During his 20-year career as a composer, Jassi Gift never restricted himself to a particular tone, language or temperament for his music. Since his debut album in 2003, the singer-composer has produced songs that have achieved cult classic status, and have been played at college functions, school trips, and road trips. Jassi’s compositions, which were once the catchy soundtrack of viral TikTok trending videos, are still seen on Instagram reels with influencers grooving to his chartbusters. The latest addition to Jassi’s list of jams is ‘Thakathom’, an Afro hip-hop song sung by Ryan and Melvin of Ireland-based New Thira Productions, featuring the veteran musician. The video has been viewed more than three lakh times on YouTube since its release in October.

“Ryan and Melvin’s last album Thamburatty (Released in 2022) was very popular in the UK. They are passionate and always want to do more. I have collaborated with him before also. They reached out to me and that’s how I got the opportunity to feature in this song,” says Jassi. The couple, currently living in Dublin, is of Malayali origin. “He started making music to represent his culture abroad,” says Jassi.

Jassi’s collaboration with Ryan started last year when they were seen dancing to the tune of Jassi’s hit song ‘Themma Themma Themmadikkatte’ from the film. rain rain come again (2004), a video sung by Jyotsna Radhakrishnan which went viral.

early days

During his undergraduate days at University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Jassi started as a freelance keyboardist for city-based bands such as The Gypsies, Nine Hours, Baiju and The Band, etc. During this time, he also started singing western songs.

“When we were in the band, we had to listen to songs from all genres because we got requests. We listened to country, hard rock, metal, soft rock…,” he recalls.

Jassi also feels that her generation was lucky from her early days, as she was exposed to the music of people like MS Baburaj alias Babukka and G Devarajan Master as well as Pink Floyd; He calls himself a Floydian of that era.

In late 2003, the release of the music album, 4 people, a Jayaraj-direction changed Jassi’s fortunes. This was his first ever audio release. Despite composing music for two films, bhibtsa And saflam Earlier, it had given him a chance to lend his voice to a song. Jassi says that Jayaraj insisted on recording his voice. “I was staying away from singing Malayalam songs; I just wanted to be a musician. Then, I started singing the rap part; I volunteered to Jayraj sir that I can do those parts of the song, but we have to get someone like Adnan Sami for the lead vocals,” he says. However, during the shooting, Jayaraj used Jassi’s voice for the track and decided to retain him as the lead singer, thus becoming the voice behind the hit song ‘Lajjavathiye’.

During his two-decade stint in the music industry, Jassi has composed more than 50 songs in Kannada and 20 in Malayalam. He has also composed many songs in Tamil and Telugu. He has sung more than 200 songs in Malayalam and Telugu and other South Indian languages.

Apart from winning gold medals several times with his fast-paced songs, Jassi has also composed many tunes, such as ‘Oru Noorshakal’ (anittam), ‘Snehathumbi’ (December), and ‘Manikkinavin Kothumbuvallam’ (pokkiriraja), considering them their “comfort zone”.

However, Jassi considers the opportunities to work with people he grew up idolizing as the biggest highlight of his musical journey. “Das (KJ Yesudas) sir is my biggest influence and inspiration, and I have worked with him; I got a chance to sing for Shankar Mahadevan sir and he got a chance to sing for me. Shreya Ghoshal has sung 18 songs for me and Sonu Nigam has sung six songs. I got a chance to work with the late KK, Javed Ali, Lucky Ali… all these icons,” he says.

moving forward

Currently, Jassi plans to focus on live shows for the time being, with a five-city Australian tour planned from 2 to 29 November. His live schedule sometimes gets in the way of composing music and he is trying to avoid it.

Jassi Uphaar in a recent live show. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

He says, “I am focusing on live shows at the moment, but I keep the instruments, mics and everything else with me. However, if we need to create a tune that we like, we have to make time for it.”

Apart from his live shows, Jassi is once again working with director Jayaraj on an untitled project.