Saturday 10 February 2018

A STORY BEHIND THE ALBUM

We were novices at it. None of us had any experience in writing a proper song lyric although Gowri Arumugam had penned one for her single some years ago. Both Mahin and G. Bala Chandran had written several poems and prose on the Siddhas. But that did not hinder us as we gathered at AVM to attempt to write the lyrics for composer Jey Raggaveindra's tunes.

As Gowri ran through the tunes and guided us on the possible syllable and words we could use, we ran through the library in our brain that was obviously limited in knowledge hoping to come out with some wonderful lyrics. That is all we did and the rests was given by our most compassionate father. Off course he had to provide us with the lyrics for it was he who had started us on this venture.

When Gowri dropped in at the Kallar Ashram and had the opportunity to have a Jeeva Nadi reading somewhere in August of last year, Agathiyar touching on her career asked her to take on an album, adding that she had his blessings. Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal requested she do one for Agathiyar. Gowri called me from Kallar mentioning what had transpired and asked if we could do it. Without a second thought I answered in affirmative. 

Once back in Malaysia, we called for a meet with the AVM family members whom we thought could contribute ideas and their talents towards this task. Soon  I placed an advert in AVM for sponsors to finance the costs of producing the album. It was taken up within a short period by several samaritans who wanted to equally help spread the fame of the Siddhas. 

Gowri left for Kallar once Jey had the tune for the first track done. Sitting with Tavayogi, they both penned Karunai Vizhiyaal.

As Gowri, Mahin and I sat together to pen the rests of the songs, I requested fellow AVM family members to submit lyrics too. Many sent in their contributions. Since the tune was set first, we had to pen suitable words and lines.  Bala's lyrics fell into place in Ariya Payanam. 

Working with a theme for the songs, gave an organised and varied set of songs.  

Gowri, Vinod, Jegan, Vinthamaray and Dr Janar joined Jey to render the songs. Then Sesatre walks into the studio and adds flavor to the songs with his twenty and more types of flutes. He contributes the alaap and konnakul too. Pangasaasanii Gowrisan joins the team with her violin. Jey has given us a wonderful arrangement that has taken us by surprise and that turned out to be more that we expected. The team has worked hard and long hours on this album not for any objective or commercial gains but to satisfy Agathiyar and Tavayogi's asking. 

Through this venture, we had an opportunity to step into the world of entertainment and learn a thing or two. All these will add on to our store of knowledge and experience that we have come to gather in this birth. Throughout this making of the album we saw our divine father's hand in all things. We realised that it was all his doing and that we were merely tools that delivered his wishes.