let’s start with what we’re trying to tell the world with the tape.

we, as Tamil Americans, are different. I really mean that, because growing up here, we were different.

growing up, we didn’t have Tamil representation. I mean, there wasn’t any Indian/Eelam/brown/South Asian representation either, but even when there was, Tamil representation was barely present.

and growing up in a Tamil household but living in America meant that we were at the intersection of both cultures, many times at extremes of each other, and yet, amongst that all, we came out alive and well, and honestly formed into what we can now consider third culture identity — a cultural mesh of Tamil culture and American culture.

this Tamil-American cultural identity that’s uniquely ours. it’s very very very different than even other Tamil people in other Western cities (Toronto, London, etc) and even different than other South Asian communities here in America.

and this is the story we are telling with our tape.

we are telling our story.

we are telling our story because we are different than others.

we are telling our story because our story hasn’t been told yet.

we are telling our story because we can.

and because we can, we will.

we will tell our story to the world because our stories deserve to be told.

and our music on this tape will help tell the story to the world in a way that is authentic to our cultural identity. our music will be Tamil-English just like our lives haha it’ll be Tamil music with Western musical blends — again, authentically us.

we grew up listening to JB, Sean Kingston, Sean Paul, Miley, Selena, Eminem, Drake, Kanye, Kendrick, Taylor, Ariana, and all these awesome English artists. but we also grew up listening to Ilaiyaraaja, ARR, SPB, Janaki, Sudha Ragunathan, Hariharan, Unnikrishnan, Chithra, DSP, Harris Jayaraj, and many many others. I mean, I did, but I’m sure y’all had very similar artists profile on either side.

Imagine if we bring them from the old school and all the new school sounds all together into one tape. that’s what we’re doing.

and let’s be clear, the independent Tamil music scene isn’t new. many of y’all have created your own originals, and we know / worked with some of the biggest Tamil independent artists and everyone together is bringing Tamil music out to the world in ways that really moves the culture forward.

what I’m saying is that we have these truly authentically American English music / sounds / beats that we’ll blend with Tamil music never heard before, and that will put on Tamil culture in a way that hasn’t before.