A nostalgic ride

BEFORE he broke into the film industry, acclaimed singer and composer Suresh Peters was in a prog rock band called Nemesis Avenue, with AR Rahman.

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“We mostly played covers, and when Rahman played Pink Floyd, the sound was electric,” he recollects fondly. After a brief stint in advertising, Suresh joined Rahman again as an assistant. “I quit everything when he invited me to join him during Roja,” he says, before adding, “I was ready to do anything. Rahman would say, ‘Let’s try vocal percussion or invent a rhythmic nonsense word.’ It felt like going back to college with him as a true professor. Roja changed our systems, sonically and culturally. Much of that was also the magic of the late sound engineer H Sridhar. Music is a collective craft. Only a few, like Ilaiyaraaja, who writes full notation, can truly claim sole authorship.”