Susha's debut album explores love, attention and being human

Love, for Susha, is attention. It is the time, curiosity, patience, and energy one gives to something before anyone else has reason to care about it. For Chennai-based singer-songwriter Subiksha Rangarajan, or Susha, that something became Love Language, her debut album of original music. Its 12 songs have taken shape over nearly a decade, bringing together Carnatic music, jazz, Indian melody and improvisation, while moving between English and Tamil.

Susha's Love Language brings together Tamil, English, Carnatic music and jazz

“I think the idea of love as attention was really where the album began,” Susha says. “When you choose to give something your time, curiosity, patience, and energy, you are already expressing a kind of love.” The songs grew into different expressions of that idea. “They became a collection of different ways of loving, and different ways of paying attention to the world,” she adds.

At its heart, Love Language is about being human. “Belonging, change, curiosity, love, resilience, and learning to let go,” Susha says, describing the ideas that run through the record. Written over nearly a decade, the songs became snapshots of different versions of Susha.

The record draws on Susha’s Carnatic training and her master’s in Jazz. “The solos, vocal improvisations, and scat passages are very intentional,” she says. “They extend the narrative of the song, sometimes saying something that the words cannot, and give the listener space to imagine beyond what I’ve written.” English and Tamil emerged naturally too, with each song finding the language that suited it.

The singles offer a glimpse of that range. Vizhundhen, her first Tamil song, explores the experience of falling, rebuilding, and finding the courage to rise again. “Musically, it is also the most lush and orchestral song on the album. It has a string quartet and a woodwind trio, and a dramatic emotional arc,” she says. Home, meanwhile, has grown familiar through years of live performances, with listeners connecting to its sense of belonging and comfort.

The songs began with Susha’s voice and guitar before collaborators entered the picture. “The songs needed solitude first,” she says. “They needed to become themselves before I could invite other people in to help them become something more. I’ve spent years building this private creative world, and Love Language is my way of opening the door,” she smiles.

Now that the door is open, the songs have to travel without her. “There’s a vulnerability in allowing something that has been so personal to become public, but that’s also the most exciting part,” she smiles. “Now I’m curious to see what they might mean to someone else,” she concludes.

Love Language is available on all audio streaming platforms.

Email: anoushkakundu@newindianexpress.com

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