Artiste Susantika toggles between Chennai and Puducherry. She has recently released her new Tamil indie single
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Lately, my writing playlist is all Susantika. While tripping, tumbling, and traversing through a slate of this Tamil indie artiste’s songs, I’ve found myself giggling over the occasional lyric she chooses to place in certain crevices of her songs. There is the occasional rap battle between her alter-egos, songs about womanhood, and love ballads. On other days, when the tide seems rough and life seems impossible, there is ‘Iravu Kadandhu’, the artiste’s most recognisable song, about what it takes to get through the night.Over the six years that she has made indie music, Susantika, who toggles between Chennai and Puducherry, has released 10 singles while lying low and appealing to a niche audience. Late in July, Susantika released ‘Idhellaam Adhisayam’, a song full of romance in this age of modern love. The song begins with the line “Dating na ennakennanu theriyadhu” and then goes on, in wonderment, about what it meant to be in love with her muse. The synth through this two minute song captivates, making it easy to buy into the sway.Having rarely spoken to the press while still being an active part of the music scene in the city, one wonders if the privacy is intentional. That is where our interview begins. She starts by clarifying a misconception. “I am not camera shy or private. I do not think I know how to work this world of promotions. How does one crack the mainstream while still staying authentic — that’s what I need — I’ve been thinking about that for years now. But somewhere in that process it gets lost,” she says.Susantika’s foray into independent music began in 2020. She began by posting covers on Instagram and quickly moved to writing her own one-minute numbers, as days overlapped over one another during the thick of the pandemic. “I would sing at school and church as a child. There was one particular church in Pondicherry, White Parish near the beach, where the choir was full of wonderful musicians. This informed my interest at a young age. Then it was all about trying to learn structures on my brother’s guitar and posting the experiments on Instagram. That is when friends and listeners asked me to post ‘Iravu Kadandhu’ on streaming platforms. Back then, I had little to no apprehensions,” she says.
