But there was no conflict, no insecurities, no feeling of my work for the band being shaken by what I am doing on my own. “The project started small but as things got serious, I did worry if I was doing something wrong or was causing a fracture. Two singles are in the pipeline with a possible retrospective to look back on their journey.Īnd the other members have been nothing less than supportive of Mani’s solo project. In fact, Mani and the other members - Rajeev Rajagopal, Leslie Charles and Tony Das - have gone back to jamming in person. The band completes 25 years this year and more are yet to come.

“My loyalty will always be with Thermal and a Quarter,” he assures. With his first solo album just around the corner, one can’t help but wonder if this means things are taking a new and different turn for Mani. Pleasantly, the quick turnaround eliminated any second guessing as Mani aimed to complete and bring out his song for the day, which were posted on his Instagram and YouTube accounts. “Midway through, I felt excited to wake up and work on this project,” he says, adding that this was all done alongside other daily tasks like running a music academy, teaching students and fatherly responsibilities. The initial project was a suggestion by Mani’s wife, who felt a creative outlet might help the musician deal with the chaos of the pandemic as April and May brought a series of bleak news - two kids down with Covid, vaccine shortage for his 80-year-old mother, an aunt and a cousin in the ICU and an overall sense of despair and hopelessness.Ĭhannelling all this into music and lyrics helped Mani find light at the end of a dark tunnel. Currently, he is undertaking a new project - a song a week. My assimilation period of watching and listening to other things before I begin would take a month,” says the 44-year-old. For the band too, it would take months to come up with new music. “I’ve never consistently produced content in this manner. This concluded on June 3 but all the tracks will soon be available as an album that can be streamed from July 22.

The city-based musician, and frontman of Thermal and a Quarter, recently took on something called ‘A Song A Day’ project, wherein he wrote original songs daily for 30 days. And in the case of Bruce Lee Mani, it doesn’t even after 25 years of experience in songwriting. BENGALURU: They say learning never stops.

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