TAKING SOUNDS OF THE SOUTH TO ALL CORNERS OF THE WORLD

Santhosh Narayanan talks about his upcoming concert Sounds of the South, his love for Tamil Independent music, fusing Gaana with symphonic choir, and slipping back into 'first-time composer' mode for Dasara

- PRASHANTH VALLAVAN

While talking about his upcoming concert Sounds of the South in Malaysia on March 18, an ecstatic Santhosh Narayanan almost makes you believe that no other form of performance art could exhilarate an artist as live performance does to a musician. "I love performing on stage and I was a performing musician even before I started doing films. It feels like I'm going back to what I am very much used to. I am pretty excited about this concert."

But one would think a film music composer, who spends a lot of his time in a recording studio, would feel out of place when suddenly thrust under the blinding lights of the stage. That might be the case for most but this is Santhosh we are talking about. "I have always been explosive even in studio sessions," he chuckles before continuing, "Before my film career kicked off, for about a decade I was only performing live. I didn't have the kind of audience I have now but even with fifty people, connecting with them during a live show is a magical thing."

Santhosh aims to amplify this artist-audience relationship by taking his music to the Tamil diaspora. "Enjoy Enjaami was like opening a door into that world. We are going to follow it up with a lot more independent music projects," he says. Santhosh believes that discovering new talents and collaborating with them will be the first step in connecting independent music and the Tamil diaspora. "Whenever I do a concert in another country, I would love to collaborate with the local Tamil artists. I scout for the best talents and connect with them. I've done that all over Europe, Singapore, USA, and that's what I did with Malaysia too. You would obviously know Yogi B and Natchatra. There are also a lot of talented, upand-coming rappers, singers, musicians, and instrumentalists in Malaysia, who will be part of Sounds of the South."