From pen to piano: Christopher’s musical trip

Casually dabbling with words turned into song writing over a period of time and soon he found himself taking the first step in launching an independent album. Christopher Pradeep G overcame his struggles and soon tasted success following the launch of his first music album as an independent artiste, which also got him his first big breakthrough.

“I released my first independent music album, a collection of Tamil rock called Rockural in 2011. I was the singer and composer for the album. Benny Dayal was impressed with my work and he even sang one of the songs”, says Christopher with a smile, recalling the opportunities that came following it.

“Benny gave me the opportunity to work for his first album Vazhkai DJ where I wrote all the six songs. Then Tamil fever happened with Benny and Nucleya. It clicked across the nation”.

Riding on the wave of success, Christopher was roped in for Benny’s second music album Funk katcheri with the band Funktuation in 2019.

“That made way for me to write a song for my debut movie Mei which released a few days back and is doing well,” shares Christopher. He penned the lyrics for a fund-raiser song for Chennai floods that featured Vishal Dadlani, Benny Dayal, Chinmayi and Kenny John.

Christopher is an example for those who cite their busy lives as an excuse for not being able to pursue their dreams in the long run. “My job involves a lot of travelling, but I have just decided not to give up my dream. And that’s my advice to aspiring musicians. If you get an opportunity, just grab it.”

Today the production part is also not as expensive as it was before. “Upcoming talents are producing their own albums, editing them and publishing them on social media every other day”, says the lyricist who has already worked on two feature films as a script-writer, has two more in hand and aspires to be a filmmaker some day.

Christopher is happy about the recent boom in independent music.

“It is reviving. Singers who can’t make it to playback are producing independent music and thanks to social media for the reach it has given to people. The boom of independent music that the mid 90’s witnessed, I believe there was a fall in the graph post early 2000s. More reality shows and their repeat telecasts got into the picture and independent music videos in the prime time somewhat lost their way. I hope the popular music channels come up with more shows on independent music,” shares Christopher who sees potential in shows like MTV’s Coke studio.   When it comes to personal inspiration, Christopher looks up to AR Rahman, Sonu Nigam and Sukhwinder Singh.