Music is what I do 24×7 and I need it to be like that, says singer Kapil Kapilan

Kapil Kapilan’s singing profession may very well be divided into earlier than and after ‘Adiye’. The viral observe from the Tamil movie Bachelor (2021), starring GV Prakash Kumar and Divya Bharathi, bagged him alternatives in all of the South Indian languages.

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In reality, it’s submit ‘Adiye’ that Kapil obtained his break in Malayalam, his mom tongue — he has sung in Bheeshmaparvam (‘Aakasham’), Night Drive (‘Pathi pathi’) and Pathrosinte Padappukkal (‘Theeyanu’). He has tasks in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, the latest one being the multilingual Oh Sita Hey Rama, starring Dulquer Salmaan, for composer Vishal Chandrasekhar.

“I have been in the industry since 2017. It took five years to get recognition. ‘Adiye’ changed everything for me. I even won an award for best upcoming singer recently!”

A local of Kottarakkara in Kollam district, he moved to Chennai after his commencement to deal with music. “My father [CR Madhusoodanan Pillai] introduced me to all kinds of music. I have been trained in Carnatic music from childhood and this continued till my graduation.”

Kapil says his school life in Thiruvananthapuram [at Mar Ivanios College] impressed him to go deep into music. “I used to perform with a band, Renegades, while in college. It was through my friends that I came to know about AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. So, even though my family wanted me to get a secure job, I had decided to move to Chennai and learn music,” he says.

In Chennai, he took classes from musicians corresponding to Sriram and Sriram Parthasarathy. After that he learnt sound engineering from Muzik Lounge School of Audio Technology in Chennai.

“After I finished my course in sound engineering, my plan was to do covers. Since I knew some of the sound engineers, I could give my CDs with demo tracks to them. I got calls from [composers] Pritam, DSP (Devi Sri Prasad], Gopi Sundar…. Even though I was excited about that, I didn’t know how to go about it and so I lost out on those opportunities,” he remembers.

Nevertheless, in 2017, DSP gave him a break in Telugu with the music ‘Champesaave Nannu’ within the film Nenu Local. The identical 12 months he debuted in Kannada with ‘Baduke Neenentha Nataka’ from Happy New Year composed by Raghu Dixit and in Tamil ‘ with ‘Uyiredukkum’ from Maragatha Naanayam for Dhibu Ninan Thomas as properly.

“After my first project with Dhibu, I asked him if I could work with him and he agreed. I was his associate in his next project, Kanaa. In between I sang for Telugu and Kannada films. My career in Malayalam didn’t take off though. Demonetisation stalled several projects, including films in other languages. I had sung for Raja [Ilaaiyaraja] sir as well. But that film didn’t get a proper release,” he rues.

Testing new waters

Kapil is worked up that in Dhibu’s newest Tamil launch, Nenjuku Needhi (remake of the Hindi movie Article 15) starring Udhayanidhi Stalin, he has labored as a further programmer. “That is progress for me. Initially I used to do vocal layering. But I have been taking lessons from Dhibu in other facets of programming and production. It is interesting to experiment with I have learnt and come up with something out of the box,” he says.

Kapil provides that it’s all a part of surviving within the music business. “I may not get playback opportunities always. Music is what I do 24×7 and I want it to be like that. Nevertheless, I thought it is always better to explore other avenues. The background in sound engineering and music production also keep me in good stead when I sing or record a song in my studio,” Kapil says.

He has plans to show composer, that too with impartial tasks. “It is a dream to do live shows of my own songs,” he says.

An enormous fan of veteran Assamese musician Bhupen Hazarika, particularly his songs in Bengali, Kapil says he desires to sing in lots of languages. “I have grown up listening to Bengali and Hindi songs. There are some beautiful lullabies in Bengali. Even though I don’t know Bengali, I find the language soulful, probably because of the composition, the arrangement and the singing. Also, like many other singers of the current generation, I’ve followed many Indian and Pakistani musicians such as Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali and Abida Parveen. to name a few,” he says.

Of late, he’s exploring a brand new style — recreation music. “There are a lot of people who listen to music used in mobile/video games and I think it will be exciting to get into the production side of that branch of music.”