest , this album kind of made itself . I have a song bank that is enough to fill three albums , we just had to wade through it all and pick the ones that sounded right together . And yes , I ’ m definitely going to be working on more albums in the future , I don ’ t yet know what it ’ s going to be about , but I guess that ’ s the exciting thing about making music , to keep trying new things .
Tell us more about how that album came to be .
To be honest , I have to thank the lockdown for making this album happen , that ’ s why I call this album a lovechild of the lockdown ! I have been writing songs for years , we ’ ve jammed on them , even performed them at a few live gigs , but if it weren ’ t ’ t for the lockdown , my band wouldn ’ t have had the time to record , they are extremely busy session artists . So when the lockdown happened , I was like- this is the best time to do this ! Everyone recorded their parts at their respective home studios , and as soon as the curfew was lifted , I went to the studio and did my vocals . Then lockdown 2 happened , which was a boon again because we had so much time to tweak the mixes , re-record some bits , and just get the whole album to where it ’ s at now ! I ’ m forever grateful to my band , or my ‘ Co-creators ’ as I call them , because none of this would ’ ve been possible without them .
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