Musician

My musical journey with A. R. Rahman is filled with personal milestones and realisations.

The performance of Carnatic music is multi-dimensional and layered. A performance is at once an artiste's cathartic process of personal exploration and an open energy exchange with the audience: a release and a conversation.

'Entropy' broadly means tending towards chaos constantly.

I owe so much of my musical growth to my exploration and performance of Carnatic music.

'Entropy' will be a kaleidoscope of thought processes and my identity as an Indian who grew up in California.

When I was 11, I decided that music was what I wanted to pursue as a career.

One of my dreams is to work with Ilaiyaraaja sir and do more with Anirudh and Santhosh Narayanan.

'6 Weeks' is broken up into two sections; both sections use the same set of samples, just in different ways.

I started listening to old school R&B artists like Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, and Donny Hathaway when I was in 6th grade.

My time at Berklee College of Music was probably my greatest period of artistic growth and internalisation.

My goal is to communicate how powerful the breaking down of artistic barriers can be when grounded in thought, intention, and a true understanding of all the forms that are being experimented with.

Any musical output is emotional.

It is kind of a cliche that many Indian parents, especially in the U.S., want their kids to become doctors or engineers. But my parents encouraged me to turn to music when they found that I had the passion and talent.

I think Chennaiites are the best because the city has a receptive audience.

On the surface, being a musician can look pretty glamorous. But so much work goes into it.

My experience and growth in the film music world and the time I've spent studying legendary film composers have given me depth of insight into how music can inspire a range of emotions.

I fell in love with R&B music at a young age. The energy and aesthetic of that genre strike an emotional chord with me.

Film music has given me everything - career and popularity.

When you are surrounded by talented musicians, you learn so much from them.

Growing up, any time I would sit down with my grandfather to learn or talk about Carnatic music, he would bring up G. N. Balasubramaniam. Listening to the recordings he would play me, I was dazzled by GNB's voice and how he was able to execute ideas that I could barely wrap my head around.