Posted on January 23, 2019
I had a generic idea about @arrahman’s composing style, but @sidsriram dived into the creation of (vocals of) Adiye, Ennodu nee, Thalli pogaathey… and showed a very specific process. (Coming soon. Sid Sriram on Ilayaraja, and on MSV).
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Kay
January 23, 2019
This interview is so good that I have been sneaking to the restroom every hour to check out few more minutes of it. BR, pls do us a favour and upload these in the weekends so that we can watch uninterrupted. 😁
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Aravindan R (@rnadnivara)
January 23, 2019
Great concept and wonderful interview!
Eagerly looking forward to IR (oh.. which 3 songs would they be!) and MSV.
(About Ennodu nee irundhaal. Wish at least 1% of the attention to details was given to the lyrics, compared to the composing/singing!)
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brangan
January 23, 2019
Aravindan R: Regarding IR and MSV, the songs were konjam obvious. 🙂 Not that I am complaining, and obviously one needn’t always like the obscure songs. Plus, given the generation he is from, it’s probably inevitable that the “obvious” songs are the ones he’s been exposed to.
But sometimes I wonder if the only song that “evokes” Raja to people is, say, “Thendral vandhu theendum pothu…”… Like on radio, they’ll say “Raja hits” and have the Mouna Raagam theme playing. Five or six songs end up becoming the “default”, like a signature.
I wonder if it’s the same in the West. If programme on Beethoven comes up, will it always have the Fifth Symphony’s opening as the theme?
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Madan
January 23, 2019
Brilliant, brilliant session. I don’t really like the first two tracks while I find Thalli Pogathey kinda interesting but loved his breakdown of how he worked out the vocal take with ARR. I am actually amazed as to how ARR zeroed in on him with his Carnatic background to sing R&B style. I would love to hear the story about that because that gives a lot of insight into how ARR uncovers new singers.
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Madan
January 23, 2019
BR: It is amazing actually that Thendral Vandhu has become THAT bread toast song for Raja. When it came out in the 90s there had been so many many songs with Raja vocals that we groaned. It took a long time personally to assimilate that song and it’s interesting that it’s become more popular in retrospect than it probably was at the time.
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Rajesh Balasubramanian
January 24, 2019
I felt the BR was like the reporter interviewing Asin in Ghajini. Just listening to all the talking talking talking of Sid Sriram. Probably the first time I am seeing BR very happy to get more information without BR doing (or pushing to do )the deep dive work
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Rajesh Balasubramanian
January 24, 2019
Great interview. Appreciate Sid’s modesty and more than that his clarity of thoughts.
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brangan
January 24, 2019
Rajesh Balasubramanian: I did the “deep dive” work” before the interview, in that I told him exactly what I wanted and how — so that I wouldn’t have to keep prodding during the interview and interrupting the flow.
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shaviswa
January 24, 2019
I have heard some Carnatic music performances of Sid Sriram. I liked those better than his film songs. His film songs are difficult to listen, a very laboured style of singing, a bit nasal and you hear one you have heard them all style of singing.
But among the new crop of singers, he definitely is one of the very few that make you want to listen and give his song a chance. Most of the songs these days in Tamil films are pathetic in quality. Even when you see the film they barely register in your mind. And you cannot figure out the MDs signature in the songs.
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Bee
January 24, 2019
Like his Telugu outings a lot more than the Tamil ones. I find myself listening to Telugu music a lot these days, primely because of its accessibility. Tamil music sounds very tough to get into these days, apart from yuvan and imman’s stuff, and even they are hit and miss.
He is very articulate, and seems sincere. Wish he does bigger things in future.
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Madan
January 24, 2019
BR: About the West, possibly yes there too the radio programming is very cliche and sticks to the few anointed classics. I am sure there are stations that cater to out there stuff but you have to dig deep. Of my two cousin sisters living in the US, the older one doesn’t really do rabbit hole stuff and her tastes are very much based on the top 10 hits despite that she is a trained pianist. The younger one is more like me – though she got to 1984 much before me – and she is more aware of less heralded artists or less popular songs of known artists etc.
On another note, 94.3 Radio One used to play Casey’s Coast to Coast shows for each year of the 70s and I caught one particular year on a long gridlocked drive. Couldn’t recognize many of the songs that had been hits at the time. It’s interesting how little of the pop culture of our time actually remains memorable and relatable to future generations. A lot of songs that became hits in the American (and possibly British) scene in the 70s were very staid and middle of the road just like today and maybe worse. The iconic bands of the time like Floyd or LZ or great solo artists like Stevie Wonder or Aretha Franklin didn’t take up quite as much airtime as we might imagine. On similar lines, the song that knocked Penny Lane off its perch at no. 1 was… wait for it… Engelbert Humperdinck’s cover of Please release me.
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Tambidude
January 24, 2019
BR yes here also radio stations overplays some songs, causing boredom. Q104.3 classic rock station of NY overplays some Pink Floyd songs like Wish you were here.
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hari
January 24, 2019
Madan, probably because Sid Sriram IIRC studied in Berklee school of music and ARR has a good connection with that school (I guess) or ARR got associated with Berklee post Sid Sriram connection, don’t know :).
Listen to these videos “A. R. Rahman Meets Berklee” –
if you have not already.
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apala
January 24, 2019
BR,
Thought of sharing this here…….
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Madan
January 24, 2019
@hari: Thanks. I worked it out from some googling. Yes, there is sort of a Berklee connection. But basically Sriram was recording covers and originals (in English) and putting them up on Youtube. They were getting lots of hits too. At this point, he claims to have emailed Rahman his work and the latter got back to him favourably. A year later, he was chosen for Adiye. I didn’t know he had been singing English stuff already, so this made the transition to Adiye easier. In fact, Rahman asked him whether he would be able to sing in Tamil.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/regional-movies/2-0-singer-sid-sriram-my-musical-journey-with-ar-rahman-is-filled-with-personal-milestones/story-AbRQu3NhuXqQ7rxTWbqpBO.html
https://www.deccanherald.com/metrolife/r-rahman-gave-sid-his-first-707219.html
https://www.youtube.com/user/sidsrirammusic/videos
Wonder if Sid Sriram has ever had the chance to watch the band Bent Knee which was formed by Berklee students and became much sought after in the avant garde-rock circuit. I did like Sriram’s very New York/North Eastern ‘more’ (it kinda goes moahhr). 😛
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vijay vasan
January 24, 2019
Excellent interview! Loved the way Sid explains the nuances that AR picks and zooms in to stretch it to the minutest detail and emphasize it to amp the emotion of a song. I hope you do such similar interviews with Karthik, Shankar Mahadevan, Jonita, Chinmayi, etc. (of course nice to restrict it to just their singing and composing endeavors so far). Also a bit underwhelmed that the next sessions with Sid are going to be on IR and MSV. Is he even that exposed to the nuances of their musical work? Would be surprised if he, say, appreciated IR’s signature usage of counterpoints and all.
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shaviswa
January 24, 2019
@apala thanks for that link. Raja was in a far better mood during this interview 🙂 – a bit more candid than he usually is.
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apala
January 24, 2019
@shaviswa Thanks. Yes! That’s what I really liked about this interview and I loved when he is this relaxed and candid!
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Jeevan N Achar
January 25, 2019
Hey Sid, you are one hell of a singer. I’m a big music freak of Sir A R Rehman’s music and waiting to see if I get an opportunity to sing for him one day in life. When I first heard you sing Adiye from Kadal, I tried singing it and did a good job. Then, when I heard Ennodu Nee from I, I was all amazed with the way you sang brother. It took months for me to master that song and did a good job. Then, Thallipogathey song was too good from you and I became perfect singing that song. When I try singing the songs you’ve sung for ARR, later when I try them, I feel a Sid Sriram inside me. I liked the recent one from you on Vishwasam song too… Stay blessed and I wish I get an opportunity to sing one day.
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Madan
January 25, 2019
@apala : Thanks a mill for sharing this interview. Hands down the best one I have heard of Raja (best print interview would be the one Bhaskar Chandravarkar did back in the day). His observation at 28:50 about Hindi being more flexible in terms of meter is one I and my father too have felt in our attempts to sing Hindi and Tamil songs so it’s nice when the opinion of amateur hacks is validated by the maestro himself. I also loved his insistence that music has no language and don’t try to name it.
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vijay
January 26, 2019
Sid Sriram’s voice/singing isn’t just cut out for male playback singing. Maybe in live shows he can engage. But is girlish voice and similar style of singing doesnt help. Usually ARR doesn’t persist with singers like this for more than a couple of songs, am surprised he did for Sid.
Remember Alfonse who sang Aromale? After that he wasn’t called again.Rahman is quite restless when it comes to his choice of singers
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brangan
January 29, 2019
Coming soon (I think I will add the next two videos to this same thread)…
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brangan
January 30, 2019
The Ilayaraja segment is up…
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shaviswa
January 30, 2019
I really loved this interview. It is interesting to see how chalk and cheese Rahman and Raja are in their composition styles.
And I think Sid Sriram got it right when he says you dont mess with Raja’s composition. Because every nuance, every note is deliberately placed. And that is with a strong Raja signature. When you change anything there, you can immediately notice it and usually the change is not very pleasant (although from a music perspective, there may not be anything wrong with that change).
For example, despite so much analysis that he has done, when he sang Kanne Kalaimane, I was not able to enjoy it as much. That singing was different from how Jesudoss sings and from the original composition.
Thanks for this interview. It answered a lot of questions that I had on Raja’s music.
And thank to that great question as well on how he compares Rahman’s style with Raja’s. It did put him in a spot but he answered that great 🙂
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brangan
January 30, 2019
shaviswa: Actually, I groaned inwardly when he picked Kanne kalaimaane (during our pre-interview chat, when we were structuring the session) 🙂 I was kinda hoping he’d pick something rarer and have a go at it. But during the interview, it was REALLY interesting!
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Madan
January 30, 2019
Interesting talk. Though I felt it still just skimmed the surface. Maybe that’s inevitable with the sheer volume of music Raja has produced. But I was also struck by one observation of Sriram’s about the beat staying the same in Edhedho as a generalisation on his music. This is not true for a song like Endrendrum Anandhame. Rojavai Thalatum also opens with odd time sigs and is overall a very dynamic composition. I wonder how much Sriram is familiar with /likes the Raja of Sigappu Rojakkal, Moodupani, Tic Tic Tic or Nenjathai Killathe. In Moonram Pirai itself, Vaanengum and Ponmeni inhabit a different universe from Kanne and those are my favourite tracks from the soundtrack.
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brangan
January 30, 2019
Oh, come on Madan.
Sid Sriram is a millennial who grew up in the US. Surely, his exposure to Raja is going to be less than that of someone like me, a 70s-born from Chennai.
The point is not to see whether Sid “dug deep” into the genius of Raja (since you say “skimmed the surface”), but just to see how he/his generation sees Raja and how they respond to him.
This is as much about Sid as it is about Raja.
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Madan
January 30, 2019
I too cringed when he chose Kanne. To me, Kanne /Thenpandi are like the Chingari/Zindagi ke Safar Mein of Raja. Why not one of the many other interesting and less overplayed songs of his?
I agree of course about the deliberate intention in everything Raja does. He says it doesn’t sound like Raja said let’s try this or that and figured but rather thought everything through. Raja in his birthday celebration rant (lol) said all the second guessing had been done in some earlier birth. He knew what he wanted to do and did it. The interesting thing is in spite of the deliberate intention, Raja’s music feels raw and alive (to me) because it has been done in no more than a few takes and is played right through. While Rahman’s composing process is more improvised, his production process is much more deliberate and it shows, for better or worse, in his music. Both ways are ‘right’.
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Madan
January 30, 2019
BR: I am not judging him for what he didn’t hear (and I don’t know what he heard or didn’t hear). I was just wondering, that’s all. Appidi partha naanum millenial dhan. Yes, not an US born one.
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bart
January 30, 2019
I love Sid Sriram’s voice. Whenever I feel like playing some random new songs, I search by his name and play all songs. To listen to him singing my all-time favourite music composer’s songs was a delight. Would like to hear his full-version of Kanne Kalaimane (the next stanza specifically). Thank you BR.
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Ananth
January 30, 2019
Barring SPB, I dont think anyone takes liberties in with IR’s composition. May be, Karthik is a bit playful (no pun intended on his me too involvement !) with some of his songs in the stage shows..I feel some quality singers (like SPB and Chitra) can embellish IR’s songs with some modulations/creativity and IR should let it be in the real recordings (not just stage shows)..One example is Guruvayurappa rendition by this great pair in an asianet concert
where Chitra is under no pressure to follow the tune to the T and her improvisations are beautiful. SPB in fact was relatively more subdued in this version
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Madan
January 30, 2019
Watching again, would have liked for the discussion/react to touch upon the second interlude of Edhedho also. Starts off with a soft and happy keyboard with an almost playful loop. When, after this, the violins play a very sad and sweeping passage, the impact is magnified due to the contrast. Raja uses this approach in many, many songs. He is a master of contrast. Both interludes of Oru Kadhal Enbadhu but especially the first where an unexpectedly sharp and foreboding violin attack takes you by surprise after the happy sounding flute. When I recently heard Gary Lucas talk about Jeff Buckley’s Grace album, he mentioned how they honed in on creating contrast and it was then I realized this was one of the reasons I loved the album so much. Because Raja does it all the time and I subconsciously identified with the same idea in a completely different genre of music.
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TambiDude
January 30, 2019
I never paid much intention to SS songs and him as a singer. I do realize that he sung one of the few new good songs I like
Somehow he has that high school kid voice.
Why is that none of the new singers can handle a candle to SPB? Or I am just that old f**t too biased towards SPB.
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Honest Raj
January 30, 2019
About the IR song, my guess was “Nee oru kaathal sangeetham”.
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Madan
January 30, 2019
Ananth: Not only IR songs but you will find even in the old Hindi songs, the singers didn’t take too many liberties. There were variations but within the boundaries of the song and very controlled and restrained. If for example you heard Rafi’s live take of Sau Saal Pehle, he goes into Ghulam Ali-esque improvs which he was never going to do in the original recording. My guess is they all regarded the song as a coherent expression and not as performance and hence didn’t want to distract the listeners with improvs. In the analog/pre-ARR, it was, as Sriram observed w.r.t Edhedho, a necessary skill for the singer to have, that is to be able to sing it exactly as the composer wants and in every stanza.
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Honest Raj
January 30, 2019
TambiDude: “Why is that none of the new singers can handle a candle to SPB? Or I am just that old f**t too biased towards SPB.”
About young singers vs SPB, I share your opinion. And, I’m in my late-20s.
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Madan
January 30, 2019
“Why is that none of the new singers can handle a candle to SPB? Or I am just that old f**t too biased towards SPB.” – You’re not. Legends don’t come along in every era. In SPB’s time – and this is along the lines of the observation BR made in the article about Sivaji – very few singers could make it and ergo the ones who did had tremendous staying power. It is also not the case that he hung around only due to composer largesse. He debuted under K V, sang a lot for MSV before IR, then plenty more for Rahman, Deva etc, even for Yuvan and HJ.
It’s like the West Indies pace quartet. If it was the case that everything just keeps improving because humanity is growing, then another team would have produced a pace bowling attack of that caliber. It hasn’t happened since, not even close. Maybe the Donald-Pollock-Fanie combo came closest but was very short lived due to Fanie’s injury. On similar lines, it’s not going to be easy to get another singer like SPB. Powerful voice but with the ability to modulate it to sound soft, loads of expression, versatility, crystal clear diction. A complete package. The only one who gets somewhere in the ballpark today is Haricharan.
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Ananth
January 30, 2019
TambiDude: “Why is that none of the new singers can handle a candle to SPB? Or I am just that old f**t too biased towards SPB.”
SS himself said (@15:43 in the below link) that SPB is from a different planet in one of his interviews
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complicateur
January 30, 2019
Both these interviews are great and a nice illustration of Wittgenstein’s point in Philosophical Investigations – “What length is cannot be defined by the method of determining length” – i.e. (rephrasing Baradwaj) this is much more about Sid than it is about Rahman or Raaja.
I loved how he “got” yEthEthO eNNam valarththEn. He picks the exact notes, inflections, and moments that capture the emotional value of that song. He acknowledges that he shouldn’t have covered ThenpANdi and has clearly done some soul searching on why the cover didn’t work. It’s really all you can expect from a growing, young artist.
Just something I noticed; he picked two lullabies essentially and locked in on the pain in both songs, but didn’t get into the long standing tradition (at least of S.Indian film music) that couches pain in lullabies. Think yEn Piranthaai MaganE to the 2 songs Sid mentions or Kanneer PoovintE from Kireedam etc. I’m searching my memory and am at a loss for instances of this tradition being carried on by or post-Rahman. Can someone help?
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complicateur
January 31, 2019
And a friend has now reminded me of the perfect ARR song in that tradition – Lukka Chuppi from RDB.
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Aadhy
January 31, 2019
I actually checked out Sid’s version of Thenpaandi cheemayile and boy, no wonder he got so much flak for it. Check it out below.
First, he’s picked a song Raja pumped so much soul into that even Kamal couldn’t match up. Second, he’s rearranging a song that’s already so minimalistic. Bringing electric guitar, bass and Kanjira into this lullaby is already an overkill. Third, the off-key rendition doesn’t help. Sid is so uncharacteristically off, especially at 1:01, that it looks like he had no interest in doing this cover. But I have to say his “Azhuda manusu thaambade/thenga…” tops it all. If you destroy such a song ” manasu thaangadhe” indeed.
Though I do appreciate his intent and courage in doing this cover, its mediocrity would piss off even moderate Raja fans, let alone the die-hards.
All that said, I did checkout his other songs in this series and he’s outstanding in this song called ‘Brother’ (own composition?). The song (R&B-carnatic mix) plays to his strengths and he just aces it.
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Madan
January 31, 2019
One important point Sriram made while discussing Edhedho. The harmonic foundation of Raja’s music is so strong it supports all the changes in colour. See, RDB also used to do contrasts and unexpected changes a lot but it somehow never had the same coherent flow of Raja’s music, that every note was really meant to be there and there only.
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V
January 31, 2019
Complicateur: I can think of Azhagu Nilave from Pavithra, with music by Rahman. (1994?). The song, when fit in the context of the film, tugs at your heartstrings. Ajith and Radhika gave a soulful performance quite different from their present avatars – action king and serial queen.
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AK
January 31, 2019
I quite liked the interview. Major respect for his statement on how some pieces should not be adapted or covered. I was immediately reminded of YSR’s interview where he says that he was asked to remake Raja Rajadhi Raja.. and that was absolutely blasphemous. Thank goodness he declined that.
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brangan
February 6, 2019
The last part of the Sid Sriram interview is up — on the MSV era.
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Ravi
February 7, 2019
(MSV part) Too brief but very interesting (much like the other two parts). The best part is when BR selects “Kettukodi” to get Sid’s response. I recall BR mentioning this song in his heart-warming tribute to MSV (“Radio days”).
Another great song on Chakravaham that comes to mind is “Karpanaikku Meni Thandhu” from Paattum Bharathamum. May be, MSV intended this as TMS’s response to Seerkazhi Govindarajan. Also, it would have been fun to play “Madhavi Pon Mayilaal” and “I will sing for you” (from Manitharil maanikkam) one after another and get Sid’s response.
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Madan
February 10, 2019
“Also, it would have been fun to play “Madhavi Pon Mayilaal” and “I will sing for you” (from Manitharil maanikkam) one after another” – Seconded, love both songs. Sid’s singing was quite beautiful if I forget about the diction. Not much of analysis here but I guess he has an even longer way to go in familiarising himself with MSV or the 50s to 70s era per se. Nice crisp analysis of Kettukodi, BR.
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Madan
February 10, 2019
Interesting he finds even Malarum Malarada subtle. Wonder what he will make of Ninaipathellam if and when he gets to it. Or some of noughties IR like Oliyile or Vanaville. But liked the observation. Yes, film music emotions do not have to be obvious. It’s sad that it’s become that way (at least largely) and a fine art form is forced to titillate to grab the attention of distracted eyeballs/ears.
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Naveen
March 12, 2019
Hi Rangan, please interview Alphonse Puthren. Hardly found any interviews of him post-Premam. Please don’t give excuses saying ” there isn’t a new movie of his releasing” or “this is not a 25th anniversary of Premam”. I envy the western media where we can find many lengthy interviews about any film personalities.
Please do consider my request.
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