Lesle Lewis (composer)
| Lesle Lewis | |
|---|---|
| File:Lesle Lewis.jpg | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lesle Peter Lewis |
| Born | 1961 India |
| Genres | Indi-pop, filmi, rock |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, composer |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Associated acts | Colonial Cousins, Hariharan |
Lesle Lewis is an Indian singer - composer, perhaps best known for his work in Colonial Cousins, a duo composed of Lewis and Hariharan.[1]
In 2003 Lewis stated that he felt the public associated him too much with remixes and for that reason he had begun to avoid remixes and instead concentrate on his original compositions and on his work in Colonial Cousins.[2] Lewis' father P. L. Raj was a prolific film choreographer.
Contents
Biography
Lesle Lewis inherited his artistic inclinations from his father P. L. Raj.[3] His father is a choreographer for films. Later, at St Mary's High School,Mount Abu,Rajasthan (boarding school), Lesle was exposed to the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. With these diverse musical influences, Lewis soon began plucking guitar chords at the Cafe Royal, Oberoi Towers. Later, he had the opportunity of recording with renowned film music directors such as Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, R. D. Burman and Louis Banks.
In 1987, Lesle launched a music company and began carving out a career in jingles composing. He composed for some of the leading television networks and picked up nominations for the awards handed out annually by the Indian Academy of Advertising Film Art (IAAFA). After four consecutive nominations, in 1989, Lesle collected the award.[citation needed]
Lewis's other musical credits include doing India's 1st Remix for Asha Bhonsle's Rahul and I album and composing his original songs for the legendary diva's Janam samjha karo album. He also composed and produced the music for "Paree Hu Main" Suneeta Rao and , Alisha in "Bombay Girl" and for KK in Pal.
In 1998, Lewis cut his first solo album, Haseena, which sold fairly well. He has also made a foray into film music, completing the scores for the Hindi films Mela and "Jahd" and working on the scores for the Tamil films Modhi Vilayadu and Chikku Bukku. Lewis' father had long been prodding him to do film music as he believed that movies were the way forward in India[citation needed]
Colonial Cousins
It was during Lewis's jingles career that the idea of Colonial Cousins was conceived. Lewis had called in Hariharan to sing a jingle for him one evening in 1992. The lyrics for the jingle were late coming in. Lewis began singing something while strumming his guitar, Hari felt inspired to jam with an alaap, and the result: the seamless fusion of Eastern and Western sounds that has become characteristic of the Colonial Cousins.The year 1996 was a career milestone; he formed the band Colonial Cousins with ghazal singer Hariharan.Their first album, Colonial Cousins was a fusion album and was the first Indian act to be featured on MTV Unplugged.[4] It won a string of awards including the MTV Indian Viewers' Choice award and Billboard Award for the Best Asian Music Group.[4][5] By this single album, Hariharan established himself as one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. The next albums by this band were The Way We Do It (1998) and Aatma (2001) but were fairly noticed. 2009 Tamil film Modhi Vilayadu had score and soundtrack composed by Colonial Cousins.[6] They also scored the 2010 Tamil film Chikku Bukku.
Discography
- Colonial Cousins (1996)
- The Way We Do It (1998)
- Aatma (2001)
- Apna Asmaan (2007)
- Modhi Vilayadu (2009)
- Chikku Bukku (2010)
- Mela (2000)
- Once More (2012)
- Poshter Boyz (2014-Marathi)
- Online Binline (2015 - Marathi)
Awards and achievements
- 1997: MTV Asia Viewer's Choice Award for Colonial Cousins in Radio City Hall - New York
- US Billboard Viewer's Choice Award - Las Vegas
References
- ↑ Leslie Lewis composes for his first Bollywood flick IBN Live; 13 November 2007
- ↑ Leslie Lewis and the true art of remixing
- ↑ Lesle Lewis - Biography ; 17 June 2011
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Artist biography: Hariharan". Indianmusicinfo.com. Retrieved 28 January 2011
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- Pages using Template:Infobox musical artist with unknown parameters
- Articles with unsourced statements from April 2010
- Use dmy dates from April 2015
- Living people
- Indian male singers
- Indian male composers
- Indian pop singers
- Tamil film score composers
- Indian film score composers
- Indian pop composers
- 1960 births
- Jingle composers
.jpg){kind=link}