Leon James is an Indian

film composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

and singer who works in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

films. He made his debut by composing two songs for the Tamil film, ''

Kanchana 2 ''Kanchana 2'' (marketed as ''Muni 3: Kanchana 2'') is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language horror comedy film written, produced and directed by Raghava Lawrence, who enacted dual roles in it. It is the third installment in the Muni (film series). The f ...

'' (2015) directed by

Raghava Lawrence Lawrence Raghavendra is an Indian dance choreographer, actor, director, composer, dancer and playback singer. After making his debut as a dance choreographer in 1993, he began looking for acting opportunities. He began his career as an actor in ...

, before being noticed for his work in ''

Ko 2 ''Ko 2'' ( ''King 2'') is a 2016 Indian political thriller film co-written and directed by Sarath, who earlier worked as associate director/screenplay writer for films like '' Unnaipol Oruvan'' and '' Billa II''. The film is produced by Elred Ku ...

'' (2016).

Early life

Leon James became interested in music as a result of his father Noel James's involvement in the industry as

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

's manager, and began piano lessons aged three. He played in a school band called Zinx alongside Anirudh Ravichander, with the pair remaining close friends. He is also currently a part of Project Yuj, a "neo-Carnatic funk" band alongside

Aalap Raju Aalaap Raju (born 6 June 1979) is a playback singer and a bass player from Chennai, India. His rendition of Enamo Aedho from the movie '' Ko'' composed by Harris Jayaraj topped the music charts for several months in 2011 and won him the Filmfar ...

, Prakash Hariharan and Jeoraj George and the team released an independent album in November 2014. Prior to making his debut as a composer, Leon has worked as a keyboardist for stage shows and film albums composed by

Santhosh Narayanan Santhosh Narayanan is an Indian composer and musician in the Tamil film industry. Early life Santhosh Narayanan was born in Tiruchirappalli, India. He is the younger of two children. He was educated at RSK Higher Secondary School, Tiruchirapp ...

, Anirudh Ravichander and

Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. Th ...

Career

Leon James made a breakthrough in the Tamil film industry after his work was spotted by

, who was working on his horror comedy film ''

'' (2015). Lawrence had heard a romantic melody song composed by Leon on YouTube and wanted it adapted to be used in his film, and subsequently brought the composer on board to work on the film's soundtrack. The song, "Vaayaa En Veera" sung by Shakthisree Gopalan, won positive reviews with Karthik Srinivasan of

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

noting that "Leon's music seems very new-agey" and his "sound is fresh, and purposefully cluttered". He later asked Leon to work on a further fast-paced song to be used in the film's climax, and the tune "Sandi Muni" was resultantly produced. The film went on to become amongst the profitable ventures of the year, with Leon's work noticed by critics. Soon after the release of the film in April 2015, he teamed up with singer

Andrea Jeremiah Andrea Maria Jeremiah is an Indian actress, playback singer, and a musician, who works predominantly in Tamil and Malayalam language films. She made her acting debut in Tamil film ''Pachaikili Muthucharam'' (2007), and Malayalam debut with '' A ...

to record a song called "Ezhunthu Vaa" to promote female empowerment. The successful nature of his work in his first album prompted producer

Elred Kumar Elred Kumar Santhanam is an Indian film producer he was born at Thangachi madam village (Rameswaram Island). He completed his post-graduation in engineering at Anna University(Guindy). He is a prominent businessman in Chennai, who has made T ...

to sign him up to work on the whole album for the political-thriller, ''

'' (2015). The album of ''Ko 2'' entailed of six tracks, with a promotional song titled "Unnai Maatrinal" released early as a tribute to former Indian President

Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied ph ...

, consisting of lyrics based on his speeches. The album featured vocals from Bollywood artistes

Vishal Dadlani Vishal Dadlani (born 28 June 1973) is an Indian singer, songwriter and music composer. He is one half of the duo Vishal–Shekhar, Front Man and vocalist of one of India's leading rock bands called Pentagram. As a singer he has sung various ...

Salim Merchant Salim, Saleem or Selim may refer to: People *Salim (name), or Saleem or Salem or Selim, a name of Arabic origin *Salim (poet) (1800–1866) *Saleem (playwright) (fl. 1996) *Selim I, Selim II and Selim III, Ottoman Sultans * Selim people, an e ...

and

Neeti Mohan Neeti Mohan (born 18 November 1979) is an Indian singer. She sings mainly in Hindi and few Tamil films, but has also done songs in Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, and English. Born in Delhi, she was one of the winners of the Channel ...

, while Chinmayi and Leon James, himself, also recorded songs. Leon James also chose to introduce Harish Sivaramakrishnan from the

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

-based rock band Agam and London-based singer Inno Genga, for their first respective songs in the Tamil film industry.

Discography

As composer

Original soundtrack

Original film score

As vocalist

Non-film songs

*2015 – "Ezhunthu Vaa" (featuring

) *2015 – "Punnagaiyya" (featuring

) *2018 – "Kanne Kanne" (featuring

Jonita Gandhi Jonita Gandhi is a Canadian playback singer of Indian descent. She has recorded songs predominantly in Hindi and Tamil languages with few in Punjabi, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam languages. Some of her most ac ...

) *2020 - "Unna Vida Maaten" (featuring

) *2020 - "Suzhaluren" (featuring Ko Sesha) *2021 - "Unakaaga Naan Irupen" (featuring Avinash Ashok & Shubhangi Jha)

Film songs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Leon Loyola College, Chennai alumni Living people Musicians from Chennai Tamil film score composers 1991 births Indian male film score composers Telugu film score composers