Beginnings and DAW..
Vinju Jacob Thomas(VJ) who goes by the artist name thePolymorphist is an Indian music composer and producer for film and television. Born and brought up in a not so BIG town in central India, VJ always loved and was intrigued by music from the very childhood. He would listen to songs on the mini Hi-Fi system at his home and wondered how that bass coming out of those speakers is even made, although he din't know that it was called bass at that time. Although fiddling with the keyboard and guitar gave some gratification to his ever growing musical craving, getting his hands on a DAW(Digital Audio Workstation) was what would change his world for ever! Completely obsessed by it, he spent countless hours going through the User Manuals(back then, YouTube wasn't what it is right now!), poking and moving all the knobs and faders in the software, putting down notes with a mouse and typing keyboard, he taught himself the 101s of Music Production. It was like a whole new realm had opened up for him and he was deep in love with it. During his graduation days as a Computer Science Engineer, he would get along with his friends between semesters to compose and record songs in the bedroom with cheap chat microphones and also would constantly make music on his own, trying to better himself with production techniques. Now lying somewhere in dusty hard drives and some forever lost into digital heaven, he wrote a lot of tracks which never saw the light of day. They might not be "The Pro Tracks", but they sure did help him evolve to be the versatile composer and producer he is today.
His love for music wasn't confined to any one genre. Rock, pop, indie, alternative, electronica, folk, western classical and everything in between, his ears were always listening and picking up various elements from all these genres which were shaping up his own musical vocabulary. But listening to the soundtracks for films and games was something special. He was instantly drawn towards its sonic possibilities. Musical colours and textures which could be as delicate or as powerful as the composer wanted it to be. It's capacity to evoke emotions and tell stories without ever having to say a single word! This is where thePolymorphist eventually felt like home.
Coding To Background Scoring
He then went on to work as a software engineer with a multi-national IT firm for a little less than three years. Although not sure how to go about it, he always wanted to be doing something in music professionally and grew a sense of unrest within. But it would be whilst coding portals for Swiss Banks that he would get the opportunity to take part in a closed group background scoring contest for a documentary on sharks through a colleague and dear friend who happened to be a diver. It was being produced by the legendary Australian film maker and conservationist Rodney Fox and he got onboard an esteemed panel of judges consisting of Academy Award winning composer Howard Shore, Producer/DJ Moby, Aphex Twin and the Trip Hop band Portishead. Out of contestants worldwide, VJ was chosen as one of the two finalists and got great accolades for his work from the industry legends. This was the final push for him to call it quits being the...IT guy !
Back To School And
Start Of A Journey..
It was time to take things to the next level. With a great support from his family and friends, VJ moved to London to take up Music Production and Sound Engineering courses at the renowned Point Blank Music School, getting to learn from some of the finest British producers and engineers. After finishing his studies in the UK, he moved back to India. With over 9 years of industry experience, his work credit includes international projects such as Star Wars:Visions(Vol 2), some of the biggest blockbusters of the Hindi Film Industry lovingly known as Bollywood, as well as regional movies in multiple languages. He also works with the Hollywood Trailer Music and Sound Design House Phantom Power. Check out the Filmography and Music section to know more.
thePolymorphist ??
Polymorphism is a concept in programming paradigm where a single entity can exist in multiple forms, performing multiple functionality. Not constraining his musical identity to any particular genre and wanting to retain some of his programming past, when it came to decide on an artist name, thePolymorphist seemed like a pretty good bet to portray his ability to be Genre' cally Amorphous and write music in multiple genres and then some fine blend of them as well.