‘Ennamo Edho', a peppy, coming-of-age song, from “Ko” became viral even before the movie's official audio launch. And, it has two relatively new voices — Alaap Raju and Sricharan.
With yesteryear Malayalam playback singer for a grandmother and a composer father, it was a surprise that Alaap's first calling was cricket. “I was very sure I wanted to be a cricketer,” he says. “But, when I joined college, my life changed. I was exposed to many things through my friends — music, culturals… I started as a singer in MCC's cultural event Deep Woods in 1998, where I also filled in as a bass guitarist.”
Where the heart is...
His love for bass guitar flourished and singing took a back seat. “I knew I could sing, but I was completely into bass guitar. I loved the instrument and learnt it by myself. When I finished my MCA, I got an IT job, but kept on my music. Eventually, I quit it to pursue music,” he says.
“Even before I started working on ‘Ko', Harris knew me as a bass guitarist. I've known him since ‘Ayan' days. I had sent a demo of my singing and bass guitaring. He got back saying my voice texture would work for a song in his new film. The best thing about him is his patience. He knows how to extract the best out of a singer.”
Alaap was introduced to Rahul Nambiar when he was doing his MCA. The two hit it off well, and are currently working on ‘Rahlaap', a Hindi album. “We share a passion for music, and wondered why we shouldn't do something about it. During a jamming session, we came up with a few tunes we thought would work, and began working on the album. Since Rahul and I are both comfortable in Hindi and we wanted the album to reach out to a larger audience, we decided it would be completely in that language. The album, already been released online, will have an official launch the end of this month,” he says.
Rapper Sricharan, who has carved a niche for himself in the industry, began his career with advertising. “I was doing jingles, and I would show people how to sing. They would like it better than their version, and make me sing. My wife then sent a demo of mine to a few music directors, and that's how I entered the industry,” he says.
After working on rap sequences in ‘Supernova' for “Ayan” and ‘Eno Eno Panithuli' for “Aadhavan”, he became a full-fledged rapper in the industry. “Rap is all about rhythm and poetry. Nowadays, songs have begun to focus on beats rather than rhythm, which is why rap and similar genres are gaining popularity,” he says.
Sricharan, who pens lyrics and composes tunes, says he takes everything into consideration before he begins to write. “I try to understand the mood, the scenes that come before and after the rap, and what the director wants me to convey through the song. The lyrics have to blend well with the rest of the song and the movie.”
About working with Harris Jayaraj for “Ko”, he says: “I just fit into his song and delivered what he wanted, and the song came out perfectly.”
