Different Strokes: Tennis Ace Somdev Devvarman Turns Singer-Songwriter with Debut Album ‘One Three Two’

While talking about his bright and bluesy song “The Seeker,” Somdev Devvarman picks up his guitar to recount the lyrics he’s trying to explain. The erstwhile tennis pro – who released his debut album One Three Two as a singer-songwriter last month – begins strumming chords and humming another song, “Ode to Justice,” during our phone call to refresh his memory about the meaning behind the works that now make him an indie artist.

A singer-songwriter who began learning guitar around the same time he started training on the tennis court as a nine-year-old, Devvarman’s love for music is heard warmly throughout the 13-track album. There’s a little bit of the Beatles, a lot of easy-listening artists like Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews and Devvarman even counts Scottish rock band Frightened Rabbit’s late bandleader Scott Hutchison as a big influence. The artist who drove Devvarman into action in terms of writing music around 2017, however, was pop singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. After attending a concert soon after retiring from professional tennis after decades in the sport, Devvarman was especially inspired to write his album’s gentle opening song “New Man.” It’s now all out via Chennai platform OriginalDog.

For Devvarman, the journey to writing an album’s worth of music (and plenty more in the songbook) came from listening first, then feeling brave enough to write and heading into the studio. “Step four, which I really need to get a grasp on, is just promoting it the right way. It’s just baby steps,” he says. Working with artists in Shillong such as Jeremy B Mawlong, guitarist Gregory Ford Nongrum and drummer Vincent Tariang, most of One Three Two has a simple yet effective kind of singer-songwriter approach, embellished with the occasional blues, rock and pop elements that keep the listener hooked beyond Devvarman’s lyrical philosophizing.

While Devvarman has already performed with a band and a full set at Covelong Point Festival near Chennai, releasing an album was a different beast. “While I was writing it for myself, I kept playing it over to my wife or my family and people around me and getting their thoughts. That push and pull process was constant,” he adds. In the process of working out in Shillong, he also gained some helpful advice. “My friends told me, ‘Learn, but don’t change the way you write, because it’s different than the way a lot of musicians would write,’” the artist says.

At the core of Devvarman’s songwriting, one could say, are a lot of philosophical thoughts. He says with a laugh that he’s “reasonably philosophical” but backs that up with how his coaches, family, friends and books informed his thoughts. Beyond that, songs like “Ode to Justice” have portions inspired by the 2003 crime/thriller film The Life of David Gale. “Man with the Gun” for example, drew different reactions. He adds, “I played it for a lot of my friends, and I wouldn’t tell them anything about and I would just love to get their interpretation of it, because their interpretations of it were just as real as mine.”

Even as Devvarman’s life as a coach and broadcast expert, he says music will be a constant. He’s not fooling himself about how hard it is to make it in music, though. While he maintains it’s a passion project at the end of the day, he still has some goals. “Have I dreamt of playing my songs to an audience that wants to be there and listen? Yeah, it’s like one of the most fun things to do,” he says. Fully aware that making it in music is worlds apart from making it on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) circuit, he’s still keen to give it a crack, regardless of the results. “I’m yet to test the market, let’s just say that,” Devvarman adds.

Listen to ‘One Three Two’ below. Stream the album on YouTube.