The Madras Tunes' H.O. is a little 10x6 room converted into a modest studio. About 20 A.R. Rahmans are plastered on the wall, and to my questioning look, Karthikeya Murthy, the composer and lead vocalist of Madras Tunes clarifies, “Not that I am not a fan of Ilaiyaraja, but A.R. Rahman is my inspiration, my idol.”
The beginning
“Madras Tunes is a musical story,” Karthik says, “that began in the summer of 2001. We were a bunch of high school kids and this was just a new way we figured to wreak havoc in a peaceful suburban neighbourhood — by playing music at full blast, morning, noon and night.”
When they evolved into a band (they called themselves the ‘Pro-teens' first, and the Madras Tunes, later), they performed at several inter-school and inter-collegiate programmes. Their big break came in 2007, when they won the band hunt show titled “Ooh La LaLa” on a popular Tamil TV Channel. “Rahman sir was the judge, and it was a sublime experience to be adjudged by him as the winners. We then went on to record an album at the A.M. Studios produced by the Sa Re Ga Ma” Karthik says.
From a band that performs live, Madras Tunes grew into a three-member team that started scoring for plays, advertisements, short films, tele-films, documentaries and dance ensembles including a folk dance work by Dance Maestro Dhananjayan.While Karthikeya Murthy composed and sang, J Vijay handled the synthesisers and Srihari, the percussion department.
The band has worked with session artists and popular playback singers like S.P. Balasubramaniam, S.P.B. Charan, Neil Mukherjee to name a few. The next big break was the music score they did for OruKoodaiPaasam — a theatre work by the legendary director K. Balachander in 2009. Post OKP we scored for Animal Instincts, a contemporary dance drama that still runs to house-full shows” adds Karthik.
On a roll
One of their more recent scores was for a short-film on the plight of Tamil fishermen called ThuvandhaYuddham directed by Ashoke Kumar. The short film was selected for screening at the Norway Film Festival and went on to win several awards locally too.
When I enquire about projects in the pipeline, Karthikeya Murthy's mien acquires a serious expression. “Some articles that I read on sex-trafficking moved me. I felt that the first step towards a strong initiative against sexual trafficking is breaking our silence. I thought - why not release a single, probably a music video, with a message that communicated the beliefs and convictions of Madras Tunes? This is what we are working on right now and we have plans to rope in some big names in the industry for this project. Incidentally, we also require some support in the form of sponsorship for this project, so any help would be greatly appreciated.” Karthik says.
The band's email ID is madrastunes@gmail.com and their official website is www.madrastunes.com .
Seshasayee is a working professional.
