He smiles shyly, his braces showing. Jonathan Bruce is a new entry in Malayalam cinema. But even as he speaks about his music, a song he created for 'Chewing Gum' is gathering tens of thousands of hits on YouTube. “That was 'Neeyo Njano'," he says modestly.
He began playing 'Ek, do, teen' on the keyboard when he was in kindergarten and by the time he was nine, Jonanthan had become the organist at the Seventh Day Adventist church in Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram.
“My dad Bruce John played the guitar, it must have been his influence that got me started on music." He joined the Tharingini School of Music in Thiruvananthapuram and was trained in Carnatic music. By class X he had begun composing songs. “I would compose songs depending on my mood - a rock song when I am angry or a melody when I am sad. It is a friend of mine, Ashwin, who told me I should record these songs," he says.
He released his first music video in 2007 and since then he has composed more than 10 songs, releasing many of them on YouTube. One day his friend K.J. Krishnanunni, a student of the Satyajit Ray Institute, invited him to Calcutta to compose music for his friend's project. “That was a trance song," he says. He had taken with him some of his other songs.
Krishnanunni's friend and another student of the Institute heard one of the songs. Prakash M. Sukumaran then called Jonathan and asked if he could do the background score and music of his film 'Chewing Gum'. Jonathan was only glad to agree.
He was also part of two bands - Rage and SoulBurn.
