Musician Kumar Narayanan, who has worked with biggies like music director Ilaiyaraaja, has come up with a refreshing New Year Song, which he feels can make an impact. Speaking to CE about the composition, the 29-year-old founder and managing director of studio Saintunes says, “The song is a pulsating, energetic one and is all about awakening oneself from slumber. It’s about forgetting the past experiences and living life to the fullest.”
While the song asks the listener to let go of the past, Kumar, who juggles between being a studio owner, sound engineer, keyboard and mridangam player, freelance graphic designer and music director, shares a few of his experiences in the music industry that he would want to put out of his mind. “Saintunes came up with a music album titled Uruginen, recently. Though a whopping `38 lakh went into it, there wasn’t a single soul who showed interest in buying the album,” says Kumar, who was also the producer of the album. “I lost hope and had to upload one song out of five on YouTube. The response in YouTube was, however, fantastic,” he adds. “But what was the use? No one was willing to buy the product.”
Though such experiences would have left many dejected, Kumar decided to move on with his life and career. “I didn’t keep worrying about what had happened, though it was indeed a grave scenario. I’m not sure if this is what happens to artistes in this industry. I had no other choice but to look at it that way. And I had to move on.”
Kumar’s passion for music began when he was eleven. “I had a fascination for sound,” he says. “And that’s how I started playing mridangam and a pair of dholki all by myself,” he adds. Soon, Kumar, who has also worked as a DJ, decided to launch himself in the music industry professionally after completing his Bachelors. “I knew more of mechanical sound engineering like making speakers, as that was a field that intrigued me. And that was completely self-taught,” he says, adding, “While I was looking out to launch myself professionally during my college days, I got an opportunity to work with a company as a consultant. That’s how I eventually started learning the intricacies and nuances.”
The self-taught instrumentalist soon completed sound engineering from Harvard and things slowly took shape. Now, he isn’t just the owner of a studio that believes in promoting harmony between music and life, but is also helping out many artistes to record for free as well. “I basically like helping others,” says Kumar, who is presently directing music for a Tamil flick.