Aalaap tugs heartstrings with his voice

The Ennamo Edho singer talks about his ventures outside playback singing and working with ace music directors Harris Jayaraj and Deepak Dev
It just takes one song for a singer to win the hearts of many. Chennai’s own Aalaap Raju would be the first to agree this as he has been thanking heavens since crooning for this year’s chartbuster Ennamo Edho for the movie Ko.
With his suave voice, he could easily be mistaken for a singer who has got years of training behind him.However, it couldn’t have been farther from the truth in case of this 31-year-old lad who was more inclined to sports in his teen years. “My entry to music was accidental,” he says.
“Few friends put together a music band for our college’s statistics department and my buddy, who knew I could carry a tune, asked me to give it a shot.” Though he recalls that he was “shivering and nervous” during his first stint on stage, the band also gave him the chance to play the bass guitar, an instrument he now claims that he “can’t live without.”
Apart from recording for movies, the self-taught bassist is now part of a Jazz band called Frank Dubier’s Jazz Quartet, a rock band and his own multi-genre band named Rahlaap along with his fellow Malayalee friend and playback singer Rahul Nambiar. The duo released their self-titled maiden album earlier this year online and is currently in talks with labels for its physical release.
“The Hindi album has seven songs, four of which are penned by Raqueeb Alam of the Slumdog Millionaire fame,” Aalaap points out. Another highlight is that they have used only live instruments in the entire album in an attempt to revive the waning trend, he says. The singer, who admits he is a huge fan of the band Avial, says that the regional-band scene in Chennai has been looking up in the last few years.
“Lately, a lot of passionate bands are coming out with very good music and their own material,” he adds. With his bands, his very own recording studio and his spiralling career as a playback singer, Aalaap is now one of the busier singers in K-town. Though his debut solo was for the movie Ayyanar, his first break came with singing Ennamo Edho in Ko for music director Harris Jayaraj before going on to croon Engaeyum Kaathal and Anjana Anjana for Vandhan Vendran.
“Harris sir is ultra-patient and he always brings out the best in you without pushing you too hard,” says Aalaap, who had earlier also played bass for the music director. The singer is now excited about his first Malayalam song that he has sung for Sachin Raj and Sreejith Edavana’s Chennai-based band Yuvvh’s debut album.
Though, Aalaap hails from a family that has a rich musical lineage in Mollywood with his grandmother Santha P Nair being a popular yesteryear playback singer, he is yet to do a solo for a movie in his mother tongue. His brush with Mollywood until now includes playing bass for Tournament and singing backing vocals for Teja Bhai and Family under music director Deepak Dev, who he says “is a good friend and a sweetheart to work with.”
With his smooth and suave voice, Mollywood is soon to take notice of this talented Chennai lad.