KRISHNACHANDRAN- A Voice of Beautiful Expressions

INTRODUCTION

The young singer series is started with the sole intent to feature singers who dedicated a fair amount of their life time to learning classical music. Krishnachandran is our pick to this effect and we are so proud to present a singer whose profile show tremendous talent and collaborations that his friends and followers appreciate and love much. The latter is taken as the measure how he conducts himself on the Smule by responding to the comments and show how serious he use this app for his career goals.

Krishna

Krishna was known to us long time back when we had seen him singing along with two influencial male singers from Malayalam Arun Mohan and Amal Shankar. His name was proposed by his friends and followers. 

Approached him with an intend to better understand this singer before making a decision to feature him, Krishna was very sure about the reasons why he need to tell everyone about his music. That readiness itself put him at a top of all contestants among a tough competition from South where there is an abundance of so many well trained singers on Smule. Gave enough time for him to think about how he want to present himself before a face time, when called at his residence on late Sunday, Krishna came with a big smile, that made our day welcoming and spirited. He was as confident as it can be, looking very pleasant and ready to spend some time chatting about his music.

Krishna for short, his full name is Krishnachandran is from Kerala’s cultural capital Thrissur and from a small hamlet called Kodakara. Krishna grew up in a family where music is a part of everything. “When I was nine years old, my music teacher at school inspired me to participate in light music competitions at Youth festivals. He grew up learning proper Carnatic music from various teachers (reasons partly due to his family moved around) until he joined Sopanam Sangeetha Vidyalayam, a school in Trissur dedicated to preserve and nurture the culture and music of Kerala. The link added here will give an idea to readers what this Institute’s name is all about. Please visit the link from here. These Institutes are there to preserve and nurture all those valuable traditional arts and culture unique to Kerala. We did try to write a little bit about the Sopana Sangeetham in Vipin and Arjun M features. Please go and read this extra special feature that we put a lot of effort to write on this blog.

Krishna is a true representation of all that rich culture of music and dedication to learn music, that is a part of South India’s music life. Krishna remember and thank his Guru Bindhu Satheesan and other earlier gurus for teaching him everything he knows in Carnatic music. Krishna says (shows how much he like the classical music) “Learning Carnatic music is like a life journey, where you learn music in a different style, yet at the end more understanding of it, reveals the universal nature of music.”

Krishna although is a serious musician at the moment he works for a multi-national in their Logistics and Supply chain division. So he says “At the moment my other career take a lot of precedence in  my life. Yet, I try my best to practice and learn music every day.”

Krishna remembers “When I started singing Kucheri’s on stage, I never liked my own voice. Many a time, myself started doubting my voice and abilities.” Krishna remember those were dark days of his singing career. He totally gave up the dream of a singing career and started thinking of learning an instrument closer to his heart, Violin. He think that gave him the better understanding of the singing process, so may be a blessing in disguise. Right away let us hear a beautiful violin recital by Krishna here. Enjoy guys, it is short but beautiful presentation of his skills on a very tough instrument.

Moham Kondu Jan A melody from Malayalam

That inhibition of singing was totally eating up his thoughts, when one of his friends requested him to join in a collaboration on Smule. When he sang the song with him he never thought his friends will send him so much love and encouraging comments. But it was his friends that did everything that helped Krishna get over his mental block from liking his own singing. He especially thank Karthika and Krishnanunni and says this about them “They are my best motivators and critics among my smule friends. I can not thank enough to them. My parents and friends are the other best supporters of my musical journey. They always motivated me to sing more.”

So what do you want to do with your music? “Playback singing is the dream. I already have made an album song during the last Thrissur Pooram season.” Krishna said. He did this along with like minded friends. It is an impressive attempt. Let us listen to it here. It is a time when festivals come, one remember about the close ones that left us. The visuals captured here display the grandeur of the Pooram festival of Kerala, while the undertone of a sadness of separation is rightly captured in Krishna’s voice and singing. Give a listen.

Will music makes a livelihood if Krishna pursue a singing career? Krishna hesitated a bit before answering. “At the moment the singing as a career in Kerala is not at all a profession, even for people who want to pursue a full time. Unlike Kerala, the neighboring state Tamil Nadu and its capital Chennai give so much prominence to the Carnatic music, if one decide to move over there, it might be an ideal place to pursue such a career.”

So what sort of music do you like? ” Always songs with a classical touch goes to the front, I also like melodies”

“My favorite singer is Dasettan, Vijay Yesudas, Madhu Balakrishnan, Vijay is a very unique singer with a very characteristic voice. Among female singers K.S. Chithra and Sujatha and Swetha are my most liked singers.”

“Among music directors ARR is the ultimate. I can keep going on my likes but have to mention Shankar Mahadevan for sure in my favorite list. Among western music sources I like some what party mood songs.”

What is your take on use of voice modulating technology that make it easy for even Salman Khan to start singing playback? “Studios increasingly becoming dependent on software technology for recordings, which make everything easy. But for a budding artist, who want to record his voice to experiment and improve his singing, these are not helpful at all. If you want to hear how you sound and to assess how you stayed in pitch and tune throughout a song one must sing without any such help and keep correcting his mistakes.” Krishna said it all. And there we say Krishna say what Smule app is all about. It is given in your hands to make use of it the way you want.

What is your take on your colleagues? “For me, they are my support always. Some of my co singers were so kind, they supported me tremendously despite my flaws. I have never ending respect for all. Sometime, when some invites have more than 300 joins, I also have overlooked many joins. But new feature @commenters @joiners or anything after @is beautiful.” He smile big.

What is your best quality as per your own assessment? “May be as per many it is my own voice. I am glad, I myself started feeling comfortable hearing it after recording.” A big quality right there for any career oriented singer, you have to feel comfortable hearing yourself and Smule help you a lot in that aspect.

What is your bad quality ” May be my laziness to learn the details of each song. I have to improve on that.” So it was our chance to try to say some of the critiques we had about his voice “Not singing very open.”  Krishna immediately said with a big smile ” Yes, I am still inhibited on that aspect, many told me. I am still working on it. But thanks for the critique.”

That was the end of our time asking this young vibrant, cheerful, pleasant, happy, enthusiastic, very charming, above all very open to critiques what defines this young singer. He is here to sing, improve, take criticisms positively and take everyone on its way to his heart. Krishna showed tremendous amount of resilience and potential to improve on his singing. And that makes him our choice of the season as the young singer with a great potential to develop a singing career.

Let us hear this singer with out delay from his Smule songs . Here he joins Arun Mohan on a very commendable performance on  a semi classic song. Very commendable performances from both singers.

Krishna join his best buddy Krishnanunni on Smule who is also a very impressive singer on Smule. Krishnanunni and his open mind in encouraging his friend singers is an absolute great attribute we saw very rarely on Smule Sing. Visit his profile at the link. Krishna specifically thanked him here for his constant support and love and friendship. Enjoy this.

On a Krishna invite Sanjay Santhosh joins here on a beautiful join of a song made immortal by Malayalam music director Raveendran and sung by none other than KJ. Amazing performances. Sanjay the most promising young singer on Malayalam Smule. Give a listen.

Oru Noku Kaanauvan sung (beautifully) originally by Karthik from a recent movie Sunday Holiday (hey love that name) and sung here on  a great collaboration from a Smule user Aswathy Anand. Beautiful melody done full justice. Listen.

User Karthu 94 joins an awesome ARR composition with Krishna. Karthu need a very special mention here and want to say that she was one of the top contestants to be considered for a place here. Beautiful singer and equally strong performances by both. Give a listen.

When asked about Krishna’s understanding on world music he said he like party, joyful pop songs. And here he joins Ann Marie and made this English/Malayalam MASH UP. Very refreshing. There are many such made but this is refreshing and very interesting choices of songs. Give a listen.

Lastly the biggest support for Krishna from Amal Shankar who recently sung for an upcoming Malayalam movie (coming out very soon) joins Krishna on this very very beautiful Malayalam song. Beautiful singing by both singers. Again ultimate Raveendran, (1943-2005) the music director Malayalam misses a lot. Give a listen.

END NOTES

When we finish writing up this, it is a pleasure when one see singers like Krishna very collaborative, pleasant with everyone he collaborate and interact with. He took his place here by sheer focus and hardwork. He display a high intelligent approach and professionalism in his dealings. We are more than proud to have him featured here and support him in his every effort to a successful music career both in Carnatic and playback singing. Here is the link to his Smule profile and go and encourage this singer and follow him. All the best wishes Krishna (we feel like we are calling out to the Lord Krishna).