Musician Siennor
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The strum and squeak of Siennor’s guitar often lend themselves to deliberation.
The Tamil indie musician who writes on familiar themes — of love and a mind lost in thought — is back on stage after taking a one-and-a-half year break.
He will be performing a set with crowd favourites like ‘Innum Enna’ and ‘Ponnira Maalai’ at Barracuda Brew on June 14 ,with two other veteran musicians and friends — Vinay R (drums) and Aravind Murali (bass). New material is a given too, considering the break.
While most listeners tune into Siennor to hear gentle music with lyrics that urge one to engage with thoughts, all consequences of today’s times, the artiste says that he has also received adulation from listeners from North India who do not speak a word of Tamil “I mostly do not know how to react,” he says.
Performing under the stars
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Siennor has only rarely sung in front of an audience since the beginning of 2023. A magical experience last year involved singing under the stars during the Perseid meteor shower, but that was one-off.
Through this phase, he has received several messages and requests from fans demanding an explanation for his absence. A live performance is where he most comes alive. What has kept him busy?
Besides actively working on new music, Siennor has been creating a witches brew of funky sounds through his new app, Metropolitan Koothaadi. “I have been working on an electronic project — an app where new sounds can be sampled with electronic sounds,” he says. This application plays around with electronic music, a bit of neo folk and psychedelia. The idea behind it is to have fun while creating engaging music.
The app will play a significant role during the concert. He adds that a reunion of the trio that is going to be performing on stage, will be an asset as the musicians are familiar and have known each other a while. They have been rehearsing to ensure that all the new material creates a rhythm that promotes nods and grooves.
This Chennai-based musician who first played the keyboard at seven and then picked up the guitar, has been writing songs since 2009. “What first began as lyrics in English quickly became Tamil as I was more comfortable there. I try to keep the lyrics simple. The songs go through several drafts until I land on what I like,” Siennor says.
While some songs are inspired by incidents, others are moulded by prompts. ‘Muyal Thottam’ for instance, came into being because the musician read a line by philosopher J Krishnamurti. “It urged the reader to observe one’s thoughts as one would watch rabbits which are playing,” he says.
Siennor says that talks are on for a tour in the future as he has listeners in cities with Tamil diaspora across the world including Canada, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. For now though, the audience in Chennai will see more of him on stage.
@Barracuda Brew, Nungambakkam on June 14, 7pm onwards. Tickets starting from ₹699. Event curated by Quriosity.
