Its a World Inside Your Head

PROFILE

Sajjid Manuel has been playing the Piano and Keyboards and composing since the age of 7. This was reinforced later with a bit of grounding in Western Classical music and a wee bit of Carnatic music.

He has performed with renowned musicians from India such as Dr. L. Subramaniam (Indian Violinist, Composer and Conductor) Chennai Live, Keith Peters (Bass Guitarist) Chennai Live, Paul Jacob (Bass Guitarist and Music Director) Qwiky's Café Chennai Live, Andy Park (Music Writer, USA) Chennai Live, Scott Underwood (Music Writer and Performer, USA) Chennai Live, who wrote the lyrics for the Grammy Award winning song for best lyrics, "Drops Of Jupiter", Cheyur Viji (Electric Guitars) Chennai Live, Chuck Eddy (Electric Guitars, USA) Chennai Live, Maynard Grant (Drummer) Chennai Live, and Julian Berte (Guitarist, France) at Whistle Stop Café Chennai Live.

He has also composed music for T.V commercials (Jingles) such as TVS Suzuki, Aptech Computers, Bitech Computers, Dialog and Bharat Overseas Bank. He formed the band "Blue On Ice" with a friend Joshua Palmer (Indian Guitarist, Performer, and Song Writer) and have performed at the Taj Residency (Bangalore, India), Leela Palace Kempinski (Bangalore, India) for the opening of the boutique, Elizabeth Arden, Zara Tapas Pub (Chennai, India) and for the British Embassy on one occasion at the residence of the British Deputy Commissioner.

He has performed for the Highland church Trivandrum, Kerala, in South India for a period of time. He had formed a trio called "The Mirage" and they performed at Kafe 2000 (Chennai, India) and Qwiky's Cafe, (Chennai, India).


FILM EXPERIENCE

Sajjid Manuel turned professional with his first break playing for South Indian music director A.R. Rahman (Indian Composer, Record Producer and Musician) on his movie scores "Indian" and "Muthu". He also played for Koti, a Telugu Film Music Director.

Sajjid Manuel has also played for Ilayaaraja (Indian Film Composer, Singer and Lyricist) for the movie "Mumbai Express" and has also worked with Yuvan Shankar Raja (Indian Film music director) Ilaiyaraaja's son, for the songs and re-recordings including "Sandakozhi" which ran for more than 150 days in the cinema theaters of Chennai.

The music for the animation before the title music and the composition for the title music of "Sandakozhi" have been arranged and sung by him. The other movies include, "Pattiyal", and "Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu". He has also played for Vidyasagar (Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam Indian Film music director) for the movie "Sivapadhigaaram".

And last but not the least on one occasion, when he asked Ilayaraaja if he could play for him, Ilaiyaraaja is quoted having said, "I have to change my style of music for you". Ilayaraaja having heard much of his musical capabilities even asked a friend earlier if Sajjid Manuel could teach him Jazz...


A GLIMPSE INTO THE LIFE OF AN ENTREPRENEUR MUSICIAN

Three decades ago, Sajjid Manuel began his musical journey. He started off with a basic grounding in Western Classical music and a bit of Carnatic music along the way. He was self-taught right from the word 'go'. Little did he know at that time that music was going to change his life…

Being a composer and lover of western music, India had no scope for his kind of music except for Carnatic-based film music. However, along the way of his musical journey, he came across many hurdles that tried to stop him from pursuing his musical career but there was a force from above guiding Sajjid Manuel through this cruel world of life.

The music industry didn't have much to offer musicians in India, and due to conflicting principles and ethics, it separated him more and more from people and music as time went on.

He soon secluded himself and went into a world of reclusion and rejection. He never wanted to be in the limelight, as all he wanted to do was enjoy the company of others and believed that only love and music could bring people together irrelevant of race and color. But as the road of life became harder and longer, his faith and belief in God grew stronger.

Sajjid Manuel loved composing and playing his own tunes as he always believed in originality, so much so that he could never enjoy replicating other people's music. This made him take the biggest decision and risk everything that he had when he decided to come out with his own debut music album called 'Imagination'.

Since he did not have the income, he started to take many loans to see his dream become a reality and soon he was in over his head in debt with none to help and none to look to as he set up his whole business single-handedly with a single-minded devotion as he wanted to achieve what he wrote about in his songs.


ABOUT THE ALBUM

In the year of 2008, on August 1st at 1:55 A.M in the early hours of the morning, his music album 'Imagination' was released on the Internet. He used many renowned musicians from India and abroad to bring this music album together.


LIST OF CREDITS:

Acoustic Guitars: Gem Gabriel (Chennai, India)

Backing Vocals: Sajjid Manuel (Chennai, India)

Bass Guitar & Electric Fretless: Keith Peters (Chennai, India)

Cellos: V.R. Shekar & R.K. Vijayendran (Chennai, India)

Congas: Sivaprakash (Chennai, India)

Dobro: R.A. Amalraj (Chennai, India)

Drums: Kurt Peters (Mumbai, India)

Electric Guitars: Gem Gabriel (Chennai, India)

Keyboards: Sajjid Manuel (Chennai, India)

Mandolin: R. A. Amalraj (Chennai, India)

Mute Trumpet: Frank Dubier (Chennai, India)

Percussion: Chen Zimbalista (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Score Consultant: R.K. Prabakar (Chennai, India)

Solo Violin: R. A. Amalraj (Chennai, India)

String Ensemble Conducted by: R.K. Prabakar (Chennai, India)

Tenor Saxophones: Niko Higgins (Newyork, USA)

Trumpets: A. Irudayaraj Babu (Chennai, India)

12-String Guitars: R. A. Amalraj (Chennai, India)

Violas: B. Jayachandran, N.P. Girijan, P.J. Sebastien &
Joseph Rangaraj (Chennai, India)

Violins: V.S. Narasimhan, M. Hemanthraj, P. Bhaskar,
K. Sasikumar & P.S. Ramachandran (Chennai, India)

Vocals: Sajjid Manuel (Chennai, India)

Contractors: N. Ramachandran & M. Krishnan (Chennai, India)

Recorded at: Clementine Studios (Chennai, India)

Sound Design: Yotam Agam (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Pro Tools Engineer: Dipanshu Mitra (Chennai, India)

Mixed at: Halo Studios (Portland, Maine, USA)

Mixed by: Jonathan Wyman (Portland, Maine, USA)

Mastered by: Grammy Award Winner Adam Ayan (Portland, Maine, USA)

Mastered at: Gateway Mastering Studios (Portland, Maine, USA)

Scheduling Coordinator: Scott Sperlich (Portland, Maine, USA)


For the very first time, Grammy Award winner Adam Ayan from Portland, Maine, USA has mastered an album by an Indian Pop artist from Chennai, India, and this album has been mixed by Jonathan Wyman, again from Portland, Maine, USA.

Adam Ayan's diverse list of credits includes projects for artists such as Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, Linkin Park, Faith Hill, Sarah McLachlan, Tim McGraw, Rush, Kelly Clarkson, A Perfect Circle, Carrie Underwood, Bob Marley and Incubus, to name a few.

The music album 'Imagination' by Sajjid Manuel comes under the genre of Pop or Pop /Rock. All the music and lyrics have been written, arranged and sung by Sajjid Manuel and has been mastered at Gateway Mastering & DVD in Portland, Maine, USA. Over 35 nominations for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards have been mastered at Gateway Mastering & DVD.

We hope you enjoy Sajjid Manuel's music and thank you for visiting. Do drop by more often just in case we have any updates for you -- and please don't forget to tell all your friends!!! THANK YOU...