“The more intimately you can understand music, the more liberating it feels to create” -

Having grown up in Chennai, a metropolis of the South, Ranjani Rimadoss, is slowly following the footsteps of AR Rahman but not entirely in the way you’d think. In the North, AR Rahman is known as THE Bollywood sensation, but he was, like Ranjani, just a kid from Chennai trying to make it big.

She trained in Carnatic classical music from a young age and later trained for a few years in Opera as well - at Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory (https://www.kmmc.in/). How is her story different from Rahman’s? She didn’t take the well-trodden Bollywood route, instead, she’s on her way to establishing herself as an independent musician.

The stories of the “grind” and the “passion” are very widespread and are easy to read, however, actually living the said story is not as palatable. After taking the leap into being independent, and moving to Banglore to pursue not a double major but a triple major in Psychology, Music and English Ranjani, had to work two jobs to support her musical career.

And contrary to what motivational quotes would have you believe, money plays a big role in how quickly and how well you can set up your independent creator career in India. Ranjani worked as a Music teacher at Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (https://www.sapaindia.com/). Working with people who loved music for being music - relieved a bit of the weight that the world put on her as a musician.

So what can you expect while going through her music? Honestly, if we could answer this in a tweet or even in a bunch of tweets, it would just be a summary of several musical genres. She worked with two bands - Kelvikkuri (jazz fusion - https://www.instagram.com/kelvikkuri/?hl=en) and Paula & the Associates (Neo-soul/pop - https://www.instagram.com/paulaandtheassociates/?hl=en) - for about two years before launching her solo career under the artist name RANJ. And rather than creating impressions for you - we think her music speaks for itself - (593 Vol. 1 released in 2021)

Her Latest single - Conversation with CLIFR was released on the 1st of this month and it is nothing short of amazing.

Currently, she is represented by Third Culture (https://thirdculture.in/), a label which is very accurately named as they are indeed a hotpot of culture.