Today we’d like to introduce you to Kalaisan Kalaichelvan.
Kalaisan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada to a pretty traditional Tamil working-class family of immigrants. Neither of my parents were very musical, but it was really important to them that me and my siblings grew up with a lot of it. So I was raised with lessons in piano, vocals, percussion, flute, dance and more from both Western classical and South Asian traditions. My mom would always have cassette tape recordings of anything from Mahler to M.S. Subbulakshmi playing at home and in the car. And it was this deep saturation in all these different modes of music making and thinking that came to inform the way I think about my practice now.
I had a big appetite for learning about how music worked and how it could be built and engineered. I remember pre-teen me opening up Stravinsky’s score for the Rite of Spring and just having my brain blown by trying to follow along. Or writing a bunch of Beyoncé piano covers (big Halo fan here) to figure out why she made me bawl every time. But it wasn’t until I saw Shawshank Redemption and got to see the poetry of Thomas Newman’s music against picture that I was moved enough to start trying my own hand at composition.
Years later, and I now have this wild career where I get to write music for film, concert, dance and theatre. Moving between cities, getting to work with different musicians, filmmakers and fellow creatives has been the most thrilling ride of my life. And now with some really exciting projects ahead in the year, I’m eager to see where this journey continues to take me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think smooth roads exist when you’re working toward something you love. You don’t get to walk on any pre-determined paths. You have to build one for yourself.
It’s been a long winding journey for me, having worn different hats in different parts of the world for much of my life, as a biochemist, a dancer, a performer, and an arts worker. And in something as commercial and competitive as the film industry, there are a lot of pre-designed boxes that my work doesn’t really fit into.
But there has been a lot of joy in that struggle as well. Risk and the unknown make for meaningful fuel for creativity. And in gathering those diverse lived experiences, I’ve had the honour of finding community that has been deeply nourishing. Between my film work, my concert work, and my solo work, these different worlds and ways of thinking about music and people have really come to inform each other.
The challenges we face when we do what we love are just invitations to step up. And when we rise to meet them, that’s usually when opportunity comes our way. And I’ve been really lucky to have some of those moments in my life and am always grateful to be on this adventure.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a composer that works in film, for the concert stage, and as a solo artist. Over the years, I’ve scored several independent films that have premiered at some big festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival, Outfest, Santa Barabara Film Festival, and Fantasia Film Festival. I’ve had my music performed and commissioned by some of the country’s best ensembles like Pro Coro and the Dior Quartet, being played at institutions like Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and NMC. I was also one of six fellows selected for the prestigious Sundance Institute Composers Lab in 2021 and one of the composers-in-residence at the Canadian Film Centre that same year.
I’ve got to admit it’s a pretty cool year ahead for me. With exciting commissions coming up, including some radical pieces for cello octet and orchestra that will be premiering later this year. I’m also working on this large-scale piano installation project that will involve over 30 pianos out in the mountains. It will be both a live performance and film that looks at how these acoustic instruments can be in deep dialogue with place and time in the natural world.
I’ve got a great feature film I wrote music for called In Flames that is premiering at Cannes this year, in the Directors’ Fortnight section. It’s directed by Zarrar Khan and I’m really excited about celebrating this work with the team in France this summer! And on the other end, I’ve got my debut EP coming up soon. It’s a project called Golconda and it’s exploring a new kind of sound for me that I’m pumped about. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it!
As I mentioned before, these different spaces ask for different things. But across the board, my sound probably exists in the liminal spaces between the experimental, orchestral, and the electroacoustic, playing with different genres and musical styles to find new ways of telling sonic narratives. Honestly, I just really love music and what it has to say. I’m not interested in churning out music just for music’s sake. There needs to be an intention to it, and I’m very particular about how I gather the materials and ingredients to build what I do. Like preparing a meal with love. There’s a lot of care that goes into my music and the kind of stories I want to tell, whether it be in performance or in film.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I sometimes have a hard time framing luck in my head. I think chance is when hard work and opportunity get their own “meet cute”, if you will. And I believe when we work hard, get really good at our craft and align ourselves with our intentions, we just start to bump into the opportunities that ring at that same frequency. The work matters. And doing the work eventually gets you to the right place, surrounded by good people and community. Los Angeles is ripe for this in the most miraculous ways. So I guess in that sense, I have been pretty lucky.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kalaisanmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalaisan13/
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8829034/
