How a Vevo-label, Rhythm & Blues maestro emerged from a left-over PC in Kerala

Jinadev Hasu found his destiny when he was just 11. Growing up in the idyllic village of Kallar in Thiruvananthapuram and studying at a government school near his home, little Jinadev had stumbled upon Western music while browsing on a computer left behind by a cousin. Listening to Pop King Michael Jackson was a revelation, and he searched for more songs, musicians and genres until his heart stuck at Rhythm and Blues (R&B).

“That was the day I decided to be a musician,” says Jinadev, who, at 22, is known by the stage name 'Inixial' and has become the second Keralite to ever earn a Vevo label, that too for his very first album. Vevo is a US-based multinational video hosting service that verifies an artiste’s official channel and certifies it with a label, which is the most-sought-after honour by musicians.

Owning a Vevo-branded music channel is a rare honour and Inixial is on cloud nine. “It was for my track ‘Remorse’ from the album ‘Antibeauty’ that I got Vevo verification. I know that it’s not easy to get one, but I believe that it’s sheer luck,” says Jinadev. Composer-playback singer Job Kurian was the first Keralite to earn a Vevo label.

To get a Vevo channel, one has to tick off several criteria – a high-quality, professionally-shot video of international standards, the right channel to distribute content for Vevo, technical specifications like video compression type, frame rate, multi-pass encoding and video format. Vevo-verified artistes receive royalties whenever their videos are viewed. Inixial had his Vevo channel merged with his official YouTube channel, earning him a music note icon next to the channel name.

Antibeauty is an album of 10 tracks, all of them melancholic and mysterious. “Remorse is a mix of fantasy and spirituality, a direct approach to human emotions, I’d say. It’s more like finding beauty in unlikely places,” he says. The other tracks include ‘Believe Me’, ‘Fugitive’, ‘Damned’, ‘Sum of My Soul’, ‘Illusion’, ‘Birth of a Flame’, ‘Soft Violence’, ‘Destination’ and ‘Fadin off’, all of them with mysterious vibes, Inixial’s favourite.

Finding solace in art

Why melancholy? Inixial looks back. His father Harikumar, an electrician, and his homemaker mother Subi were taken aback when their only son announced that he wanted to pursue music. Buckling to parental pressure, he joined college, but eventually he dropped out. “I had my share of heartbreaks, disappointments and personal issues. My parents were unhappy about my decision and I slowly sank to depression. Without friends and staying lonely for some time, my existence was getting affected. And I decided to find solace in my art.”

He learnt English from Western music and trained in music production on his own. He wrote poems and started composing. Calling themselves as a team named 'Tridnt 84', he and his friends Akhil Anand, Mukesh, Abhinav, Madav Jane, Ananthu Sajayan and Abhiram S J who shared the common passion for music took up odd jobs to fund their dreams and thus born Antibeauty. The video production was handled by his friends too – Xstilldark (director/pattern developer) and X white (vfx editor).

Inspirations, for Inixial, comes from Enrique Iglesias, Prince, The Weeknd and MJ. He says he won’t stick to R&B. The plan is to come up with a pop song next.

Lockdown, for him, has been quite productive and creative. A couple of days ago, through his Vevo channel, Inixial released a single, an acoustic track ‘Give Me Something’, which, he terms ‘is a rainy day, coffee time melancholy’.

Now, his parents are happy; so is Inixial. His songs are streaming on over 150 platforms across the globe. Melancholy stays away and Inixial dreams of happier days for Indie music and musicians, that more platforms, like Vevo, would come in support of them. Staying indoors to beat COVID-19 along with the world, Inixial is quite positive, “I have a lot of stories and music to express. Good times are ahead.”