Tejas Makes It Happen!

The Mumbai singer-songwriter’s full-length record plays to his strengths and offers some pleasant surprises too

- David Britto

WHEN MUMBAI SINGER-SONG-WRITER Tejas Menon booked the city-based Cotton Press Studio for a couple of weeks to record his debut album Make It Happen last September, things didn’t quite go as planned. Menon recalls, “On the fifth day, I was recording the guitars and was like, ‘Man! I’m not feeling too well.” The musician realized he was burning up with a fever that hit 103.5 degrees Fahrenheit in no time. “I was laughing and thought it was hilarious,” says the singer-songwriter.

He was diagnosed with dengue and had to move to his sister’s house in Pune for three weeks. “I was pretty disillusioned at that point,” confesses Menon, as he chomps on his chicken salad at Mumbai’s Khar Social. Seated across the table is Pune singer-songwriter Gowri Jayakumar, who is presently enjoying a smoke before she gets on stage with her new act Run Pussy Run. Menon cites Jayakumar as his hero. “It’s because of her I started playing music live.”

Playing live and getting noticed eventually led the singer-songwriter to release his debut EP