A band that was born out of love for Tamil

After completing their engineering, a team of five youngsters from Kerala decided to pursue sound engineering. They took the ‘Madras Mail’ train from Kerala to Chennai and joined Muzik Lounge School of Audio Technology in the city. Little did they know that the train journey and the events that followed would change their lives. From jamming in classes to performing live gigs and releasing songs, they came together to form an experimental fusion rock band called Madras Mail. What’s special about this 100 per cent Malayali band is that they render all the songs in Tamil.

Sharing with us the story behind the name of the band, one of the band members, Tom Varghese, says, “We wanted to give a quirky name to the band and the members were thinking of a unique name. One of the members suggested that since the train journey from Kerala to Tamil Nadu changed everything, why don’t we keep the name of the express, Madras Mail, as our band’s name.”

The five-member team comprisesSachin Yesudas on vocals, Tom Varghese on keys/synthesizer, Akhil Babu on drums, Durwin D’souza on guitars and Michael Timothy on bass guitar. They started off their journey by winning at Rangreza, an inter-collegiate music competition conducted by KM Music Conservatory. “Our first song titled Madras Mail was produced by AR Rahman sir and the video was played in a channel and the song was played in the radio, globally.”

Though most of the band members are from Kerala, they write only Tamil songs. “If you see, there are many bands from Kerala that specialise in Malayalam. But in Tamil Nadu, there aren’t many bands that make original music in Tamil. We thought of exploring this opportunity and decided to focus only on Tamil songs. Moreover, we love the Tamil language as much as we love our mother tongue. Arivu, a common friend of ours writes Tamil lyrics and helps us with the correct diction,” Tom tells us.

So far, they have written one Malayalam folk song titled, Mannu. Currently, the team is working on its new album and also composing songs for the Tamil documentary, Jallikattu. Tom says that during a live gig the band interacts with the audience in a way that the public are also participating in the show. “Usually, people come for the concerts and take pictures and videos; they don’t enjoy the show thoroughly. So, during each show, we make a request and urge the audience to keep their phones away and relish every moment,” Tom sums up.