Upcoming composer Rashaanth Arwin on how his journey in music-making has played out so far

The small recording studio is ensconced inside a family apartment in Srirangam, dwarfed, like most buildings around it, by the imposing Rajagopuram of the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple. Rashaanth Arwin is at work on a devotional music album on a humid afternoon when we meet.
“Producing a devotional album may be cheaper than a film soundtrack, but it requires the same amount of work,” says Rashaanth. “You should be able to create a prayerful ambience with your tunes, for which you should have a strong base in classical music.”
Rashaanth, who has scored music for the Tamil film Yoogan (released in April), and is waiting for the launch of his next soundtrack, for Anjali Anniyan Mattrum Pasanga, has never wanted to be anything other than a composer.
“Music runs in our blood,” says Rashaanth, “and my grandfather C. R. Subburaman is my chief inspiration, followed by Ilayaraja and A. R. Rahman.”
Steeped in music
Rashaanth began studying music formally at the age of nine. In his teens, he became interested in composing, and learned sound engineering privately after finishing secondary school. He is an accomplished veena artiste, guitarist and singer.
The family’s heritage is clearly steeped in music. His father Kannan, who worked as a violinist for composer duo Shankar-Ganesh, was also in charge of a stage orchestra in Chennai that had 45 members in its heyday. Rashaanth’s mother Latha, was a professional singer.
Kannan-Latha (as they were known in their showbiz days) shifted to Tiruchi after Shankar and Ganesh split up, and for the past 19 years, have been running a music school in Srirangam.
Changing needs
“Earlier, you needed just a harmonium and dholak to demonstrate a composition,” says Rashaanth. “But now producers want a more complete groove even for a demo scratch. So you should be well-versed in composing and sound engineering in order to stand out from the rest.”
It’s no longer possible for aspiring music directors to join films directly because of the stiff competition says Rashaanth. “Nowadays prospective directors and producers prefer you to have additional experience. I’ve worked on many short films and private albums, before I got here,” says Rashaanth. “You may no longer be expected to audition in person before a producer, but you must show your versatility quickly, otherwise someone else will beat you to it.”
Building the buzz
The Yoogan soundtrack contains both peppy and melodious songs, as well as the moody fare that makes the audio background of the horror film. Marketing has broken down the mystery of film soundtracks, says Rashaanth. “Since there is a release every Friday, it’s become more common to have teasers, trailers and snippets before the film to build a buzz around it. If we do a good job on the snippets, it would be easier to impress the audience in advance,” he says. “So it all gets a bit rushed and stressful towards the end of the production.”
Sound judgement
It’s been a long journey from playing on borrowed keyboards to running his own recording studio with equipment worth lakhs of rupees. “It’s better not to start a studio if you are not confident of your composing skills,” says Rashaanth. “It is the basic component of recording, because a machine cannot do anything by itself. It’s what we put into it that is reproduced.”
And yet the increasing use of voice and tone correction software has made nearly every singer sound the same, he adds. “Even if the music directors are willing to retake the song, producers prefer to save time and money by using plug-ins,” says Rashaanth. “There’s nothing unique about a singer’s voice anymore, because the plug-in will offer only one option.”
The youthful director dreams of turning teacher one day. “Music is not just about songs, it has a therapeutic value which can help reduce the violence we see around us,” he says.
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Musician extraordinaire
Rashaanth Arwin didn’t have to look too far for inspiration to plunge into music direction. “Though my grandfather C.S. Subburaman died before I was born, I have grown up listening to his compositions,” he says. “I admire Thatha’s work because it was so flawlessly done even though he was working with very little technology at that time.”
Considered a musical prodigy by many, Subburaman (also known as C.S. Ram), was born in Chinatmani village (in Tirunelveli district) in 1924 and trained under a nadaswaram player in Kumbakonam. By the age of 16, he shifted to Madras with his father Ramasamy Iyer and joined the in-house orchestra (led by R. Chinnaiah) of the recording company His Master’s Voice (HMV) as a harmonist. A Wikipedia page on him recounts details of his early days of walking from Mylapore to Triplicane for piano lessons and performing devotional songs in the evening accompanied by a youngster called Ramamoorthy on the violin (who was to become M.S. Viswanathan’s composing partner later).
Subburaman’s younger brother Shankar was one half of the composing duo Shankar-Ganesh.
Starting off as a full-fledged composer in his late teens in the 1940s, Subburaman was considered a trend-setter in south Indian film music (he worked in both Tamil and Telugu productions). Singers like Ghantasala and P. Leela made their debut in Subburaman’s scores. Among the music directors who were trained by him were M.S. Viswanathan, T.K. Ramamoorthy, P. Lingappa, Govardhanam, G. K. Venkatesh and Dakshinamoorthy.
Ratnamala, Velaikari, Paithiyakaran, Laila Majnu, and Devadas are some of the notable films that he was associated with.
“Appa used to record his work at the Nageswara Rao Park from midnight to 4 a.m. when Madras would be silent,” says his son Kannan. “The recordings were done on wax plates. It was a hard process, because the plates would be destroyed if there was any extra noise or disturbance outside, and you had to re-record immediately,” he adds.
Not much is known about how his father died at the age of 28 in 1952, adds Kannan. But C.R. Subburaman’s scores for 58 films in just 10 years are living proof of his prodigious talent.