Whenever I listen to some music that I like or get inspired ,I wish to perform that kind of music .I started as a Carnatic percussionist .My instrument kanjeera has a great advantage. It doesn’t have any particular pitch or sur .Its just like a small frame drum so with that advantage I can play this instrument with any instrument or any kind of music.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
Being born in the family full of musicians who are doing full-time music as a profession , I was not
forced to do music .But my grandfather and my mentor T.H. Vikku Vinayakram ,world famous
ghatam artist , created interest in me .He used to take me to our percussion school “Sri Jaya
Ganesh Tala Vadhya Vidyalaya” and make me watch him teaching young kids .
For a 4 years old
boy ,I felt joyful to hear students playing instruments which lead me to my initial learning sessions.
I was not very serious during my initial sessions . I was just playing around and having fun with the
instruments .Like everyone who comes to our school , I was given mridhangam at first (its the
main percussion of south Indian rhythm ).
Later in the process of learning , students choose their
main instrument to specialise .I choose “Kanjeera” as my main ,thinking its easy to
master .Mridhangam is a double headed cylindrical instrument played with both the hands and it
has 7 different strokes and sounds. Whereas Kanjeera is a single headed frame drum with jus two
tones / strokes and played with one hand and the other hand holding it .
So my thought (which
was very wrong) was Kanjeera is easy and need only one hand to work .
After some days , I understood the responsibility of carrying forward the family’s legacy and the
pressure of people’s expectation on me as the 4th generation in the family to do music .
2. What made you to dive into the world of music?
My great
grandfather T R Harihara Sarma was the first person to take music as a full-time profession .He
played mridangam and Morsing and also started the percussion school and giving free lessons for
everyone .Then my grandfather grammy award winner T H Vikku Vinayakram who travelled
around the world and established “ghatam” and performed with great musicians around the
world.
Following the same footsteps , my father V selvaganesh (kanjeera artist ) and my uncles V
Umashankar (Ghatam) & Mahesh Vinayakram (vocal) , travelled around the world and performed .
Understanding all this ,I got inspired and started to take my lessons seriously .During my severe
practising and learning sessions , I understood Kanjeera is not as easy as I thought .
The new
perspective was whatever people playing on mridhangam with two hands ,I have to do the same
with single hand . A single hand doing the job of two hands .But I fell in love with my instrument .
It became my passion at the age of 13 and I started to give performances.
3. As a budding musician, how did you utilize the opportunities that came to your hand?
I joined “Issai mazhalai” an organisation by
Abhaswaram ramji who gave opportunities for young musicians to perform . Later started to tour
around with my uncle V Umashankar and his band. Then got amazing opportunity to share stage
with great legendary artists Late .Dr. M.Balamurakrishna & Late. Mandolin U Srinivas . Started
touring with my grandfather and father , We were the first band to perform live with three
generation on stage together .
We started the band “Vikku 3G “ And travelled around the world to
perform and do workshops . Got various opportunities to share stage with great musicians like
Pandit Jasraj ji , Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia ji , Ustaad Zakir Hussain ji , pandit Birju Maharaj ji
and many more maestros. Music and travel became the main part of my life .
I have travelled to
several countries with several musicians .Performed in Various prestigious festivals .To name a
few. “Strandford jazz festival” , “India en conceirto ,Spain”, “eye on India , Chicago” , “india by
the nile , Egypt” , “Oz Asia festival , Adelaide “ . The more I travelled, I got inspired. So I decided
to travel around the world solo to explore and collaborate with different musicians .
So far I have
travelled to Japan , US ,England and collaborated with various Artists.
I also have interest in music production and background scoring . I have composed various jingles
and also performed for film recordings . My debut film as a “Music director “ is “Aivarattam “,tamil
movie which was released in 2015 . Also composed music along with my dad for the Telugu
movie “Chitrangada 2017” and recognized by “Indian book of records” for first time father and
son producing music for a movie.
4. Does your taste in music as a listener and as a musician coincide ?
Whenever I listen to some music that I like or get inspired ,I wish to perform that kind of music .I started as a Carnatic percussionist .My instrument kanjeera has a great
advantage. It doesn’t have any particular pitch or sur .Its just like a small frame drum so
with that advantage I can play this instrument with any instrument or any kind of music.
It
just blend in smoothly .So it was helpful for me to cross the border ,from Carnatic to
other genres of music .
As a listener ,I grew up listening to Carnatic music & fusion music. Particularly the band
“Shakti” a very new genre of music by John Mclaughlin(Guitar) , Zakir Hussain(Tabla) , L
Shankar(violin) & Vikku Vinayakram(Ghatam).
A golden combination of legendary
musicians who inspired many people around the world including me .So wanted to play
that kind of music .During my college time ,I was part of few bands playing fusion music .
Like everyone, I am big fan of A R Rahman .Got interested into film music production.
I
started to hear Hip Hop music. I started loving it .Later In my journey had different
opportunities to perform with some amazing rappers . And I started to produce music
with “konakkol” (south Indian Vocal percussion) keeping the rap format as an inspiration
and perform live.
The music I listen had inspired me to approach differently. I have also
collaborated with great Cuban musicians and loved their perspective of rhythm. That
inspired me to look into a different aspect of rhythm.
5. What satisfies the artist in you?
Exploring & Appreciation
Travelling around the world and collaborating with different musicians and different style
of music gives me immense joy .Finding new people , understanding their music and
sharing my music and collaborating and having fun is the best thing I wanna do my entire
life.
I believe the one thing that satisfies every artist is the appreciations that they get for their
work. Live concerts are the best for me and the results are immediate .The applauds that I
get for my performance are the best feeling for me . And the appreciations from other
artists are some amazing moments.
6. Do you believe that everything in nature has a rhythm ? How have
you experienced it ?
Everything in this world has rhythm in it. We all live with rhythm and not everyone
recognizes it. Out heat beats with rhythm .We walk ,talk with rhythm . Different sound that
we hear everyday has some rhythm in it. When I travel in train , I hear the rhythm of
“kanda nadai” and also my dad and me imitate that sound in kanjeera.
When someone
puts indicator in traffic , I hear the sound in different rhythms .When hearing fire
crackers ,sometimes I do konakkol with it .It has some weird rhythm in it .The Sound of
rain and waterfalls has a very strong rhythm in it. The sound of helicopter has a beautiful
rhythm.
7. Has lockdown affected your music journey?
During march 2020 ,along with my father and grandfather ,we travelled to USA for several
concerts. Unfortunately due to pandemic situation ,all our concerts got cancelled the first two
(Houston & NYC ).We managed to send our band members back to India but Dad and me got
stuck in NJ for 3 months.
During the lockdown I came with a mini series “#playfromhome” Inviting
my friends around the world to collaborate with me digitally and post it in social media . Around
70 musicians came forward to collaborate And I also got to play with new people that I haven’t
met before .And also got chance to collaborate with great musicians from different part of the
world.
I was engaged with music and got appreciations from many people for doing the same
during the lockdown days .Also got recognized in “The New York Times” for spreading music and
positivity. During the same time we lost our grandmother ,with the help of the Indian govt we flew
back to India in “Vande bharath mission”.
After coming back to India , everything was
different ,we performed concerts online ,did workshops online .Everything was online .
I am just waiting for this pandemic situation to get over and continue my journey to explore the
world music.
8. How do you plan to take your career forward ?
Following the foot steps of my grandfather , will try my best to do justice for my
instrument and my music .Just waiting for this pandemic to get over .Eagerly waiting to
travel around the world and continue my journey of exploring and collaborating .
Simultaneously I am also working on few projects which will be coming out soon.
Instagram id : @chaamie_25
Interviewed by : Ananie Borgia
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