KOCHI: Like many kids, his baby steps in music started with Carnatic training. But he didn’t restrict himself to the genre. He learned even further and ended up composing the background score for a feature film. Vaisakh Somanath, the Kochi-based musician’s life is a lot like a fairytale.
Vaisakh, known for the singles made under his band ‘The Free Fall’, has recently composed the scores of Jayaraj’s ‘Bhayanakam,’ which won the national award this year for best director and adapted screenplay. “The Carnatic base I have gained through different gurus had a profound impact on me. I used to participate in various competitions including the state school festival. When I learned various forms of music, I lost interest in competitions and started enjoying it,” says Vaisakh.
Origin of the band
Like the way he has taken into various genres of music, the beginning of his own band happened in a jiffy. “The band’s co-founder Abhilash Choudhury and I used to jam and play random songs during our engineering days at NIT Calicut. Before leaving the campus, we wanted to do something together. On the last night, we made the song ‘True Kadhal’. Later we decided to perform together and the band was formed just like that,” he says.
Unlike many other music bands, The Free Fall never made covers of songs. “We had enough number of originals before we started the band. If you keep giving good originals, people will eventually start listening to them,” he claims.
Interestingly, being a Kerala-based band, most of their singles are in other languages. “I always have a love towards the Tamil language. I even learned its alphabets by looking at the back of audio cassettes when I was in school. But the songwriting in Tamil wasn’t planned. After ‘True Kadhal’, I wrote my first full-length Tamil song ‘Paniye Vizhum Paniye’. Since then, Tamil lyrics naturally come to me whenever I write,” he says.
Partnership with Biennale
Vaisakh has associated with Kochi-Muziris Biennale as a composer in 2016. “I consider it a great honour to be part of this. It was a great exposure for me, opened a lot of doors, more importantly, got to challenge the composer in me,” he quips.
“My work with the Biennale team paved the way to Bhayanakam. I always love to be part of good projects, be it films, documentaries or anything. This was just the perfect start. I learned a lot working with the legendary filmmaker Jayaraj, and he gave me the freedom to contribute whatever I feel like,” says Vaisakh
The independent musician has done 10 concerts so far. “I am currently recording my debut four track Tamil EP which talks about minimalism, sustainable living, homeschooling. It will be launched by the beginning of next year,” he says.
Apart from being a music composer, Vaisakh is a music teacher, blogger and a travel buff. “I will do anything if I can put life into it. All these are my attempts to appreciate good art and learn something from each of them,” he says.