Sri-Lanka born Tamil music producer Charles Bosco is trending now, courtesy his ‘refix’ project

With ‘refixes’ of popular Tamil tracks like Kannodu Kanbathellam, Azhagana Ratchashiyae, Yaro Yarodi and the more recent Oo Solriya, Charles is amassing several million views on Instagram’s Reels
Charles Bosco
Charles Bosco

UK-based music producer, Charles Bosco, who recently came into the limelight through his ‘refix’ project on Instagram — where he remixes or older Tamil, Hindi and Telugu hits from several music directors, AR Rahman included — has been garnering several million views for many of his reels. His refixes of AR Rehman’s Kadhalenum from Kadhalar Dhinam (1999) has amassed 6.5 million views; Kannodu Kanbathellam from Jeans (1999) — 3.5 million views; Azhagana Ratchashiyae from Mudhalvan (1999) — 2.6 million views; Kadhalikum Pennin from Kadhalan (1994) — 2 million views; and Yaro Yarodi from Alai Payuthey (2000) — 1.3 million views. The musician, who runs a few technology startups in the UK, recently partnered with Chennai-based singer-actress Andrea Jeremiah for a remix of Oo Solriya from Pushpa (2021) and the reel has already garnered 465k views. We catch up with Charles, who has produced music for several hit Tamil songs including Oh Penne from Vanakkam Chennai (2011) with Anirudh Ravichander and Chillax from Velayudham (2011) with Vijay Antony, to find out more about this viral trend and more…

Tell us about how this ‘refix’ idea came to you?
I’ve always liked to hear what it would be like to have a hip-hop beat on a soothing melody track. Through the years I’ve created hundreds of original tracks but people like to connect more to old South-Indian film songs. I wanted to create a nostalgic vibe by ‘refixing’ some of the old ’90s songs with my spin on them.

What is your background in the music industry?
I’ve been producing music since the age of 18. I’ve learned various instruments from the keyboard to the tabla. I started working in the industry by producing for African artists such as Tillaman, Stylo G and many more. From there I wanted to do more music for my own community. It then grew from there. The first song I programmed for Kollywood was Chillax for Velayudham. It was my first step into Kollywood while working for music director Vijay Antony. I then went on to work for many other music directors such as Anirudh Ravichander and AR Rahman. Parallelly, I was working on albums for several independent artists based in Europe.

Charles Bosco
Charles Bosco

So, what kind of music do you produce?
I don’t limit myself to any genre. I love experimenting. My preference would be to produce hip-hop, R&B and trap.

And what are your most recent collaborations?
I recently collaborated with Benny Dayal and Andrea Jeremiah, but there’s a whole list of collaborations coming up!

Tell us about your recent collaborations with Andrea Jeremiah and Sony Music India?
Andrea has been a good friend of mine for over eight years. It made sense that we made something together. So, we thought to add our spin to the Oo Solriya track from Pushpa. Previously, I’ve worked with Sony Music India to create originals for artistes such as Arjun Kanungo. This collaboration, however, will see us working together to launch official remixes for several of their upcoming releases.

Where do you see this ‘refix’ project going?
I would probably look to keep going with the refix vibe and parallelly work with artistes to create originals. There’s only so much one can do with a refix. With originals, I have the freedom to try out melodies and new instruments.

Streaming on Instagram.

romal@newindianexpress.com
@elromal

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