Have you ever seen a river tickle the shores, or tease the rocks, or tumble all over a solitary rock taking it by surprise? It is by the shores of such a mischievous river in a very rural countryside that Jinadevan Hasu grew up. A single child, yet Jinan, as his friends would call him, was never lonely. He enjoyed his solitude swimming in the gurgling river and atop the lush trees that grew in the valley. His meandering thoughts moved around freely as did the wisps of mist around the mountains that guarded the valley. When this young man started creating music, it had to be both soulful and spiritual. Anything else would have been contradictory.
Jinan has come a long way from writing poetry and drawing caricatures in his school books. The poetry became songs first and then music videos and before he knew it, American video hosting service Vevo verified his channel and his music videos, Destination, and Remorse. On July 5, he, going by the name Inixial, re-released his album titled The Antibeauty, adding some fresh new tracks along with some old ones.
While this young lad is soaring high with his musical explorations, his music videos have also been transforming, the quality of which now matches his charismatic performance. The track, Give Me Something, seems to be a fan favourite with its melancholic yet groovy lyrics, and the vocals that are quite amazing. “It is difficult to explain the process of creation, the music just comes to me as a spark,” says Jinan. “Often it starts with a beat and maybe just a loop, I then build on it on my own. Once I sit down to write, the words just flow in and fit into the song like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle you see.”
The time he sits down to create music is the happiest of his life. “It is just the process and everything else vanishes. No hunger, no thirst,” says Jinan. “It is almost like I am connected to a higher power. It is magical.” No wonder that many of his tracks have spiritual and psychedelic undertones to them. The track Destinaion, Jinan’s personal favourite, has a stunning presentation of sound. The songs Illusions and Outsider have a touch of progressive and exploratory pop to them that it adds a bit of colour to the tracks.
Just as defining the terms abstract art and expressionism are notoriously difficult, so is Jinan’s music. Ask the man himself and he would say “Let’s not limit my music by a genre name or mix of two genres, let’s call it “Inixial music”. Inixial music can be loosely translated to what we call a lust for music, but the aptest genre description would be contemporary R&B, which, along with the rhythm and blues, has elements of pop, soul, and electronic music with, a slight twist of hip hop. “I know nothing about the theory of music, I just create as it comes to me,” he adds in all humility.
Jinan’s music, with all its instrumental and vocal excursions, dense lyrics, and tension-building intros, takes the listeners to a strange world of his own. He uses music to explore what he calls the Vantablack valley. Vantablack, for those who do not know, is one of the darkest materials known, which absorbs 99.965 percent of visible light. When light strikes Vantablack, instead of bouncing off, it gets trapped, eventually dissipating into heat. Jinan, whose music lingers around human emotions and fantasies, explores the concept of the human mind being a Vantablack valley. “Internal conflict is the toughest battle and a human mind is a deep place, it has everything in it, external and internal,” he says.
The Antibeauty is the first installment to the story of ‘Vantablack Valley’, he says. “I am attempting to portray everything as it is happening in this fictional valley where anything could happen and anything could exist,” explains this young musician whose main inspiration, is, no surprise, The Weeknd.
“Abel (The Weeknd) doesn’t hide anything, he talks of things most people are reluctant to talk about,” says Jinan. “I could relate to his lyrics and it healed me. I am a big fan. I love Prince’s live concerts, his aesthetics and approach to R&B. Then there’s Drake, he is like emotion to me, mostly because of his music and the way he does things.”
Jinan loves all kinds of music irrespective of language but he says there is something about Tamil songs that give them depth and very unique quality. A. R. Rahman is his favourite Indian musician. So how did he get into western music? “Seeing the crowd in a Metallica concert, the influence of Tupac on culture, legends like MJ, Prince, and so many others, it got me hooked. Lyrics to instruments, I was hooked,” he says.
It was not easy to find an approval for the profession he chose to pursue. An incredible feat for one person to come out on his own, but Jinan seemed to be comfortable in the solitude. “If not for my parents, and especially my mother who was very understanding and supportive, I don’t think I would have been able to do this,” says Jinan.
It was a lonely road for a long while until he met the poet in his teacher turned friend Badusha. They would share poetry even though both wrote in two different languages. Of course, his creative director Dayajith follows him like a shadow in his musical journey. Then came Abhiram, Mukesh, Avi, and Aromal, who are part of his team and his mystical world, followed by Rakesh Thampi who helps Jinan take Initial to places known and unknown.
If you are still scratching your head about the name Inixial, get it straight from Jinan. “I needed to express myself and my art, and for that, I created a character and called him Inixial,” explains Jinan. “He is like a delusional self of me but I make him dance to my tunes. I express my emotions and feelings, whether it is good, bad, beautiful, ugly, or plain disturbing through him. He is the character and I have big stories and plans for him. So sometimes it’s psychedelic, sometimes melancholic, sometimes spiritual,” he concludes.
by Reema Narendran
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