Karthik [Live]

(Posted by Karthik on November 9, 2010 at 8:00am)

The title of this blog is not to sound pompous. It is because I am just back in Chennai after a series of concerts in Toronto, Singapore and Dubai. And the feeling of being live, in front an enthusiastic crowd is just amazing.

I must start with Birmingham, where I toured end-September with two names I have grown up listening to. S P Balasubrahmanyam and K S Chithra. Trust me, it was an out-of-this-world feeling to be with them, hearing them sing and speak, interacting with them. As it is, I am a hyper kind and I got even more excited sharing the stage with them. It couldn't have been a better experience and in fact, I kept reiterating it everyday, on stage and off it, that I think by the end of it, SPB Sir actually directed a friendly glare my way, asking me to stop !

What a legend SPB Sir is. The way people treat him, wherever he goes. Whether at the airport, the concerts, or the streets. I always knew he is big but he is much bigger. And the best part is the way he deals with all that he has achieved so far.

On many of my shows, I travel with my own band that I formed with a group two and a half years back. It is called `Bennet and the band', named so after Bennet, who is a music composer in Malayalam films. He plays the guitar and is an excellent musician. We met in December 2007 in Thiruvanthapuram when I had gone there to perform for a fusion show.

We have performed with our band in most cities of south India, the UK, Dubai, Singapore and these include both college and corporate shows. Our presentation is very high on energy. We do different kinds of music, tweak the popular films songs in different languages, be it Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi and give it a new dimension and the youngsters simply love it. We mostly stick to our film numbers because the crowd can immediately relate to them.

When I am not travelling for concerts, it is a busy schedule flitting between Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. I recently recorded for Harris Jayaraj's film in Hindi as also for Pritam.

People ask me if there is any difference in the working style adopted by composers in these three cities. I would say no. They say music knows no language. I would say it doesn't know geography either.