Making music global
K. PRADEEP
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Sunny Viswanath has introduced Swedish and Australian voices to Malayalam film music.
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Photo: H. Vibhu
SOUND OF MUSIC: Sunny Viswanath can play any Indian percussion instrument.
In addition to playing the tabla for numerous orchestra groups and jamming with celebrated musicians in some of the most famous venues in the world, Sunny Viswanath has the distinction of having introduced Swedish and Australian voices to Malayalam film music. Music, for this music director, is a continual state of becoming.
Viswanath had Swedish singer Anneli Rydahl and Aussie crooner Seraya Young sing for him in the film `Isra.'
The film did not do too well and the songs went largely unnoticed. But Viswanath used both these singers in independent ventures, which awaits international release.
"Anneli's music is a mix between pop and ambient with influences of classical music. She has recorded a song of mine `Rachel Green... ' which I plan to release as a single. I met Seraya at Las Vegas where she was performing. We recorded a single album, which will have tracks by her and also by other singers," says the Kozhikode-based Viswanath.
Composing music came quite late in Viswanath's life that was always enveloped in melody and harmony. Although he was trained to play the tabla, Viswanath is at ease with any Indian percussion instrument. When Viswanath joined Magnasound his job was to promote new artistes and new releases. He was responsible for promoting Daler Mehndi in Kerala.
"That was the golden era of Magnasound with some big hits like `Made in India,' `Colonial Cousins' and all those superb songs. I made a lot of friends with singers and musicians like Shaan, Hariharan, Vasundara Das, Daler, Adnan Sami and Sonu Nigam who later turned out to be stars."
Viswanath, however, felt he was stagnating in the job and quit. "It was a tough decision. I then decided to try my hand at composing music, which I had done when I was a kid. A chance to visit the United States proved to be a turning point in my life."
Playing the tabla
Viswanath began playing the tabla once again. He played with more than 16 bands, lectured on the tabla in Indian music at Washington State University and more importantly got to meet some very distinguished people.
Back home Viswanath plunged into composing. He brought out his first album `Janmangalayi' that featured Shaan, Vasundara Das, Suneeta Rao and Biju Narayanan. The lyrics were by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri and Viswanath also had sung a song. This led to his first film. "My first film `Kshatriyam' did not come out. I did two songs `Let's wipe the tears... ' and `Mohangal... ' for Sharath's `Sthithi.' Then came `Isra.'"
Viswanath composed the tunes for Jyotsna's first independent Malayalam album `Malayalipenne,' which had lyrics by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri and Shibu Chakravarthi. He is now working on three new albums - with Girlz Band, another one featuring singers Devan and Delsy Ninan and one that will have Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan and Srinivasan among others.
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