“It was tough, but we were prepared,” says N D Santhosh. Sitting in the green room of KM Music Conservatory, the composing team of director Raj Thiruselvan’s Lake of Fire is anything but nervous. Their training, they say, has prepared them well.
“KM has given us all we need,” A H Kaashif adds. Jerry Silvester Vincent, Isshrathquadhre, Sachin Shankor Mannath and Parag Chhabra round out the team, working for nine months in preparation for their Hollywood debut.
“We were approached by director Raj through Fathima ma’am, who selected some people from the Qutub-E-Kirpaa student musician ensemble. We began work rightaway,” Santhosh says. They’ve used voices from within the institute, as well as student lyricists. Most of them are KM alumni themselves, revisiting the institute as faculty.
The album has tested their creative abilities, and given only a brief on the overall sound that director Raj Thiruselvan has envisioned, the six composers set out to create an album that “has it all,” says Mannath. “It’s hard to summarise, but we have pop, pop-classical, retro, and more in the album,” he adds. The Hollywood twist, they say, has kept them on their toes.
“Songs in the West are structured differently,” explains Vincent. “We have a pallavi - charanam system here. There, songs include a hook line, a bridge; they’re two different worlds.” The musical grammar is just one of the hurdles they faced throughout the process.
Each of them has worked on a track, collaborating to create the background score.
“When we initially created the background score, the criticism was that it was sounding too different. There was a lot of reworking involved,” says Vincent. The team’s camaraderie is evident, and years of joint creative exploration has only brought them closer together.
They’ve scored music for TV serials, namely Ashutosh Gowariker’s Everest , short films, and regional productions. However, it’s not the same, and for all of the six young men, the experience has been challenging.
“For me, having multiple composers was difficult,” exclaims Vincent. “The decisions have always been made by Rahman sir or by me.” “Jerry was my teacher at KM,” reveals Mannath. “But it’s not like he used to call me Sir!” Vincent’s reply is met with another round of laughter. It’s this spirit that made the album a blast to put together, and the stress of a Hollywood debut, it seems, has been long forgotten.
“The process was difficult, but we were fortunate. We were given the best musicians, the best studio. We just had to match the Hollywood sound, and we’ve tried our best,” says Santhosh. A cursory glance at the tracklist shows us why. A track with vocals by Arjun Chandy and the inclusion of the Sunshine Orchestra are just some of the touches of founder-mentor AR Rahman that have resonated with the group.
“We’ve tried to take what we’ve learnt from AR Sir and make an album that he will be proud of,” Santhosh says.
