Talks By the Firelight 3.2: All Strings Attached
Mervin Solomon, Music Composer
As a composer with a unique blend of pep and class, which somehow simultaneously evolves and remains constant throughout his works in various genres, Mervin Solomon has made for himself a distinct mark in the music industry along with his friend and fellow composer Vivek Siva. Like the legends of the industry, his compositions have a characteristic tinge that makes our minds play them in a loop, irrespective of age or generation.
When dusk fell on the 15th of February this year, the Barn Hall at NIT Trichy revelled in music with the singer-composer’s performance. Before the event began, we at Team Content for Festember bagged an opportunity to have a chat with him about his experiences and stories.
Read on as we explore his road thus far.
Your latest release “Gaandu Kannamma” has become a crowd favourite, especially because of the fun and quirky lyrics. What inspired them?
New age songs should bring smiles to people across all age groups and the simplicity of this core philosophy is an inspiration for our lyrics. That’s how Gaandu Kannamma was born. If you think about it, everybody has a Gaandu Kannamma in their life, regardless of gender, and it is something that all of us can relate to — that one person whom we like the most, no matter how much they anger you.
How were the initial years of your career? What difficulties did you face?
I started playing music around the age of three, so my background revolved around music for a long time. Vivek’s story is different. His parents wanted him to either go into sports or music. His area of expertise was in classical instruments, whereas I used to play the piano. We met at a college cultural event. While Vivek and Anirudh Ravichander were a part of the same band, I was in another one.
In fact, I had performed during Festember in 2008, and I had a dash of nostalgia when I entered the campus. For 2–3 years, in any competition, it was either us or them winning and soon we both got together. In a short span of time we both became close friends and when Anirudh made his debut in movies, we started working for him until we began composing for movies ourselves.
How influential was your band, Zynx, in shaping you?
Zynx is a really special band since almost all of us (the band members) are music directors currently. As individuals, we boomed to the limelight in a short time too, which is something I am very happy about. Every song we played on-stage back then is really helping us now. These days, when a concert happens, all the necessary information is passed on beforehand, but when we played as a band, crucial information struck at the last minute and coordination and adjustments had to be done very swiftly.
The unexpected improvisations bettered us at adaptability, even during international concerts.
How do you deal with a difference of opinion between the two of you?
Of course, more people equals more opinions. In the initial stages of composing a song, we conceive the song with a certain idea in mind which then becomes the yardstick when incorporating different ideas. In our case, we do not look at whose idea is being used; rather, we analyse which idea works better for the song. If we come up with two unique ideas after brainstorming, we try to incorporate both the ideas into our songs and then check which is better. We have built a really good rapport. Our ideas are similar and we both know how the other thinks, giving no room for a conflict of interest.
How do you keep up with the ever-changing trends in music?
Trends have been frequently changing for a long time now. The one thing you have to keep in mind is that if you’re in the race, your update has to be in parallel or even faster than the public’s. You need to be able to even set a new trend if you need a headstart. With social media platforms integrated with their lives, people are becoming aware of artists from beyond the subcontinent — their songs, new releases, gossips and whatnot.
If you’re not on the same beat as the audience, you will not be able to give them what they like.
We follow the social media handles of various artists closely, listening to various songs without the confines of a specific genre. In a way, we frequently do a market analysis of what makes a song likeable to the people.
In what ways has the maestro A. R. Rahman inspired you and your music?
A.R. Rahman sir is special to me. Our generation’s ties with Ilayaja sir’s songs is very weak. Only after songs like Oorvasi did we understand what songs were, and we grew up listening to Rahman sir’s music. Nowadays, when we look up to him, the main motivating factor is not the music, but the positivity that surrounds him. Even when we’re recording a song, if we bump into him in the lift or the hallway, he’ll voluntarily jump in with even more enthusiasm. Vande Mataram, though released in ’97, gives any freshly released album a run for its money. I want to do such an inspirational and patriotic song with him.
For all the technical beginners out there, can you differentiate the different aspects of movie music?
A song is based on the director’s brief. It majorly depends on the music knowledge and expression of the direction and not much on what the composer envisions. We concentrate on creating new music that is uninfluenced by existing tunes. We tend to compose similar sounds after listening to a lot of music. Working as a team is a major advantage. It’s easier to identify a similarity in the composition and we can start off anew. We believe that the BGM should never be something that is an addition to the film; rather, it should be inside the scene itself.
The composition is directed to help the emotions speak better.
What was it like to collaborate with the Bollywood diva, Arijit Singh?
We were big fans of Arijit Singh who had just become famous for Tum Hi Ho back then and we wanted to do something new. For Nenjukulle Nee, we introduced Divakar of Super Singer fame to the industry. When we composed the ballad, we had Arijit in mind along with multiple uncertainties— will he agree to do a song in a different language? We followed him for six months, just when he was at the peak of his career. First of all, he wasn’t comfortable doing a song in any other language because it wasn’t his cup of tea. But as soon as he heard the song, he called and asked us to board the first flight to Bombay.
We were at the studio for about three and a half hours but he recorded only for half an hour. He spent the remaining time writing the lyrics in his own language and learning the exact pronunciation. Many singers directly get into the vocal booth and try to imitate the song. The amount of effort he put in was a big takeaway. He could have sung according to his understanding but he took measures to make sure that it sounded perfect.
Eager for the show, the audience had become a part of something special in the artist’s journey — not only because he was returning to the college a transformed man, but also because this is was the first live performance of the duo’s latest single, “Gaandu Kanamma”.
This article was written in collaboration with Puvada Sreevarsha and the Festember Media Relations team.
