Credit: Special Arrangement
By Deepa Natarajan Lobo
Inspired by the pop culture all his life, Abby V now gets to work with many of the artistes whom he grew up idolising. “Life has truly come a full circle and it feels surreal,” says the award-winning singer, songwriter and composer, who was exposed to a lot of music during his childhood in Toronto. “Like all Indian parents abroad, even mine overexposed me to Indian culture and music,” he jests.
As a six-year-old, he started learning Carnatic and Hindustani music simultaneously in addition to pursuing Western music in school. “Music was never a ‘side thing’ at home. It was taken very seriously. My dad would perform at local shows and I would often sing along. I was influenced by phenomenal artistes such as A R Rahman, Justin Timberlake, Usher and Chris Brown.”
Foray into classical world
However, classical music wasn’t all that appealing at the beginning for Abby as he would often skip classes and focus on his love for pop culture. But thanks to his gurus Ranjani-Gayatri and Raji Gopalakrishnan, he started to explore more. “Classical music happened very organically to me in my middle to late teens,” says the artiste who, despite a late start, gained a lot of popularity on it.
“I had stayed away from it for a long time as I wasn’t ready. Like many others, I too was skeptical on whether it could translate into a full-fledged career. I took my own time to get into it and understand what kind of music I wanted to portray,” he notes.
Stirring up social media storm
In 2020, when he released a video of himself casually singing 73 ragas in one take, it went viral and the rest, as they say, is history. He has, over the years, created several memorable classical collaborations with iconic singers including K S Chithra, Sudha Raghunathan and Aruna Sairam.
“All of them are magnanimous artistes who are extremely open to me although I am so junior to them. The collaborations happened organically and are effortless with either of us getting in touch with the other. For instance, when I was in Chennai, I called Chithraji up and asked her to meet me. She instantly agreed and we created several videos together.”
Working on social media, he points out, has given him lasting friendships too with artistes like actress Mithila Palkar, with whom he has released several short videos and Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej, with whom he recently released an album titled ‘Aarambh’ which received a lot of praise. “Mithila is a dear friend and Ricky is one of the most receptive and respectful musicians I have ever met,” he says.
A promising 2024
With a lot up his sleeve including extensive tours and singles in south Indian languages, Abby, who splits his time between Toronto and Mumbai, promises that 2024 will see him continue working on interesting collaborations. “In our profession, it’s very easy to get into our own space. But I just love working with other artistes and am a true content creator at heart. I just love creating and at any given point, I have a thousand ideas running in my head. I even consume social media content in most of my free time,” he admits.
As far as trends in the music scene are concerned, he hopes that 2024 is the year when authenticity shines again. “Whenever a new form of media arises, there’s inevitably a lot of clutter. The same holds true for social media. However, eventually, the noise is weeded out and attention is paid to those who have worked hard and truly deserve the success. Hopefully, that authenticity will be valued again,” he concludes.