Meeting Mithun
Mithun Raju,classmate, guitar enthusiast as a student, celebrity guitarist now.
A passion turning to success story. There are many such stories, many youtube videos, many TV interviews about celebrities who turned their passion into glory. Honest, inspiring stories.
What makes Mithun different?Access. I spoke to him in his home, in his soundproof studio.What did I speak to him about? Mostly about my own recent inclination for singing and essentially to do a reality check on where I stand visavis my singing.
What I did not do and probably should have done was to hear him guitar live. I am sure
that would have been a flabbergasting experience. What you hear is what you get.
We started off with personal stories, mostly from his side. My story ends with I am a
software engineer working in the US on H1B. My story is in the papers everyday, a run of the
mill software engineer.
His story on the other hand was about how 'Thaikkudam Bridge' having shot to fame led
him to daily shows, which was exhausing for him and how he and the band beat that challenge by tripling the fees. A good problem to have and a good solution for it.
A guitarist, the busiest one in Kochi, judging by his tales, and also by the number of phone calls that he received during the two hours I spent with him.
His personal stories were interlacing with my own questions about pursuing my interest
in music. As he was telling me how hard it is to even get an opening in the music industry,
much less be successful. And how he did not like the industry for it's cut-throat-ness.
And even while I was absorbing that, I was also seeing how sought Mithun was. I work
five days a week and complain that I only get two days for doing stuff outside work.
And here, Mithun was telling the music director Justin ( the music director for the
latest Nivin Pauly movie "Njandukalude naattil oru idavela") that he is booked next Sunday in the evening but that he will try to make it in the morning and play guitar for him.
And later Mithun calls Justin back and tells him that some people are coming over
to soundproof the room we were sitting in so that mikes and stuff can be used and the house can still remain uninterrupted.
On the singing thing, I started off clarifying that I have not sung a single song
yet that I am proud of and then I played him some of the recordings that I had. As I
played each song, I felt like I had just taken hundred dollars from him. Mithun's answers were honest and direct and coming from a friend who cares.
His first and consistent advice was to get a teacher. My singing essentially reflects lack of practice. "Swarasthanam urachittilla" is the technical term he used.
He said that when I try tough songs "Slipaakunuundu, especially gamagangal edukkumbol".
You go get a teacher and spend at least a year. People underestimate the value of a teacher.I have become a good guitarist only because of my teacher.
The next point he brought up was practice. To practise consistently. He spoke about years when the only thing he did was practice from his sound studio and take break only for food.
You need a teacher who can tell you where you are going wrong and to get you to a
state where it is clear what your strengths are so that work can be done on that genre.
But first step is to get a teacher to be able to get enough information to be able to decide where to focus on.There is no guarantee. But it is very much possible that a teacher can fix the basic flaws and performance would be a scale better.
However, it is not just enough to be able to sing well. There has to be something special about your way of singing. If your singing seems to be an attempt to imitate some other singer, then you don't count. The industry would just take the original guy,Why would you matter?I need to lookup Karthik but Karthik is a recent singer who is being imitated by a lot of folks.
If you have something within you and if you work intelligently on it, it will come out. That is for sure but you need to work.
"Talent is way over rated". People always speak about how talented I am. Basic talent is
there but the reason I am a success is the effort I have put in. The countless hours of
practice. He was not speaking from a place of frustration of how his efforts are not being
seen. He is speaking from a place of how wrong the pro-talent propaganda is.
He spoke about how people sing and you can make out immediately how little effort the singer has put into the song and how high the expectations are. I do not think he was inkling towards me. There are associates who have asked him by when can I learn the guitar completely? Pretty absurd question to my untrained mind too.
Since everything that came out of Mithun was a ton load of honest straight talk and no sugarcoating of any sort whatsoever, I attempted to lighten the mode with the question.
"Atleast I am not bad enough to stop the pursuit completely" expecting to elicit something on the lines of "You have talent but it needs work and the like .. the standard nondiscouragement".
Instead I got content yet again.
"Nammalkku passionundenkil nammal shramikkuka, athil veroralude abhiprayam chodhikkenda karyamilla". That rung true and hit the mark.
Just like I rushed into the content of the music related conversation in the blog, I rushed into his music studio before waiting for the tea that I knew his mother was making to arrive because Mithun is a busy man and I was not going to miss out on the time. So, Mithun’s mother brought in banana fry and tea to the music room and spoke at length about Shyam and Nirmal who were our seniors in school and whose band Mithun is still working on after all these years.
I had begun writing this blog on the flight back from India and have lost the thread. Now, the song for which Mithun was being called while we were having our conversations has released and it has come out pretty well and I liked it to the extent that I actually recorded it.
To re-iterate the precious pieces of information some of which I fear I might have lost in the time.
A) Practice.Practice.Practice
I am trying to put that advice into practice by singing in the car on all the drives from and to office.
B) Get a teacher.
I looked around but none found so far to fit in the schedule from a proximity perspective.
C) Very very hard to get into the industry.
D) You need to have something special or different.
E) You need to be able to pick up songs quickly.
F) Today’s Malayalam songs are no match to the songs of Johnson master or Raveendran master.
G) Do not practice incorrectly and repeat the wrong style over and over.
I have been trying to sing with the song so that I practice right and I do see that there is a lot of meaning in that advice as I usually see myself starting off with a version of the song that I am comfortable with and singing it that way and missing all the nuances. There are nuances in every word, every letter of every word of a song. Sing with the song to absorb it.
This is closer than our last meeting which was purely over phone.I hope to continue on these musical conversations and may be at one point sing a song that sounds good.
A passion turning to success story. There are many such stories, many youtube videos, many TV interviews about celebrities who turned their passion into glory. Honest, inspiring stories.
What makes Mithun different?Access. I spoke to him in his home, in his soundproof studio.What did I speak to him about? Mostly about my own recent inclination for singing and essentially to do a reality check on where I stand visavis my singing.
What I did not do and probably should have done was to hear him guitar live. I am sure
that would have been a flabbergasting experience. What you hear is what you get.
We started off with personal stories, mostly from his side. My story ends with I am a
software engineer working in the US on H1B. My story is in the papers everyday, a run of the
mill software engineer.
His story on the other hand was about how 'Thaikkudam Bridge' having shot to fame led
him to daily shows, which was exhausing for him and how he and the band beat that challenge by tripling the fees. A good problem to have and a good solution for it.
A guitarist, the busiest one in Kochi, judging by his tales, and also by the number of phone calls that he received during the two hours I spent with him.
His personal stories were interlacing with my own questions about pursuing my interest
in music. As he was telling me how hard it is to even get an opening in the music industry,
much less be successful. And how he did not like the industry for it's cut-throat-ness.
And even while I was absorbing that, I was also seeing how sought Mithun was. I work
five days a week and complain that I only get two days for doing stuff outside work.
And here, Mithun was telling the music director Justin ( the music director for the
latest Nivin Pauly movie "Njandukalude naattil oru idavela") that he is booked next Sunday in the evening but that he will try to make it in the morning and play guitar for him.
And later Mithun calls Justin back and tells him that some people are coming over
to soundproof the room we were sitting in so that mikes and stuff can be used and the house can still remain uninterrupted.
On the singing thing, I started off clarifying that I have not sung a single song
yet that I am proud of and then I played him some of the recordings that I had. As I
played each song, I felt like I had just taken hundred dollars from him. Mithun's answers were honest and direct and coming from a friend who cares.
His first and consistent advice was to get a teacher. My singing essentially reflects lack of practice. "Swarasthanam urachittilla" is the technical term he used.
He said that when I try tough songs "Slipaakunuundu, especially gamagangal edukkumbol".
You go get a teacher and spend at least a year. People underestimate the value of a teacher.I have become a good guitarist only because of my teacher.
The next point he brought up was practice. To practise consistently. He spoke about years when the only thing he did was practice from his sound studio and take break only for food.
You need a teacher who can tell you where you are going wrong and to get you to a
state where it is clear what your strengths are so that work can be done on that genre.
But first step is to get a teacher to be able to get enough information to be able to decide where to focus on.There is no guarantee. But it is very much possible that a teacher can fix the basic flaws and performance would be a scale better.
However, it is not just enough to be able to sing well. There has to be something special about your way of singing. If your singing seems to be an attempt to imitate some other singer, then you don't count. The industry would just take the original guy,Why would you matter?I need to lookup Karthik but Karthik is a recent singer who is being imitated by a lot of folks.
If you have something within you and if you work intelligently on it, it will come out. That is for sure but you need to work.
"Talent is way over rated". People always speak about how talented I am. Basic talent is
there but the reason I am a success is the effort I have put in. The countless hours of
practice. He was not speaking from a place of frustration of how his efforts are not being
seen. He is speaking from a place of how wrong the pro-talent propaganda is.
He spoke about how people sing and you can make out immediately how little effort the singer has put into the song and how high the expectations are. I do not think he was inkling towards me. There are associates who have asked him by when can I learn the guitar completely? Pretty absurd question to my untrained mind too.
Since everything that came out of Mithun was a ton load of honest straight talk and no sugarcoating of any sort whatsoever, I attempted to lighten the mode with the question.
"Atleast I am not bad enough to stop the pursuit completely" expecting to elicit something on the lines of "You have talent but it needs work and the like .. the standard nondiscouragement".
Instead I got content yet again.
"Nammalkku passionundenkil nammal shramikkuka, athil veroralude abhiprayam chodhikkenda karyamilla". That rung true and hit the mark.
Just like I rushed into the content of the music related conversation in the blog, I rushed into his music studio before waiting for the tea that I knew his mother was making to arrive because Mithun is a busy man and I was not going to miss out on the time. So, Mithun’s mother brought in banana fry and tea to the music room and spoke at length about Shyam and Nirmal who were our seniors in school and whose band Mithun is still working on after all these years.
I had begun writing this blog on the flight back from India and have lost the thread. Now, the song for which Mithun was being called while we were having our conversations has released and it has come out pretty well and I liked it to the extent that I actually recorded it.
To re-iterate the precious pieces of information some of which I fear I might have lost in the time.
A) Practice.Practice.Practice
I am trying to put that advice into practice by singing in the car on all the drives from and to office.
B) Get a teacher.
I looked around but none found so far to fit in the schedule from a proximity perspective.
C) Very very hard to get into the industry.
D) You need to have something special or different.
E) You need to be able to pick up songs quickly.
F) Today’s Malayalam songs are no match to the songs of Johnson master or Raveendran master.
G) Do not practice incorrectly and repeat the wrong style over and over.
I have been trying to sing with the song so that I practice right and I do see that there is a lot of meaning in that advice as I usually see myself starting off with a version of the song that I am comfortable with and singing it that way and missing all the nuances. There are nuances in every word, every letter of every word of a song. Sing with the song to absorb it.
This is closer than our last meeting which was purely over phone.I hope to continue on these musical conversations and may be at one point sing a song that sounds good.
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