Masala coffee, just what the name suggests has a vast combo of music elements like Indian folk, blues, pop and rock, is capturing hearts all over the world. The music enthusiasts of 8 songwriters, artists and composers, growing stronger with countless gigs in overseas countries, winning numerous national awards, recognitions and place their stem in celluloid.
Masala Coffee is the brainchild of multi- percussionist Varun Sunil, launched in 2014 and achieved fame across Kerala with their unique performance in Music Mojo. The folk songs they composed got wide recognition and it later even used in Malayalam and Tamil films. Entered with best contribution in big screens, the music band composed several kinds of songs all over South India.
Recently the sensational music band interacted with Krishi Jagran in a live talk at KJ Kerala Facebook and shared their views regarding folks, music heritage, culture and agriculture. 'Language has no barriers. Music can travel in any languages and we produce songs with a unique element of Masala Coffee. Those who are approaching us ask for the band's component in the content. And we are giving them accordingly. We worked in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada films. We worked on various tracks like melody, fusion, fast tempos, etc.'
It is not only a matter of entertainment; the band with its existence of eight years proves that themes and visuals with social relevance also play a crucial role in society. Masala Coffee's signature song 'Aalayal thara venam', sets different pathway in arts and culture. Their outputs like Arival, Aadiyillallo, Safar and Manitham dealt with labour, celebration of womanhood and also discussed the pandemic scenario.
‘I know I have the stuff. Not only me, my crew members also confident in their potential. Everyone has struggles in their life and I had to cross it from 2007 to 2010. Even I worked as a light boy, slept in railway stations and passed through many obstacles. But one by one I achieved, with performances and had to even compete with wickedness and conflicts with in the industry.’ The master brain behind Masala Coffee is satisfied with its growth, telling that the new vocalists are able to go with any languages and thus MC is conquering all genres of music.
The team has gone through several changes as new vocalists and artists set foot in the band. Not merely South Indian languages and Hindi, the key vocalist Aslam sings in Arabic, Punjabi and Marathi. The vibrant performance of Crishna JK in South Indian languages and English captivated audiences across the globe.
Apart from Varun Sunil, Aslam and Crishna JK, the other key musicians are keyboard player Steve Kottoor, guitarist Preeth PS, bass guitarist Paul Joseph, violinist Amal Sivan and Daya Shankar on drums. The legendary Esraj maestro Arshad Khan occasionally joins with the team and weaves his magic in the folk songs.
They are making up with a handful of concerts as human life is gaining to a new form from Covid-19. Though they struggled during the lockdown without live performance, the troupe was working on their improvisation and independent album during the period. For them, the post- lock down experiences is like a ‘parent seeing their children years after. The band is currently working on ‘EKTARA‘, which have songs from different languages.
‘Ektara has one English track sung by Crishna JK, which is related to nature. Another song dealt with some social relevant issue like female foeticide,’ said Varun Sunil.
They have signed two Telugu films ‘Rudra’ and ‘Gunde Katha Vintara’. Apart from music composition, the band is setting up the background score of the latter.
