Thaikkudam Bridge has been on a roll ever since they hit the music scene in 2013. Now what has got the attention of music lovers is their second album, Namah, which will see the band collaborating with renowned musicians and instrumentalists. The album is expected to release by mid-September.
Although tight-lipped about the project, the band has been building up excitement by releasing teasers on social media, with the musicians themselves speaking about the album. Greats such as sitar maestro Niladri Kumar, Hindustani vocalist Rashid Khan, Mohanveena exponent and Grammy Award winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Marco Minnemann, considered one of the world’s best drummers, composer and multi-instrumentalist are some of the legends associated with Namah. It is learnt that the other tracks will feature veteran percussionists.
Govind Menon, frontman of the band says, “Namah is our way of saluting the legends in music. There is no point in celebrating somebody’s achievements after they have left this world. It has been our dream to work with musicians who have been our inspiration and guiding lights and we are fulfilling that through Namah.”
Grand association
The album will have nine tracks with each of them featuring one of the celebrated musician. “They have their solo portion in each song. The arrangement is done in such a way that people will understand how much of a difference they make to each song. You will know why they are considered legends,” Govind adds. There will two Malayalam, English and Tamil tracks and three Hindi tracks.
He says the artistes had no reservations about associating with the band. “They have made a space for their own and it was indeed an honour for us to work with them. We have had the most humbling experience during the recording sessions. A legend like Vishwa Mohan Bhatt had no issues with going in for retakes — we actually went for 16 takes for his song. Also, the recordings were finished very quickly. For Rashid Khan’s song, we needed just 15 minutes. It is a natural process for them you know!” Govind says.
All the artistes agreed to be part of the project after listening to the music of Thaikkudam, especially the tracks from their first album, Navarasam. “Getting Marco on board was an honour. We sent across our tracks such as Chathe, Navarasam and Khwab to him and he was impressed. The exciting part is the release of the album will coincide with his tour of India next month,” Govind says.
People’s music
With music videos being planned for at least three tracks from Namah, the band is going for crowd-funding to meet the enormous production cost. “Navarasam was a big project for us. And we want Namah to be bigger than that. We don’t want to compromise on any aspect. So we need to raise enough funds to meet the cost,” Govind says.
Meanwhile, Thaikkudam’s music will be heard in Bejoy Nambiar’s bilingual movie, Solo. The anthology, starring Dulquer Salmaan, also releases next month.