Leon James (composer)

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Leon James (composer) - Wikipedia

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Leon James
Born	(1991-12-01) 1 December 1991 (age 33) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Origin	Tamil Nadu, India
Occupations	Film composer Music director
Instrument	keyboard/piano

Leon James is an Indian film composer and singer who works in Tamil and Telugu films. He made his debut by composing two songs for the Tamil film, Kanchana 2 (2015) directed by Raghava Lawrence, before being noticed for his work in Ko 2 (2016).^[1]

Early life

Leon James became interested in music as a result of his father Noel James's involvement in the industry as A. R. Rahman's manager, and began piano lessons aged three. He played in a school band called Zinx alongside Anirudh Ravichander, with the pair remaining close friends.^[2] He is also currently a part of Project Yuj, a "neo-Carnatic funk" band alongside Aalap Raju, Prakash Hariharan and Jeoraj George and the team released an independent album in November 2014.^[3] Prior to making his debut as a composer, Leon has worked as a keyboardist for stage shows and film albums composed by Santhosh Narayanan, Anirudh Ravichander and Thaman.^[4]

Career

Leon James made a breakthrough in the Tamil film industry after his work was spotted by Raghava Lawrence, who was working on his horror comedy film Kanchana 2 (2015). Lawrence had heard a romantic melody song composed by Leon on YouTube and wanted it adapted to be used in his film, and subsequently brought the composer on board to work on the film's soundtrack. The song, "Vaayaa En Veera" sung by Shakthisree Gopalan, won positive reviews with Karthik Srinivasan noting that "Leon's music seems very new-agey" and his "sound is fresh, and purposefully cluttered".^[5] He later asked Leon to work on a further fast-paced song to be used in the film's climax, and the tune "Sandi Muni" was resultantly produced. The film went on to become amongst the profitable ventures of the year, with Leon's work noticed by critics.^[6]^[7] Soon after the release of the film in April 2015, he teamed up with singer Andrea Jeremiah to record a song called "Ezhunthu Vaa" to promote female empowerment.^[8]

The successful nature of his work in his first album prompted producer Elred Kumar to sign him up to work on the whole album for the political-thriller, Ko 2 (2015).^[9] The album of Ko 2 entailed of six tracks, with a promotional song titled "Unnai Maatrinal" released early as a tribute to former Indian President Abdul Kalam, consisting of lyrics based on his speeches. The album featured vocals from Bollywood artistes Vishal Dadlani, Salim Merchant and Neeti Mohan, while Chinmayi and Leon James, himself, also recorded songs. Leon James also chose to introduce Harish Sivaramakrishnan from the Bangalore-based rock band Agam and London-based singer Inno Genga, for their first respective songs in the Tamil film industry.^[10]^[11]

Discography

As composer

Original soundtrack

Year	Work	Language	Notes
2015	Kanchana 2	Tamil	2 songs "Sandi Muni" and "Vaaya Veera"
2015	Ko 2
2016	Kavalai Vendam
2018	Veera
	Next Enti?	Telugu
	Silukkuvarupatti Singam	Tamil
2019	LKG
2020	Oh My Kadavule
2021	Paagal	Telugu	1 song "Kanapadava" Background score
2022	Ori Devuda		Remake of Oh My Kadavule
2023	Das Ka Dhamki
	Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum	Tamil
	Saba Nayagan	Tamil
2024	G.O.A.T †	Telugu	^[12]
	Sundarakanda †	Telugu
	Dragon †	Tamil

As vocalist

Non-film songs

2015 – "Ezhunthu Vaa" (featuring Andrea Jeremiah)
2015 – "Punnagaiyya" (featuring Andrea Jeremiah)
2018 – "Kanne Kanne" (featuring Jonita Gandhi)
2020 - "Unna Vida Maaten" (featuring Andrea Jeremiah)
2020 - "Suzhaluren" (featuring Ko Sesha)
2021 - "Unakaaga Naan Irupen" (featuring Avinash Ashok & Shubhangi Jha)

Film songs

Year	Film	Song	Notes
2006	Varalaru	"Thottapuram"	composed by A. R. Rahman
2015	Kanchana 2	"Sandimuni"
2015	Ko 2	"Kohila", "Vidaadha"
2016	Kavalai Vendam	"En Pulse Yethitu Poriye"
2017	Sakka Podu Podu Raja	"Unakkaga"	composed by Silambarasan
2018	Veera	"Ootaanda Soltuvaa"
2020	Oh My Kadavule	"Haiyyo Haiyyo"

References

^ "From Kanchana-2 to Ko 2". The Hindu. 28 November 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
^ "Leon James to score music for Kanchana 2". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ Srinivasa Ramanujam (27 October 2014). "The new funk formula". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "An exclusive interview with Leon James by Avinash Pandian". Behindwoods. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ Srinivasan, Karthik (11 April 2015). "Hitman". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "Thrilled when Lawrence asked for my song". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ Srinivasa Ramanujam (2 April 2015). "Striking a musical chord". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "Actress Andrea Jeremiah and Leon James team up for a song called Ezhunthu Va, on women empowerment". Behindwoods. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "Leon James signs Bobby Simhaa's film". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "Exclusive details of 'Ko 2' music Album from its composer Leon James". IndiaGlitz. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "Ko2 song-preview by Sony Music!". Sify. Archived from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
^ "GOAT Cast & Crew". Filmibeat.

External links

Leon James on Facebook

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