How Sanjeevi Easwar Went from Chennai’s Hip-Hop Scene to L.A. Film Music

At the age of seven, Chennai-raised music producer Sanjeevi Easwar began learning to play an electronic keyboard and by college, he was part of bands as keyboardist and bassist, even producing music for college theater plays and other independent artists.

As the pandemic moved things online, Easwar took on audio production lessons from Canada-based sound engineer Andrew Zeleno. “It was then I realized I wanted to pursue music full-time,” Easwar says. He was producing beats for Tamil artists like Kaber Vasuki, MC Devesh, Dacalty, San T, and A-Gan, plus working on scores for short films. He says about his process, “While I often have a vision of what I’m working towards from step one, all my productions and songs typically start out as piano ballads, it’s the foundation of my creative process. From there, I progress and develop the track, whether it’s adding drums or making a melody over it.”

Easwar went on to study music production and more sound engineering at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain, graduating in 2022. There was a lot more to learn, however. After an internship at Los Angeles’ Private Island Audio and short certification course in music business at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, Easwar was connected to prolific mixing engineer Erik Madrid, via songwriter Sam Hollander.

Required to be a quick point of contact in the studio while also making sure he was up to date with recent developments in the field – like how many songs now need a Dolby Atmos mix in addition to a standard stereo mix – Easwar says he did have something going for him. “A strong familiarity and being quick with the software used — Pro Tools, in my case — is important for fixing any technical issues. A good understanding about the functions of all the studio gear is also essential to ensure their settings are saved and restored correctly if we need to revisit songs for edits,” he says about what it takes to be assisting a mixing engineer.

With prominent credits including background music and sound design for films like Maya starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Boudica starring Olga Kurylenko, Easwar now firmly believes his place is in L.A. “It’s been a great learning experience overall and continues to help build my skills in several aspects of music,” he says. Hip-hop, pop, electronic and R&B projects have continued to be a part of Easwar’s portfolio as well. He’s drawn to the hip-hop storytelling aspect but also nerds out over the attention to detail you have to give in sound design. “While working on [2023 film] Skyfly, which featured multiple skydiving scenes, we had to study the specific makes and models of the airplanes used to accurately layer and reproduce their sounds,” he says.

L.A. Is home, but would he come back to get involved with the massive Tamil and South Indian film industry at large? Easwar says, “South Indian music holds a special place in my heart. I have always worked on and I look forward to hearing and being a part of more projects from there.”

Up next, there are songs by artists like Clinton Kane, Jonathan Roy and DSmoke that Easwar has contributed to as a sound engineer. “I’ve also collaborated with incredibly talented independent artists both in the U.S. and in India, who are set to release their projects in the coming months. Additionally, I’ve been working with a cool team of creatives on some of my original music, which is scheduled for release next year as well,” he adds.