Having crooned a bevy of film songs over the past 17 years, actor and singer Andrea Jeremiah dropped her maiden English album titled Flavors, infused with a mélange of genres, last week. Written and performed by her, she calls it a love child of the lockdown. It has a total of seven tracks – 24 X 7, Amusement, Flavors, Pull Me Back, Sleep Walking, Sunrise and Wicked – and is co-produced by her band of boys, The Jeremiah Project.
In an exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha, Jeremiah talks about taking her love for music a notch higher with Flavors and what nudged her to pen English songs. “Despite the fact that I was born and brought up in Chennai and have done a lot of work as a Tamil playback singer, I think in English because I’m from an Anglo-Indian family," she says.
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While music lovers and aficionados in India continue to lap up English music from different parts of the globe, its production in the domestic music industry continues to lag behind. Jeremiah agrees and states, “There’s a dearth of English music made in India. And whatever little is made, people don’t know enough about it."
She explains that this chasm is also interlinked with the fact that independent music doesn’t get the same kind of visibility as film music. “There’s no lack of talent. However, there’s a lack of support in our industry. The Indian music scene is so heavily dependent on the film industry and that’s the situation across most parts of the country, which is sad because the audience consumes all kinds of music. The only exception is maybe Punjab, which has a thriving independent music scene," the Vishwaroopam (2013) and Vada Chennai (2018) actor says.
Stressing the increased consumption, market and audience for English music in India, she adds, “Justin Bieber is coming here to perform again. What bigger proof do we need? Every global rock band has performed in India and their concerts had always had all tickets sold out."
While Jeremiah believes that a lot has changed in the music scene, pushing independent tracks and albums is still no cakewalk. She opines, “With the advent of streaming platforms, the situation is changing because making and listening to music has become a far more democratic process. We don’t have a big boss or a music label that decides who gets to be the next musical sensation. Having said that, dropping a song right now feels like throwing a little paper boat in the ocean. Who’s going to notice it?"
So, has she witnessed roadblocks while releasing her own music? “I’m a playback singer with so many hit songs. I’ve had radio stations telling me that they can’t play my music because it’s not a film song. They want to interview me for my films and film songs but they aren’t ready to play an independent track," she remarks.
Ruing the lack of a positive attitude toward the acceptance of indie projects, Jeremiah further continues, “Forget about English! Most of them don’t even play a regional single. If a song doesn’t belong to a film album, they aren’t interested. That’s the way it has been for a while now. How we can expect any kind of independent music to grow in that kind of an environment?"
Having been a part of a Jackson Five-style band called Young Stars at the age of ten, Jeremiah also points out the decline in the rock band culture in the world. “When I was growing up, it was a huge thing in India. They were very popular and were worshipped. Indus Creed and Moksha, among others, were solid bands," she says, and elaborates, “The fall in the culture has to do with the ecosystem. In the 80s, the 90s and up to the early 2000s, they experienced a frenzy. Maroon 5 started off as a rock band and then became a pop band. The [few] rock bands that we’ve today are all independent like Kings Of Leon and Mumford & Sons. Their music is very niche and underground. Globally, some of the music stars and sensations are genuine but a lot of times, they’re a product of PR and [bringing them to the fore] involves a process where a bunch of labels sit and put them together. Maybe they’re the ones who decided that this needs to be the era of pop stars and not rock stars (laughs)."
But the Oo Solriya (Pushpa: The Rise; 2021) singer is happy to have her band of boys with her through her musical career, who have also put their best foot forward in fructifying her dream of launching Flavors. “I love my boys. They’re incredible musicians. They’ve co-created the album with me. I write the melody and the lyrics and then they bring them to life. They’re amazing producers. We jam and then magic happens. This whole album is a band effort," she says.
What she feels also sets the album apart is the incorporation of live instrumentation on each track as opposed to a digital tuning. “I’m a live music loyalist. There is a layer of production to every track in this album but I didn’t want to create them electronically or digitally in the studio, which definitely is an easy process. I love the sound of a live instrument," the 36-year-old states.
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