MUMBAI: Hyderabad-born, London-based alternative rock singer-songwriter, Shriram Alluri, has recently released a 12-track Telugu album. Previous to this, Alluri, was known as an artist who’s infused the best of two cultures as his debut album was in English. For his second album, the singer thought of going for his native language. The name of the album is O Katha: Tales of This Telugu Man’.
“When I did my first album which was in English, I realized that I won’t be able to share it with someone like my grandmom. That’s when the idea of doing an album in Telugu hit me,” says Alluri.
He adds, “This urge came from a deep longing to identify my native space. I have always written songs in English, but I went through an identity crisis before coming up with this album.”
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Being brought up in a foreign land and connecting back with mother tongue was not short of a homecoming. “My Telugu is very basic and I have exhausted all my vocabulary in Telugu. The songs, however, don’t have lyrical prowess but they express the basic emotion. I will continue writing in English but this was like going back to school,” says Alluri.
Whenever there is an experiment with a language or culture, backlash from the purists is not very far. Alluri is ready for it, “I have resigned to the fact that these songs aren’t for any traditional Telugu person. I understand this can only appeal to a modern Telugu generation. I took the songs to a lyricist for help and while he left three to four songs untouched saying they are fine; he did rephrase or add a couple of verses wherever required to make the songs sound authentic.”
As far as the response is concerned, Alluri is clear, “My challenge is for the next album and I am already focusing on it. But yes, for this one I want to be happy as this is my effort in own language.”
O Katha: Tales of This Telugu Man, also happens to be the first Telugu album with Italian musicians in it. “I had done a demo for these songs. My manager happened to send these demo recordings to different producers. The Grammy award-winning producer Tommaso Colliva heard the demos and liked them and asked me to meet him. It was a straightforward process. The Italian musicians and we worked on a musical level and language was never a problem,” shares Alluri.
Of the 12 tracks, Alluri picks his two favorite songs, “Evari Kosam- It’s a simple song and a good example of collaboration between the Italian musicians and us. The second one is Balyam which is about Childhood.”
He signs off saying, his aspiration is to work for the live music scene and for that, he is, “ready to take any route-Bollywood, Tollywood or anything.”
The 12 tracks music album is available on digital platforms and also in vinyl. The download of the album is available on allurimusic.com.
