A new beginning for Fen Viallee

Tamil film music, in recent years, seems to be getting a fresh influx of young and talented composers and the latest to join this burgeoning brigade is Fen Viallee, who is making his debut with Soorya Nagaram.
The first-timer already has the distinction of being the youngest eighth grade holder from a renowned college of music. Not only that, he also claims to have gotten the highest marks ever attained by a student in that grade.
Starting off on how he entered film music, Fen says, ���������Both my granddad and dad are musicians. My grandfather Xavier has played string instruments for M S Viswanathan and K V Mahadevan. My dad is a guitarist and has played for K V Mahadevan and Chalapathy Rao. So, right from the time when I was three years old, when someone asked me what I wanted to become, I would reply that I wanted to be a music director.���������
The composer, who trained under Abdul Sattar, completed his grade eight at the age of 16. ���������Harris Jayaraj and D Imman were my seniors. It was Harris sir who awarded me the certificate,��������� he recalls and adds, ���������After graduation, my dad decided to produce a movie to make me a composer.���������
But Fen, who majored in western classical music, says that he zeroed in on a rural subject to challenge himself. ���������The film is a love story that revolves around a social problem. The tunes of the songs will have an Indian flavour but for the orchestration, I decided not to have the regular Indian instruments,��������� he says.
Soorya Nagaram is directed by debutant Ma Chellamuthu, who has assisted filmmakers like P Vasu and R V Udhayakumar.
Luckily, for Fen, the subject demanded songs belonging to different genres. ���������So, I got to score romantic tracks, a pathos number and even a thiruvizha song,��������� says the composer, whose favourite among the songs is the romantic number Unnai Pirivena....
���������It was the last song I composed and since I had to record it in a short time, it is the only song in the album for which the lyrics were written first. Vairamuthu sir (who has written all the songs) was initially doubtful if I could pull it off, but he was very impressed with the final output,��������� says Fen, who adds that the lyricist became personally interested in the success of the project.
Seasoned singers like S P Balasubrahmanyam, Chitra, Sujatha, Karthik and Chinmayi have crooned in the album and Fen says that it was only because he felt that they would suit the respective songs best. ���������I decided to have Karthik as the voice of the hero. But the heroine���������s character changes shades throughout the film. So, I went for different female vocals,��������� he explains.
���������Every tune is a window to the soul of a music director. If a young composer wants to last long in the industry, he has to express himself in innovate ways, appeal to every section of the audience, be original and also work really hard for his success,��������� signs off the composer.