“Working on ‘Word’ was a liberating experience,” says musician Sachin Warrier

Singer-songwriter Sachin Warrier released his new composition ‘Aaraariro’ this Mother’s Day. The Lullaby, sung by Sithara Krishnakumar, is the first single from Wordhis new EP which has “crowdsourced lyrics”.

Sachin says the idea to crowdsource the lyrics came to him during the lockdown. “It was a time of uncertainty. There were no shows, new projects were delayed, and I lacked the creative connection with the audience. I spent a few months with my hobbies and explored and learned new things. I was desperate to make music and thought about getting inspiration from outside. So I put up a post on my social media handles inviting the lyrics.

A new vision of motherhood

“Aaraariro” is written by Bengaluru-based Anagha Meera Manoharan. Sachin says the lyrics struck a chord with him because of the theme. “There is more to this lullaby. It looks at motherhood in a new light in that words do not glorify the sacrifices made by a mother. The mother talks about her limitations and the fact that she is not perfect. She makes her daughter understand that she wouldn’t do everything for her and therefore wants her to figure out some things on her own. When I read the lyrics, I felt they deserved to be turned into a song. The lyrics had a rhythm and the words inspired me so much that I composed it immediately. It was magical.

He also got entries with Hindi and English lyrics. The EP has three more tracks – one in English, Hindi and Malayalam.

Composer-singer Sachin Warrier | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Sachin points out that it was refreshing to create tracks after getting the lyrics. “Usually in films, the composition is done first and the lyrics are written accordingly. This process was liberating. I had the creative freedom to do whatever track I wanted and it was inspiring. If the lyrics have musicality, they are easy to compose.As the EP is all about lyrics, I named it “Word”.

Sachin adds that there is no theme that connects the four songs and that each song belongs to a different genre. While the English track is in the bluegrass genre, the Hindi song is in the ghazal format and the Malayalam one is a love ballad. “While none of these songs are strictly in those genres, they definitely draw inspiration from them,” he adds.

Sachin Warrier and Sithara Krishnakumar in the music video “Aaraariro” | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Sachin says the past two years have helped him learn a lot about himself as a person and an artist. “I’m impatient from the inside and I have this habit of jumping from one thing to another. I went with the flow, made recordings and shows and never thought about what I might do in the future. Over the past two years, I understood my creative process better and felt I could do more things. One of the many things I discovered and explored was filmmaking. Sachin conceptualized and directed the music video for ‘Aaraariro’, “with the help of our cinematographer [KJ Sarat]”. He also started a podcast (“Sachin Warrier Gets Lost”) on his YouTube channel (Sachin Warrier).

Sachin, a former computer professional, made his debut as a composer with Anandam (2016). Also a noted playback singer, he was last heard at Hridayam. “With 15 songs in the album, I didn’t expect my songs Hridayam to get noticed this big. It happened because the tracks were so well placed in the narrative.

Currently, he is composing for three films, one of them being Vineeth Sreenivasan-starring Mukundanunni Associatesfirst film by Abhinav Sunder Nayak, editor-in-chief of Anandam.