No one likes preachers. But lace the message with music, a touch of folk and melody and top it with rock music, and what you get is an easy, welcoming route into the minds and hearts of people.
That is what music director Bijibal has been doing with his band ‘Down to Earth’. His songs that adeptly weave themes about society, politics and environment, are meant to, as he puts it, “ignite thoughts in the listener about different facets of life”.
“When the idea to form a band came up, I wanted the songs to be about various issues in society,” says Bijibal.
Complementing the variety of themes, ‘Down to Earth’s songs are also an eclectic fusion of various genres of music.“Our songs are a genuine mix of multiple genres. We have the best of talents in our band. The songs are written by Anil Panachooran, Kishore and Vijayakumar,” says Bijibal who is also a busy film music composer.
At a time when peppy music bands are ruling the roost, does he believe ‘Down to Earth’ will garner enough attention? “Yes, of course, in fact the youth are our strongest supporters. Wherever we have performed, the youth have responded well. I think the appreciation we get is a reflection of young minds who emotionally respond to pressing social issues,” he adds.
However, Bijibal adds that ‘Down to Earth’ is not in a competitive race to grab eyeballs by taking up issues. “We are not vying for popularity. We’re taking up issues we believe in,” he says.
‘Down to Earth’ features only Malayalam songs as Bijibal thinks that there are umpteen English bands out there lending support for the green movement. “It had to be in Malayalam as there is space for it locally,” he says.
Though ‘Down to Earth’ has no plans of getting into the competitive music space, Bijibal has plans to provide his band more exposure. “I am planning a video for the songs with mainstream technicians and actors so as to give it more visibility,” he adds.
Being a well-known film music composer, one would assume that ‘Bijibal’ would have no trouble finding fans for his band as well. But he dispells that myth. “People automatically expect film music from me, so it in fact doesn’t work in my favour. Unlike film songs, it extremely difficult to compose fresh songs and make them click,” he says.