DENUJA
Denuja Ratna balances a finance day job with spontaneous sessions in the studio, and for her Jamspot S3 performance, she’s ditching her signature smooth soul and RnB vibes for a fresh, garage spin on the Kollywood hit ‘Pudichirukku’. Learning Carnatic music at age 3 to jamming with grandparents in Jaffna and back to South babyskanking to Craig David remixes blasted by older cousins, music is shaped around love for her family. Denuja connects the rifts in between the geography in memories of music in both her past and present with a laid-back coolness and gold-standard belief that it’s mostly about having a good time.
Her return to Jamspot marks a bold new direction by bringing in a high-energy, head-bopping remix - perfect for outside antics while drinking late-night maggies or blasting in the car as you cruise with pride through the metropolis. Its lo-fi textures give it that nostalgic demo-type feel, arguably making it more seductive than the cinematic original.
Denuja’s confident vocals slice through this crisp beat like a smooth pebble skipping across a pond. This song places you in the innocent mind of your younger self, the aching epiphany of realising you like someone and neither of you know what the other feels, a tornado of questions circling in your head plunging you deeper into infatuation. Words aren’t always enough to explain why we feel the way we feel for people, and this production bravely rises to the challenge of translating flirtation sonically. Fleeting moments, eyes averting deep gazes instead linger towards the mouth, the blushing erotics of desire manifest as a cinematic slow-burn.
The beat is a see-saw, slowing down and speeding up to convey the inner war between maintaining a mask of non-chalance and giving into impulses through being recklessly honest. A quintessential summer anthem, packed with addictive 808 bass and ambient synths brings a certified heat. It’s either that or an omnipresent reminder to toss away shyness and to tell that special person what you really think.
What’s your name, tell us where you’re from and how would you describe your sound.
My name is Denuja. The government folk know me as De-noo-jah (caucasian pronunciation) so I’ll give you both options. I’m from South London a.k.a the best part of London, which I advocated in Jamspot Season 1 and will to this day. I would say my sound is a cocktail of RnB, Carnatic influences and Tamil cinema. But, the track we’re doing today is very UK. Think UK garage, UK Funk, UK sound - it’s a bit of me.
Can you talk me through your earliest memory of experiencing music ?
Music’s always been around. I started singing when I was 3 starting with Carnatic music as my base. Then I picked up different instruments: violin for about six or seven years, then moved onto veena, piano, guitar. When I went to school I studied music and learned opera which was a bit random, but added another dimension.
Who did you listen to growing up? Who are some artists that inspire you in your song-making process?
I listened to whatever was playing at the time: Chris Brown, Beyoncé, Sugababes. But Big Brovaz, that was my first ever CD and it was more the R&B side that I connected with. Obviously, I had my whole Tamil side with the whole 90s/2000s A.R Rahman classics and that’s contributed to the type of sounds I make by mixing and matching all my favourite parts of R&B and Tamil music.
How do you feel growing up in South London has impacted your music?
What a question! I was always listening to what my cousins were listening to and their taste was very UK influenced - UK garage, Hip-Hop, Funk, Craig David. I’d be babyskanking to what they were playing. I think South in general, the way music was back then when I was growing up, whatever song was popping off at the time you’d be like, “did you listen to this and did you listen to that”, and bluetooth each other songs based on what everyone had on their phone catalogues. A culture of sharing music was prominent when the grime scene was emerging as well and that era is kind of coming back now so I wanted to feed that nostalgia into this track.
What is it about UK Garage that attracts you towards it?
It’s just sick innit? Gunfingers pop, shoulders bop. I don’t know how to describe UK Garage because It just makes me feel good. It’s just chill but not too much of a party. It’s so London!! I don’t think you can find that kind of sound anywhere else as there’s so many cultures mixed into it making it so unique to the UK.
Do you come from a musical family and did your family encourage you to pursue music?
My grandma plays veena and my grandparents love Carnatic music though they weren’t formally trained. So anytime I go back to Jaffna there’s always music on, we're jammin and my grandma plays the Veena whilst I sing. Also, when I was younger I went to Tamil school and Amma saw I loved music so she pushed me to learn more. There was definitely a lot of encouragement there. Although I wanted to focus on it more than studies, she’d remark padippu ellam vididu [leaving your studies behind] !
What do you enjoy doing in your free time ?
Recently, I picked Muay Thai and It’s been a fun new adventure but also physically demanding. I basically saw this girl teaching and training in Thailand on my TikTok, and during a quarter-life crisis I thought, “that could be me” 😎. So I quit my job, went to Thailand for five weeks and learned Muay Thai. That’s where I’m at with life at the moment.
How do you find that process of co-writing versus solo writing ?
It’s so fun. I overthink lyrics and words when I’m alone - everything comes out so cringe so I get put off from doing it. With someone else there, you get reassurance that it’s good and sounds nice. You need someone to say shut up! Record it! Just sing! That happens with Piri. He’s like “your first take is fine, why are you recording it again and again”. It helps when someone keeps you accountable to move forward with the creative process.
You’ve performed Ivan Yaaro cover for Jamspot S I - what’s changed since then and what made you decide to return?
Oooohhh. With Jamspot, I’ve been involved from the beginning - I’d never say no to it. It’s been such an important part of my journey in putting myself out there. Nothing else has elevated me the way Jamspot did, so coming back wasn’t even a question - of course I would.
This time around, I just felt different. I was a lot more nervous the first time. I kept wondering - how much of myself am I allowed to bring in? How much say do I get, especially when everyone’s got their own ideas? That first season was when me and Piri started working together and building our creative relationship. Now, we just get each other. We know how to communicate, we know how each other works, and that’s made everything so much smoother.
When we started talking about this track, I was actually in Thailand, figuring out what direction to go in. I knew I wanted a bop. Ivan Yaaro (SI) was a slow, vibey track - but this time, I wanted gun fingers energy. A proper summer anthem. So Piri suggested UK Garage, and I was like - yeah, that’s a bit of me. I hope it bangs and that people enjoy it.
What do you want to see more of in the music space?
I don’t think there are enough spaces right now where people can just jam - no pressure, no expectations, just good music and fun connection. That’s something I really want to focus on doing more of this year so there’s more shows, more intentional spaces for people to come through and perform. Because honestly? Performing is so fun. I love it.
In terms of your performance on Jamspot today, tell us how this process went?
We kicked off with the idea of wanting a UK garage vibe and that kind of beat was the goal. But finding the right song was tricky. There’s this whole wave of westernizing Tamil tracks right now - adding Afrobeats, mixing genres and I didn’t want to jump on the usual slow-to-fast remix trend because that can feel a bit forced or cringe. We wanted something upbeat that would really land.
At the time, I was in Thailand, and we were on FaceTime going through Spotify playlists like, “Would this work? No? What about this?” Then Aiyayo Pudichirriku came up, and I was like, “Yooo, this is it.” We both immediately knew this was the one. After that, we had a call to nail down the vibe brainstorming and pooling inspiration from songs we wanted to channel. We were vibing on Jorja Smith’s On My Mind and the whole track takes a page from that kind of feel. Plus, K-Pop’s been using garage beats lately, so we checked that out too.
Then we started structuring the track. I flew back and we spent two days recording, and by the end, we were like, “Yeah, this is it.” Honestly, it was a lot of fun.
How do you feel about the direction Tamil music is going in now?
It’s so crazy how much it’s blown in the past five or six years. Every time someone drops a new track it’s a whole other level. We’re crossing genres and blending sounds so much that Tamil music has become super accessible - even to people who aren’t Tamil. You get those moments where you’re like, “Oi, this slaps,” even if you don’t understand the lyrics.
Language isn’t even a barrier anymore. People are streaming K-Pop, and Japanese R&B is massive right now, with those 90s soul vibes and love songs. Tamil music has evolved beyond just being “Tamil music” . It’s just about what sounds good. But at the same time, there’s still this love for the roots, that old-school independent Tamil scene, and I really vibe with having that balance.
What words of advice could you give to aspiring musicians in the Jamspot audience right now?
I’m at this point in my journey where I’m okay with ups and downs. When I was younger, there was this pressure to be on a constant upward trajectory to keep posting music, keep grinding.
I’d say: don’t pressure yourself to constantly put yourself out there. It’s totally okay to pull back and reset. You have to reset, or else you’ll go crazy trying to keep up with everyone else putting out content all the time. Chill. It’s fine. Take a break, have a KitKat and you’ll be fine. That’s my advice, coming from an old woman like me.