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News |  28 Nov 2020 16:18 |  By Tolika Yeptho

"Never imagined I would get an opportunity to sing for Netflix": Thomson Andrews

MUMBAI: Singer-songwriter Thomson Andrews is all geared up for the holiday season with three Netflix releases.

Thomson has lent his voice to Hollywood actor Keegan-Michael Key’s character during his Hindi rendition song “Magic Man G” in the movie “Jingle Jangle”, directed by David E. Further he also performed solo vocals in the background music of the film for music director Pritam, in Anurag Basu’s latest Bollywood film “LUDO”. The singer lending his voice in international blockbusters is not a new thing, he recently collaborated for a holiday blend Netflix movie “Christmas Chronicles 2”.

Share with us your debut with Netflix as a singer?

Just as the holiday season nears, I have struck a musical chord with three Netflix releases (Jingle jangle”, “LUDO” and “Christmas Chronicles 2”). I have been a huge fan of the Netflix series and films and never imagined I would one day get an opportunity to sing for Netflix directly which is my Debut project on singing for any OTT based film!

Tell us more about your latest releases “Jingle jangle” on lead song “MAGIC MAN G”, Bollywood flick “LUDO” and Christmas Special film “Christmas Chronicles 2”?

It was fun to lend my voice to Hollywood actor Keegan-Michael Key’s character during his Hindi rendition song “Magic Man G” in the movie Jingle Jangle, directed by David E. Talbert, a quintessential Christmas tale offering hope, love, and goodness with Key playing a leading role along with Forest Whitaker and Ricky Martin.

On the other hand, I featured as a playback singer in Anurag Basu’s latest Bollywood flick LUDO starring Abhishek Bachchan, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Roy Kapur, Fatima Sana Shaikh, and Sanya Malhotra. I have performed solo vocals in the background music of the film for music director Pritam.

I seem to have struck a chord when it comes to voicing characters with my versatility and experience across the 12 years, I’ve been singing in the music industry, for which I’m truly grateful to all my mentors.

Sunayana Sarkar, the Vocal Director for Netflix’s Jingle Jangle believes that I bring that sweet mix of diction and genre authenticity that is required to successfully localize international content for the Indian audience.

“Keegan-Michael’s character is very comedic and animated. We needed someone who could match his energy, histrionics, and unbelievable tenor notes. And I knew that Thomson Andrews would be the perfect fit. His Hindi diction and RnB leanings brought out the vocal flavour that we desired.” said Sunayana, who is also featured as a singer in Jingle Jangle.

My Christmas season collaboration is the Netflix release ‘The Christmas Chronicles 2’, a holiday blend of action, adventure, comedy, and some drama packed into one gift-wrapped package, directed by Chris Columbus starring Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn & Darby Campy

Share with us your experience collaborating with some of the biggest global stars?

Over the years, I have worked on many Bollywood films, Ad jingles and Disney projects like The Lion King, Aladdin, Frozen I and II, Toy Story, Finding Dory on their Hindi adaptations. Through projects like MTV Unplugged, MTV Coke Studio and OTT shows like Amazon Prime’s The Remix, I have had the privilege to be featured and to collaborate with India’s most iconic musicians and singers such as A.R. Rahman, Pritam, Amit Trivedi, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Sunidhi Chauhan, Arijit Singh, Neha Kakkar and more and working with them has taught me the important values of excelling in your craft, being thoroughly meticulous and professional in all matters and the most important aspect of having discipline and respect in your personal and professional life to achieve success and grow.

Recently I was featured in a music travel show, called Royal Stag Hungama Music Bus’ as an anchor and that experience has helped me explore so much more about myself and my strengths, interviewing India’s iconic musicians & stalwart artists like Javed Ali, Indian Ocean, Harrdy Sandhu, Jassie Gill, Jeet Ganguly and more. It’s always been a super humbling experience to be trusted by the industry’s best. Recently before the lockdown as well, I had the honour of getting an opportunity to work with Music Director Mithoon, who complimented me that he has been following my work and loves my vocal arrangements and musical works, so much so that he got me onboard his Live shows in 2 cities, this moment was truly a dream come true for me.

2020 was a rough patch for many but as for you, you had an incredible year. Share us your experience?

The holiday season has always been a special time for me. And working on these amazing projects was truly a fun and rewarding experience beyond COVID restrictions, working remotely and also through studio visits with utmost precaution. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the biggest global stars and feel blessed that they respect and recognize my work and trust me with their esteemed projects to get me onboard, among the millions of talented artists out there.

During the lockdown I also enhanced my music production, composition skills and didn’t realize that I actually have more than 50 pending original compositions which needed my time to complete them, and during this lockdown I have had the best time completing these pending treasures of music I couldn’t earlier complete due to my busy travel and tour schedule. I have launched my own Digital marketing solutions company Throan Of Art in India and US and have been busy as the founder of these firms with hiring the right talent, team and resources, making business associations with partners across the globe to provide an All-in-one stop Media solution to clients and artists who want to deal with one company for all their media and marketing, promotion needs. I believe the drive and passion to grow, excel and work as a team in both the music industry and now also the business environment is something that has kept me on my toes and I’m happy to provide so much more purpose to my professional journey and also enhance and support my team’s journey and growth and together, I am striving to help my amazing network & team of skilled people and friends reach their goal and true potential.

Currently I am working on my soon to release EP that will showcase an array of very interesting songs and also singles, highlighting a unique side of my RnB-Pop-Funk vocals in 2021 which not many people have heard till now. I am super excited for this and I’m looking forward to 2021. I feel one can change anything around them with the way they look and perceive a situation. I chose to be optimistic, driven, positive and focused with a foundation of excellence in your craft to back you up.

Games