Chennai-based indie duo, Sakthi Amaran and Pravin Saivi, release brand new single

This popular indie artiste duo, Sakthi Amaran and Pravin Saivi, are redefining the city’s soundscape with their unique sound, personified in their new single Free Will
Sakthi Amaran & Pravin Saivi
Sakthi Amaran & Pravin Saivi

We’ve seen this Chennai-based duo recently in Star Vijay’s Super Singer: Champion of Champions, a show that brought them together after several years and rebuilt their fan base in Tamil Nadu. Sakthi Amaran, the grandson of celebrated musician and playback singer, Trichy Loganathan; and Pravin Saivi, a musician originally from Singapore, who now calls Chennai home, have collaborated several times over in the last decade. The duo has just released their latest single, Free Will, on maajja and we caught up with the upcoming musicians for a quick chat. Excerpts.

How did the song come to be?
Pravin Saivi: The verse of the song was written sometime in August last year but I decided to shelve it as I required a huge band to pull this off. After my first meet with maajja, I realised this song had more scope to be released via them. Free Will happened when Sakthi came onboard and we completed writing the song together. We decided to rope in the right musicians and got Karthick Devaraj to arrange the horn and string sections of the song. Being huge Quincy Jones fans, we explored Big Band and funk elements in this track. The final version of the song is the result of the entire team’s collective effort!

Sakthi Amaran: I’ll put this straight on the table. Till the first verse, it was completely Pravin’s thing and I was not really into it. But the minute we started recording the vocals, everything changed. From there, it was a give and take, sometimes it was lyrics for the tune and sometimes vice versa. When we were done, it sounded great.

Will this single be a part of a larger album?
PS: Free Will is definitely our first collaborative single. I’m planning a full-length album in some time, but will be releasing singles leading up to it. Being a producer as well, I’m equally excited to produce for other artistes; Sakthi’s debut album being one of them.

SA: Definitely a single. We both are individual artistes and are working on our individual albums. In fact, like Pravin mentioned, he is producing my album too. I believe somewhere down the line of constant collaborations in recent times, we understood each other well and when something like maajja happened, we gave it a shot.

What can we look forward to from you, next?
PS: Musical and artistic endeavors aside, I feel it’s time for me to give back to the land that has been such a pillar of strength for my family and I through these past 10 years. We’re currently spearheading an initiative to support families of those whose sole breadwinners have been lost to COVID-19.

Free Will is streaming on YouTube.

romal@newindianexpress.com
@elromal

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