Kanmani CD art

Here is how the CD is going to look like.



There is a good chance that Kanmani will be available on ITunes USA. This way you dont have to wait till September when the CD will be launched in US.

The song Kunnimanikal is generating waves already in the friends and family circle. I had a chance to meet Mr. Unni Menon last week. He played the song and everyone in that room just loved it in the first hearing. When the website is up, you will be able to sample all the songs.

Couple of photos for Franco fans

When I met Franco last week, he had just come back from his US tour. He gave me a couple of photos for the album cover and promotions. For the fans, here comes Franco's cool Photos:

Presenting Kanmani

Album front cover.
Jose K Paul. My old pal from college is the artist.




Album back


The graphic designer is this humble blogger.

Arthi's new film song

Arthi recently finished her debut film song in a Telugu movie called "Bahumati". The film will be released on June 30th. If you like to hear the song, here it is:
http://www.raaga.com/channels/telugu/movie/A0001170.html

The song is titled "Onamale".

Arthi sang the title song "Kanmani" in my album.

Album Kanmani dot com

So you've noticed the title and color changes in this blog.

The new website albumkanmani.com will be up very soon. With the video and mp3 clips from all the songs. The album cover is almost done. It looks good I should say. I've been traveling quite a bit lately. It has been tough to keep up blogging.

For those who have been adding comments to this page. Thank you. Thanks a bunch.

Perfect Pitch

The music industry uses pitch correction software quite a bit. Imperfections in a song can be polished out without having to re record a performance. Its a blessing usually. For Kanmani, you can hear me crooning here and there. Its all pitch corrected. I am not a singer. I have just tried to provide some effects to the songs.

Pitch correction also can produce false illusion of a talent. With inumerable takes and software like Autotune, I can make you believe that I am the next genius in the industry. That is until you ask me to perform live or I get a call from a music director to render his new song. Pitch correction is only a tool. Its not the solution to bad singing.

While working with Manjari, I realized that this singer had perfect pitch. There was no need to tweak anything at all. Kanmani features a very different song by Manjari. I am sure it is going to be a big sensation.

Breaking the rules

One song breaks a lot of rules in the album Kanmani. It is about "kadal" or the sea. Its rendered perfectly by Manjari and backed up by the geniuses of Anuradha Sridhar and Bennet. (More on Bennet later).

The song runs over 9 minutes. It doesn't color Manjari's voice with a lot of echo and reverberation like her other other songs. The song ends with nothing but over a minute of waves crashing on a beach. Some of the instruments were recorded when it was raining cats and dogs outside. The rain sound added a certain flavor to the mixing. The next thing is that there the song is not in a hurry to finish up.

This is the last song aka the climax of the album. I did it on purpose. For one, I wanted this song to be easy going and relaxed. When you go sit at the seaside, you don't hurry. You're there to take your time and chill out. Same about this song. You will know when you hear it.

The cyclone knocked out the power here for the past 2 days. I'm blogging right now from my laptop, connected via a mobile connection.

Work on the album and website is progressing well. In about a week you will be able to see the video and sample the songs on the new site albumkanmani.com.

Some snaps from our picturesque state

Things I used to torture as a kid now become marvels of nature.



There are two predominant tones in monsoon. Grey and Green. Here is a water hole wearing a green blanket.




A train passes by while I wait at the gate.

The last lap

If I'm missing from the blogoshpere, it is because I've been caught up struggle of the last lap. All the recordings are over, the video is finalized. Just a few more important things (like ordering the CD) remains.

I'll have the album available on iTunes pretty soon.

The album website will also be up soon. Hang in there.

To quote from the first song in the album..
"Eee Kathirippin-avasaanamai
Aashakal tun noopurangalil
Deepa-maala theliyaarai"

Monsoon

Monsoon is in full swing now. Its beautiful. Especially near waterfront, the rainfall is magical. I took this photo near our house. A river, coconut grove and incoming rain.

The renovated Calicut airport

To say I was impressed is an understatement. Check out the photos:

Some more photos

Me checking notes.

Photos from last day's recording

Manjari and mother.

A day in Trivandrum

I flew down to Trivandrum from Calicut today morning. I'll post some pictures of the new Kozhikode airport tomorrow. I ran into Mr Jassie Gift at the studio. The recording with Manjari went really well. To reiterate, she is incredibly talented. There are no questions about that.

Manajri and Mom agreed to pose for a couple of photos. I'm trying to post it here. I am on mobile internet which is a bit low in speed. Not sure if the photo will come through. If not I'll post them tomorrow when I am back home.

Planning to meet Vidhu today evening. Fortunately for me, its not raining much.

When it rains..

The monsoon erupted yesterday. It is pouring outside. They say the rains are late this year.

My blogging is following the same pattern. A lot of things are in the pipeline yet I don't have much to show now. So stay with me. Keep coming back. I will have a lot more to say in the coming days.

The YouTube version

No matter how crappy the quality is, nothing can substitute its popularity. So here it comes. The YouTube version of the album trailer.

How far is too far?

Most of my friends who has a copy of the latest mixes seem oblivious to the fact that it is missing the song Kadal. Thats because I didnt have the heart to show it to any one. I messed up the lyrics in the second half. It was too mediocre. It is passable but I cringe every time I listen to the last part. Beautifully rendered by Manjari but sloppily written by me. Ok. Enough of whining.

So I decided to redo the song. Perfectionism showed its ugly head again. I called Manjari and booked a time for next week. I am going to Trivandrum to redo the song. This time I will get it right.

How far is too far? I really don't know. But if it is worth putting in my album, it is worth making it right. No regrets.

Kanmani 30 sec ad

From jumpcut.com (The best quality I have seen so far)


From Blip.tv (Hi quality but jittery)

Click To Play

From Google Video (low quality)

Ad work

I'm trying to get Internet connection at the place I am staying now. Currently working on a 30 second ad for Kanmani.

Building a road

I sometimes feel, bringing this album to life is like building a road from scratch. When you build a road, you make a basic plan, clear the path out, prep the ground, lay asphalt, then polish to the requirements (thats an oversimplification). And then you open up the road to the traffic. Most of the work is in preparation. If you fail in this part, the traffic that you opened up with a lot of hope will stop in no time.

As far as Kanmani goes, a lot of hard work has gone behind the preparation. I have no doubts about the quality of the product. And now its time to open up the road. Most important of all, its time to tell everyone about this road and how awesome of a ride its going to be if they take this route.

Faith

Its fun to blog while globetrotting. I make an exception for today for me. I am blogging from the Singapore airport. Free internet. What an awesome airport.. Whats up with our aiports in USA? No free lunch ever? Anyway, its not my idea to crib today.

Ever since I started my work on the album, I knew there was some other force at play. Something beyond my control or scope. No matter how you define it, I call it God.

Here is something that happened on Monday. Everything is under control. I am backing up my files and stuff, packing my gear. DIvya is out there running last minute errands. At 1:30, I start setting aside the passports, greencards and tickets. And to my disbelief, my son's Indian visa had expired 4 months ago. How do you explain the wave of panic that hit me? When I called Divya and told her she had her share of the panic. Phone calls happened but our only option was to make a dashto the consulate in San Francisco and attempt to win their sympathy so that they'll bend the rules and help us. It was too late. Embassy will not do such things normally. We'll be there only by 3pm. 3 hours late for the application.

30 minutes from the consulate, I asked Divya to call Ajit, a good friend of ours. Why I chose to make that call I have no clue. However, it turns out that Ajit had a good friend of his who worked there. TO make the long story short, that person went the extra mile and stamped the visa for us. We were back at home, late but relieved.

The next task was to complete what I started in the morning. Getting all my music files ready. If not for those, there is no point taking the trip. Everything was resolved. We made it.

But why did I decide to look at the passport when DIvya had confirmed, everything was current? That too at 1:30! One hour later, it would have been too late.

Of all the people I knew, why did I decide to call Ajit?

My answer lies in that second paragraph. I have stpped asking that question. Inside, I know that everythig is going to be fine. I just know it.

Control Vs Faith

I recently read this in a book: People chose to be a director because it gives them a position of control over the project. But nothing could be further from the truth. Movie making is a team event. Not a one man show. Ideally you work with a bunch of highly talented individuals. And you work off of the choices these individuals bring to the table. You can't run every aspect of the production. You can't have a bunch of 'mini-me's running around doing everything just the way you want it. You have to learn to have faith in people, get out of their way and give them creative freedom and breathing room. Of course its your vision but you have to have faith in your team that the final product will be more powerful than what you originally envisioned.

I recently finished a short film and a music video, if I could do them all over again, I would do them a bit differently. And thats the way it should feel. Every project is a learning experience. Like doctors, a director is always practicing.

Roll. Don't fold

Now that I'm in the middle of a packing spree, here is a tip that I thought I would share. This has nothing to do with music.

When you pack a suitcase, Don't fold your clothes. Instead roll them up. You pack more and tighter. Someone from my previous job suggested this.

The last lap

Three more days left before my highly anticipated trip to Kerala. A lot of planning, last minute adjustments, shopping etc etc are going on. Blogging is taking a back seat. I have to take leave for a few days. If time permits, I'll make some updates. So see you in a week folks. Hang in there.

More photos from the outdoor set

Photos by Vinod Balakrishnan.

Suman posing for the next shot.


Suma and Manju pretending to flirt with Shalin.


Shalin practising his enchanting smile.


There were a lot of funny moments in the set.