Ask him why he is no longer a part of Thaikkudam Bridge and Siddharth Menon corrects you: “Hey, I am on a break. They [Thaikkudam Bridge] are family. It is just that I wanted to explore myself as an artiste and collaborate with other musicians. ”
Siddharth chose to go solo in February to pursue his musical dreams. “I have always
wanted to be a playback singer. Working with Thaikkudam Bridge changed my priorities. For the past several years, we were all working towards making it bigger and better. It has been a wonderful journey. Meanwhile, acting happened in between and I was also getting opportunities to do playback singing [most memorably, Thumbi Penne in Bangalore Days ]. I had to make a choice between the band and my ambition. It was the band members themselves who encouraged me to try out new things. It was a tough decision to leave the band, but then they will always welcome me back with open arms,” he says, with a smile.
Musically yours
Siddharth has already kicked off his solo project, Sidson Diaries. No prizes for guessing that Sidson was coined from his name.
“It was Sumesh Lal sir, creative director of Aum-i Artistes, who baptised the project. Under the project, I will sing my own songs, both original compositions and covers. Accompanying artistes might keep changing,” he says.
Sidson Diaries will be heard this weekend on Kappa TV. Of the six songs that will be telecast, four are original tracks composed by Vipin Lal, Anoop Nirichan, Sai Prakash and Govind Menon.
“Through Sidson Diaries I also want to perform my songs that weren’t noticed much. For example, songs from Vegam, Haram, North 24 Kaatham...”
He also plans to collaborate with other musicians. “Recently I did a show with DJ Savio in Dubai. It was a new experience for me and quite challenging as well. I want to experiment to improve myself as a musician.”
He also wants to move ahead with his acting career. Although his debut film, Rockstar , directed by VK Prakash, didn’t have a rocking time at the box office, offers are coming in. He will soon start shooting for a prestigious project that he is tight-lipped about.
“Working in Rockstar was quite interesting and I have already been approached for a few other projects. But singing is always my priority,” he says.
Reality bytes
Siddharth’s roots are in Thrissur. He was born and brought up in Mumbai. He was a member of the band Nirmitee, that won legions of fans through the reality show X Factor India on Sony TV. He debuted as a playback singer in North 24 Kaatham , which had Govind Menon, his first cousin, as the composer. Later, Govind and Siddharth got together with their friends to form Thaikkudam Bridge.
Watch Siddharth and his friends perform in Music Mojo on Kappa TV on April 23, 9 pm
