Yen Kaadhale – Jessen Periasamy

The Mauritian Tamil music scene is a small but vibrant one, with artistes such as 24-year-old Jessen Periasamy working to try and reach a wider audience. Here, he shares in his own words, his thoughts on the Mauritian music scene, and about his new song "Yen Kaadhale":

In Mauritius, the music scene is actually quite small, and everyone makes music in their own way. My opinion is that a good number of the artists here (of the Tamil community) produce Sega, which is the national Mauritian music genre, and blend some Tamil lyrics into it. Sega is very nice, but I feel that some of the youngsters here have become bored with it. Other musicians take old folk songs and rework them in a new way. Whilst several artists in Mauritius choose this easy way, very few of them actually run down a script, produce a score, write lyrics, and make their own music…and I think this is what kills Tamil music in Mauritius as people end up listening to the same old song again and again. This is why I am keen to change this, and to help people discover NEW Tamil modern music.

I’ve been DJing in Mauritius since the age of 14, and also DJd in Australia for 4 years. I stepped into music production 4 years ago, and 2012 has been a breakthrough in my career as I made my mark in producing Tamil music for the Mauritian scene – a first of its kind. 

My new song "Yen Kaadhale" has been produced and composted by me, with lyrics and vocals by Varusha Isaimani Poinen. I heard her singing in many TV shows and music competitions and her voice is simply blissful. My aim behind this song was to compose something that would hit the summer charts of Tamil music in Mauritius. Apart from the beautiful vocals and summer-y melodies, it has a Balearic type baseline which makes it a real blend between Romanian dance songs and Tamil music. This song proves that Tamil music and European music has a good relativity towards universal music – a music which blooms us towards love. Youngsters (14 – 35 yrs) wanted music they can dance to in clubs, and my aim was to create something targeted at them.

Check out the video for Yen Kaadhale below:

Jessen is currently working with Varusha’s brother, Vedarshen. The two have done all the preliminary work and Jessen is currently working on the arrangement and mastering. The track is gearing up to be released in mid-January, and Jessen says the song has a "very emotional and powerful theme". We can’t wait to see what more this rising talent will bring to the table in the coming months – maybe this is the beginning of a new era in the Mauritian music scene?

You can follow Jessen’s work on Facebook.