Throughout his 20-year profession as a musician, Jassie Present by no means restricted himself to a specific tone, tongue or temperament for his music. Since his debut album in 2003, the singer-composer has produced songs which have attained cult basic standing, they usually proceed being performed in school festivals, faculty excursions and street journeys. Jassie’s compositions, as soon as the catchy soundtrack of viral TikTok trending movies, nonetheless pop up on Instagram reels with influencers shaking a leg to his chartbusters. The most recent addition to the listing of Jassie’s jams is an Afro hip-hop track, ‘Thakthom’ by Reyan and Melvin of the New Thira Productions primarily based in Eire that includes the veteran musician. The video has garnered over three lakh views on YouTube since its launch in October.
“Reyan and Melvin’s final album Thamburatti (launched in 2022) was highly regarded within the UK. They’re passionate and at all times wish to do extra. I’ve collaborated with them earlier than. They reached out to me and that’s how I obtained to be featured on this track,” says Jassie. The duo presently residing in Dublin, has Malayali roots. “They began to make music to symbolize their tradition overseas,” says Jassie.
Jassie’s collaborations with Reyan started final yr after they had been seen dancing to the tunes of Jassie’s hit track ‘Themma themma themmadikkaatte’, from the film Rain Rain Come Once more (2004), sung by Jyotsna Radhakrishnan in a video that went viral.
Early days
Throughout his undergraduate days on the College Faculty, Thiruvananthapuram, Jassie began as a contract keyboardist for bands primarily based within the metropolis reminiscent of The Gypsies, 9 Hours, Baiju and the Band and so forth. It was throughout this time that he dabbled in singing Western songs as properly.
“Once we had been within the band, we needed to take heed to all genres of songs as we might get requests. We might take heed to nation, exhausting rock, steel, gentle rock…,” he remembers.
Jassie additionally feels that his technology was lucky from its early days, because it was uncovered to the likes of MS Baburaj aka Babukka, and G Devarajan grasp, in addition to the music of Pink Floyd; he calls himself a Floydian of that period.
In late 2003, the discharge of the music album, 4 the Folks, a Jayaraj-directorial, modified Jassie’s destiny. This was the primary audio launch he ever had. Regardless of having composed in two motion pictures, Bhibatsa and Saphalam earlier than, this one supplied him an opportunity to lend his voice to one of many songs. Jassie says that Jayaraj insisted on recording his voice. “I used to be staying away from singing Malayalam songs; I simply needed to be a composer. Then, I began singing the rap parts; I volunteered to Jayaraj sir, saying that I might do these parts of the track, however we needed to get somebody like Adnan Sami to do the lead vocals,” he says. Nevertheless, in the course of the capturing, Jayaraj used Jassie’s voice for the observe and determined to retain him because the lead singer, thus making him the voice behind the hit track ‘Lajjavathiye’
Throughout his stint of 20 years within the music business, Jassie has composed over 50 songs in Kannada and greater than 20 in Malayalam. He has additionally composed a number of songs in Tamil and Telugu. He has sung over 200 songs every in each Malayalam and Telugu amongst different South Indian languages.
Whereas having struck gold a number of instances along with his fast-paced songs, Jassie has additionally composed quite a few melodies, reminiscent of ‘Oru noorashakal’ (Enittum), ‘Snehathumbi’ (December), and ‘Manikkinavin kothumbuvallam’ (Pokkiriraja), contemplating them his “consolation zone.”
Nevertheless, Jassie considers the alternatives to work with the folks he grew up idolising to be the most important spotlight of his musical journey. “ Das (Ok J Yesudas ) sir is my largest affect and inspiration, and I’ve labored with him; I obtained to sing for Shankar Mahadevan sir, and obtained him to sing for me. Shreya Ghoshal has sung 18 songs for me, and Sonu Nigam has finished six. I started working with the late KK, Javed Ali, LuckyAli… all these icons,” he says.
Shifting ahead
At the moment, Jassie is planning to focus on reside reveals in the interim, with an Australian tour lined up from November 2 to 29 spanning over 5 cities. His reside schedules typically get in the best way of composing music, and he’s making an attempt to keep away from that.
Jassie Present at a current reside present
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He says, “I’m presently focussing on reside reveals, however I do carry devices and mic and all the things. Nevertheless, if we have to do a tune which we like, we must give it time.”
Other than his reside gigs, Jassie is but once more going to work with director Jayaraj on an untitled challenge.
Printed – October 30, 2024 02:40 pm IST
