It’s been four-and-half years since the music band Masala Coffee burst into the indie music scene. Several shows, a music video and a few film projects later, the band is ready with its first album, ‘Kimaya’. The first song from the album will be released today evening (November 1) on YouTube.
“It is a 10-song album with tracks in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. Most of the songs fall in the contemporary Indian folk genre,” says Varun Sunil, lead percussionist and founder of the band. ‘Kimaya’, Varun says, stands for divine. “It is also the name of our guitarist, David Crimson’s daughter,” he adds.
‘Arivaal’, the first song that will be out today, has been written by Vinayak Sasikumar. “It is essentially about arivaal [sickle]. It celebrates the common man and the power of the sickle,” says Vinayak. Sooraj Santhosh, lead vocalist of the band, has crooned the number. The video, featuring the eight-member band, was shot by Papaya Media across Kochi.
Some songs in the album are new versions of the band’s original compositions featured mainly in the show Music Mojo on Kappa TV. There is an EDM version of their huge hit, ‘Kaantha’ and fresh takes on the songs ‘Vadakkapaattu’ and ‘Odi odi’. There is also a “Masala Coffee” version of the evergreen number, ‘Kuttanadan punchayile’.
For the Hindi belt
The highlight of the album, Varun says, is that it has five Hindi songs. “We want a wider reach for the album and so Hindi songs have been included for the north Indian market. A travel song, ‘Safar’, has been shot across South India. Then there is a new version of our track, ‘Once upon a time in Punjab’”.
Videos have been shot for five songs and they are planning to launch the full album by December. “People might wonder why it took so long for us to bring out our first album. When we started, we were confused about the whole scenario. It would not have worked if we had launched an album then. So we did a few covers and originals so that people got familiar with our music,” Varun says.
The band has done a music video (‘Aalaayal thara venam’), composed for the films Hello Namaste (promo song), Solo and Uriyadi and sang in Kunjiramayanam . They are now composing for Dulquer Salmaan’s Tamil movie Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithal and a Kannada film.
The line-up
Masala Coffee has Sooraj Santhosh (vocals), Varun Sunil (percussion/vocals), Daya Sankar (drums), Preeth PS (guitars), David Crimson (guitars), Pauly (bass), Kenneth Gerald (keyboard) and Krishna Raj. Esraj artiste Arshad Khan also performs with the band.
