Coming home with his kind of music
Arjun: Hoping to make music with local stars. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Having amassed a remarkable following in the United Kingdom (UK) and in India as a Brit-Asian artist with his fusion of contemporary Western and Eastern sounds, Arjun Coomaraswamy who goes simply as Arjun in his professional life, is pivoting towards Sri Lanka to connect with his roots and bring the island’s vibrant culture into his music.
Despite having migrated to the UK when he was just four years old, Arjun now 31, is as Sri Lankan as they come, with his love for a midnight kottu run and cricket. His love for music comes from his parents – father Indrajit Coomaraswamy and mother Tara de Fonseka, and it was his mum who pushed him towards playing instruments when he was younger and initially unwilling, he says, when he meets the Sunday Times for an exclusive interview.
From the piano, guitar, keyboard, drums and the flute, Arjun says that he was always around music, growing up. “My mother was into Western music and played a lot of jazz while the friends I grew up with were Indian so that’s where the Bollywood influence came from,” says adding that he began to explore Tamil music because of his father. That led to his first viral hit when he did his own rendition of ‘Why this Kolaveri Di’ that saw the song’s original artist reaching out and kick starting Arjun’s music career.
Although at the core, Arjun’s music has a western vibe to it, he is not afraid to incorporate and experiment with different languages, evident from his extensive discography that includes smash Bollywood and Kollywood hits. Arjun has released collaborative videos with several well-known Desi artists, including Guru Randhawa, Mickey Singh, Vidya Vox, Jonita Gandhi, F1rstman, The PropheC and Falak.
Having a solid background in music production and sound engineering which he studied at Point Blank Music School in London, the singer-songwriter signed up with Universal Music, and has also been with India’s largest music label, T-Series for the past five years, touring the world–performing at iconic venues such as Times Square, New York and the Wembley Arena (UK), and to crowds of over 100,000. ‘I’ll be Waiting’ his first single with T-Series charted at #1 on the iTunes India Chart.
And as of 2021, Arjun can count over 1.1 billion views on YouTube and 1.03 million YouTube followers. He also has over 1.6 million followers on Facebook, 450,000 followers on Instagram, 100,000 on Twitter, and 2 million followers on Spotify.
Arjun the cricket fan: With leading batsman Charith Asalanka
His struggle to find an identity being a British Asian where it seemed he was split between two worlds, has in fact, been an inspiration. “ For me, I think that the key has always been to have that core inherent sound, which is the English R&B, but it’s always been mixed with some sort of Asian elements. Over the last 10 years, I’ve done collaborations with other artists who have a different mark, different pathways, different sounds than you and that creates an interesting fusion. I think that has been the key to sustaining that 10-year career,” he adds, full of respect for the Gypsies for having such amazing longevity in the industry.
His advice for budding artists is to embrace the nuances, sounds and trends in the industry while being flexible as sound changes to deal with the times. If you’re a new artist, try and find a sound that you think is different with some sort of elements from your past experience, he says.
Now in Sri Lanka, where his appearances have so far been few – just a few private shows and small club performances, he hopes to connect with local fans. Memorable for him was the time in 2012 when he sang the official theme song for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 alongside Bathiya and Santhush and Umaria and performed at the opening ceremony in the Sri Lankan Premier League, the same year.
“I haven’t been in Sri Lanka since 2019 because of the pandemic otherwise I usually come around three times a year to visit family. We just teamed up with Ravi de Silva from The Management Co. Intl. (TMCI) and the plan is to do some collaborations here. We are talking to some quite big legends in the Sri Lankan scene to try and bring my more youthful formula and their classic songs from the past, to try and make something new, like a hybrid of the two,” Arjun says keeping his collaborating artists under wraps for now.
“I’ve kind of played and built a following where I guess I can do a concert in almost any country, moving toward every continent, yet I haven’t established like one particular stronghold. So, I think it would be great to come to Sri Lanka and do something like that,” he shares.
While in Sri Lanka, Arjun also hopes to raise awareness about heart risk among the young. After the shattering loss of his wife Natasha due to sudden cardiac arrest three years ago, Arjun has involved himself in the charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) that helps people like himself who lost their loved ones or other young people to highlight this issue. He organised a charity concert in 2020 to support this cause and is currently CRY’s charity ambassador.
The pandemic saw him back to his early days as an artist, recording covers in his bedroom and writing songs, some of which he hopes to release this year. Super excited to perform again with concerts planned in the Maldives, there’s one to be held in Sri Lanka in December, he reveals. Fans will, no doubt, be counting the days for this home concert of sorts, and for Arjun it’s so significant that he’s calling it ‘the holy grail’!
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