KOCHI: Tangerine Rays, one of this year’s Grammy-nominated songs in the dance and electronic music genre, is a tangy blend of chaos and calm, bland and spice, vitality and vacancy.
Sweet innocent child asleep
Deep in a starless retreat
I never knew what to believe in
So every other dream shadows a bad memory
Shaped like a darkening breeze
Praying on angels still breathing
Your silent touch...
The lyrics echo voices that are bold yet fragile, exposing raw emotions. Among these voices is one particularly clear and sensitive, resonating with pride for Keralites. Gayathri Karunakar Menon, a 25-year-old Thrissur native, is part of the team behind two songs in German music producer Zedd’s Telos, which has been nominated for Album of the Year at the 67th Grammy Awards.
“This voice that you claim is clear grew along with me and urged me to seek answers,” says Gayathri, now has been working with the Universal Music group in the US since 2022.
“By the time I entered high school, I wanted space and answers which the social and educational system were reluctant to provide. I sought answers, I explored, and my music is a result of that journey.”
Her journey into music began early. Much like other NRI children, Gayathri, who grew up in Qatar, underwent rigorous Carnatic music training under Vaikom Jayachandran and playback singer Pushpavathy.
She also studied classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam, and Kuchipudi at her parents’ arts facility in Qatar. Singing Malayalam songs alongside her father introduced her to another realm of musical expression.
“I read a lot, especially the classics,” Gayathri recalls. “Our home shelves were filled with abridged versions of Moby Dick, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist. Orwell and others also shaped my thinking. Writing began as prose and gradually turned into verse. I realised this form of creative expression made me feel more authentic and free, compared to focusing purely on the technicalities of music.”
Her journey took a transformative turn when she left Birla Public School in Doha after Class 10. She did Classes 11 and 12 at spiritual guru Sri M’s Peepal Grove School in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. “There, liberty and curiosity were encouraged. My interest in music deepened, and I felt my writing take root,” says Gayathri.
“Around the same time, I attended Berklee College of Music’s five-week summer programme and earned a scholarship in 2017 to study songwriting, contemporary writing and production. The graduation programme taught me to structure music with intent.”
Writing from the heart
At Berklee, Gayathri explored the intricate relationship between words, chords, and tunes. The questions arose again in her mind: What makes a good song? Beautiful poetry? Memorable melody? Or, the way they are musically conveyed?
She realised that the “inner voice”, which spoke free of fetters, mattered the most. She repents discontinuing piano lessons in childhood. “The knowledge of the chords could have come in handy in musically expressing the inner voice,” says Gayathri. “Maybe sometime in the future, I would make room in my life for it.”
Now hailed as a “rare talent” by American music producer Rodney ‘Darchild’ Jerkins, who has worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Gayathri has had the opportunity to collaborate with international musicians.
“Writing [songs] as a team is like a jam session. Different minds bring different worlds together, and the final result is an amalgamation of these worlds,” she says.
Her Grammy-nominated work came from such a collaboration with Zedd, Ava Bringol, Bea Miller, Ellis Robert, McKay Lawrie, and George Ku.
As a professional songwriter now, she is expected to create a song in about seven hours, a stark contrast to her student days when she had the luxury of waiting for creative sparks. “There is a practised vulnerability now which helps us write fast this way. But in the long run, it could get jaded,” she reflects.
To navigate this, she has found her own way: there are songs she writes for clients and personal ones that emerge from her innards. Both demand her full commitment. “Yet the ones I write for myself do not have any urge, and hence the honesty is more placid,” says Gayathri.
“I have written around nine songs and hope to bring out an album of my own works in a year or two.”
‘Struggle till a point’
This journey has not been a cakewalk. “This is an industry where critical success does not necessarily translate to financial stability,” she says. “Streaming has made it all the more difficult. Earlier, albums were more resourceful. Now, it is a struggle till a point.”
Gayathri’s talent has already been recognised, such as when her song Privileged to Dream, which addresses the lives of expatriates, won the 2020 ‘Songs of Social Change’ contest held by the Berklee College of Music. She was also nominated in the global music category at the Grammys last year as a vocal collaborator in the album Shuruaat by the Berklee Indian Ensemble.
But, accolades alone cannot fully encapsulate an artist’s talent. “It could also be that – it cannot be only that,” she remarks.
Gayathri’s ambitions in songwriting and singing currently do not include projects in India. However, she is drawn to the art and craft of Malayalam filmmaking, which she hopes to utilise in enhancing the visual poetry of her works.
Her Indianness continues to subtly influence her work. “I was raised in that, and it will be so. Your history need not be your future, but it sure will have flashes of it,” she says.
However, she consciously avoids “exploiting” her cultural background. “It is more of an ethical thing for me. The culture has a history of trauma, of our grandparents fighting for causes and losing it, giving it their all,” she says.
“Using that culture to reap benefits would not be respectful for me. Something that the lessons in my grooming years taught me was to maintain that respect.”
‘I left home at 15’
This sense of respect and discipline has also kept her away from social media. “I desist from putting up my work. There has to be discretion; everything about me need not be up there,” she says.
The solitude she feels as she navigates her work and passion is, paradoxically, what fuels her creativity. “There are many facets to me. And each is good in its own place. Not all needs to be brought out,” Gayathri says.
Her parents, Karunakar Menon (a business manager, singer, and sports analyst) and her mother Indu (an entrepreneur), still reside in Doha, while her younger sister, Gauri, is in Class 9. In Kerala, her extended family includes legendary singer K P Udayabhanu and actor Aparna Balamurali.
However, Gayathri feels her concept of home has expanded since entering the professional music world. “I left home for studies and work when I was 15,” she says.
“There are many families that I have now. Here in the US, too. They help me survive and in the struggle. I plan to stay put, as there is nothing else I know but music,” she says, not dwelling much on the Grammy announcements slated for February 2 next year.