We still cherish many of those good old Onam melodies. These days Onam special albums are few and far between but every year some musician or the other does come out with an Onam song or two. This year musicians Sooraj Santhosh and Arun Varghese are all set to release Naadu, a composition that celebrates the spirit of Onam. The song and its music video will be released on September 3. The song, written by Vinayak Sasikumar, talks about the true essence of Onam, exploring the heart of what makes Malayalis celebrate it amidst commercialisation. “It’s an optimistic song. We have moved away from the clichéd format and have given it a different treatment in terms of arrangement,” says Sooraj, lead singer of Masala Coffee band. Arun, composer, sound designer and founder of the band Varkey & Friends, explains: “The song has a pure Kerala folk vocal arrangement. The Indian flute is backed by an urban groove. It is ethno-pop in every manner.” Musical collaboration Sooraj and Arun stress that the work is a true collaboration. Although they both hail from the capital city and have been living in Chennai for some time, it was an episode of Music Mojo on Kappa TV that brought them together. “We had some wonderful jam sessions and this song is the first of the 10 songs that we have composed. I believe that there is a composer inside every passionate musician. I have never approached music as a singer, rather I enjoy the process that creates music,” says Sooraj, who has composed several songs for Masala Coffee. Music and society Arun says that it is the similarity in their thoughts and views on music that brought them together. “We always talk about music and how it affects society. During the preparation for Music Mojo, we jammed for more than an hour continuously and decided to do an independent album. We met up at regular intervals in Chennai where we discussed the whole concept and the compositions just flowed out. We chose the 10 best songs out of them and decided to do singles, some of them bilinguals, and compile them into an album,” says Arun, who is also working with Masala Coffee on their upcoming album. With Sooraj as the lead singer, Naadu also features singer and actor Aparna Balamurali, composer-flautist Vishnu Vijay (Guppy fame) and violinist-lyricist Rithu Vysakh. Meanwhile, the duo say they both stress that they have not parted ways with their respective bands. “I will never do that. In fact Masala Coffee is working on its new album and Arun is also part of that,” says Sooraj. Naadu is being released by the music label, Muzik 247.

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