Music is what I do 24x7 and I want it to be like that, says singer Kapil Kapilan

Multilingual singer Kapil, who hails from Kerala, talks about getting into programming, composing and exploring different aspects of music production

Kapil Kapilan’s singing career could be divided into before and after ‘Adiye’. The viral track from the Tamil film Bachelor (2021), starring GV Prakash Kumar and Divya Bharathi, bagged him opportunities in all the South Indian languages.

In fact, it is post ‘Adiye’ that Kapil got his break in Malayalam, his mother tongue — he has sung in Bheeshmaparvam (‘Aakasham’), Night Drive (‘Pathi pathi’) and Pathrosinte Padappukkal (‘Theeyanu’). He has projects in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, the recent one being the multilingual Oh Sita Hey Rama, starring Dulquer Salmaan, for composer Vishal Chandrasekhar.

“I have been in the industry since 2017. It took five years to get recognition. ‘Adiye’ changed everything for me. I even won an award for best upcoming singer recently!”

A native of Kottarakkara in Kollam district, he moved to Chennai after his graduation to focus on music. “My father [CR Madhusoodanan Pillai] introduced me to all kinds of music. I have been trained in Carnatic music from childhood and this continued till my graduation.”

Kapil says his college life in Thiruvananthapuram [at Mar Ivanios College] inspired him to go deep into music. “I used to perform with a band, Renegades, while in college. It was through my friends that I came to know about AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. So, even though my family wanted me to get a secure job, I had decided to move to Chennai and learn music,” he says.

In Chennai, he took lessons from musicians such as Sriram and Sriram Parthasarathy. After that he learnt sound engineering from Muzik Lounge School of Audio Technology in Chennai.

“After I finished my course in sound engineering, my plan was to do covers. Since I knew some of the sound engineers, I could give my CDs with demo tracks to them. I got calls from [composers] Pritam, DSP (Devi Sri Prasad], Gopi Sundar.... Even though I was excited about that, I didn’t know how to go about it and so I lost out on those opportunities,” he remembers.