Life in lockdown has been difficult for Tyron Davey. The independent musician based in Coimbatore has not had any gigs in the past two months. “This is the first time that I am without a show for this long, and I have been performing for the last 20 years,” he says. However, some recent news has cheered Tyron up considerably, “I will soon be singing online in front of a large crowd. I am excited,” he says.

He is one of nine singers lined up for the online concerts organised by Riffbook.org, a website by Chennai-based musician and graphic designer Jay Manickadas. Jay says “The lockdown has been a huge blow to those who work in the entertainment sector. Without any gigs, they are left without income. I wanted to do something about it and thought of live online concerts.”

Jay Manickadas  

Jay launched Riffbook.org last week. It took him one day to design the website. “It is user-friendly with information on the upcoming shows and a small brief on the artiste. I now have shows planned from May 30 to July 4,” he says. The singers will do covers of popular songs and also sing their original compositions. Each show is for an hour and can be streamed by 850 people on the website. “It is a ticketed event and the price starts from ₹200. I make sure that the musicians are paid before they go online and the payment is not dependent on the number of tickets sold,” he explains.

Jay did not expect such a response from the artistes when he first put forth his idea. “But, when I contacted the singers, I was overwhelmed. I managed to rope in big names like Ric Fierabracci, who has thrice been nominated for the Grammy awards. He has also performed with Shakira, The Beach Boys, The 5th Dimension and so on. Another well-known artiste is Matt Bacon. He is a faculty at AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory and has also worked with Rahman.” Jay is now looking for artistes for the coming months.

“Any musician interested to be a part of this venture can get in touch with me through the website. I will come up with the list of singers after a selection process,” he says.