Keba Jeremiah

Keba Jeremiah Arul (born 18 October 1986) is an Indian guitarist and music producer who works in the Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil film industries, as well as in gospel music.

Keba Jeremiah was born in Al Karama, Dubai, and started playing music at the age of seven. He learned how to play the acoustic guitar as a child by taking guitar lessons, and later learned how to play keyboard and drums with his two brothers. Jeremiah began performing at church programs and Christian events at age ten. He learned the bass guitar for his school band at Our Own English High School, where he received awards at inter-school competitions. In 2004 he flew to India and joined the Hindustan College of Engineering, Chennai to pursue a professional engineering degree. Keba started playing at the New Life Assemblies of God Church every Sunday. He drew inspiration from watching various leading musicians in the city at work.

After graduation, Jeremiah formed the Christian band Fire Frenzy with college peers. In 2005, he started teaching music at the Institute of Music Technology, Chennai, run by John Satya.^[2] He began his career with music director James Vasanthan on the soundtrack for the 2008 Tamil film Subramaniapuram. Further, he collaborated with composers Yuvan Shankar Raja, Manikanth Kadri, Harris Jayaraj, Ouseppachan, A. R. Rahman, James Vasanthan, Anirudh Ravichander, D. Imman, and others.

Following his work on the soundtrack to the 2011 musical drama film Rockstar, scored by A. R. Rahman, Jeremiah has contributed guitar work to several of the composer's subsequent film scores.^[2][3][4]

As of 2013, he has played various guitars on around 500 different albums. In 2013, he worked on Rahman's film soundtracks Kadal, Maryan, and Raanjhanaa. In 2013, he performed on the soundtracks for Sutta Kadhai, Vanakkam Chennai, Chennai Express, and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.^[2] Along the way, he played on various gospel albums and concerts, collaborating with independent artists like Jonita Gandhi, Abhilash LR,^[5] Sid Sriram, and Maalavika Manoj, among others. Soon, Jeremiah worked alongside Joshua Prince for films like Maryan, Kadal, and 24.

In 2013, he completed work on the independent albums of Andrea Jeremiah and Maalavika Manoj.^[6] He has continued in his musical career, having performed over 800 songs. He is currently a member of the band RIJK (named for members Rodney Jayaraj, Isaac Dharmakumar, John Praveen, and himself). RIJK is a popular cover band for gospel and Tamil songs; the group plays a mix of genres, including rock, R&B, jazz, and fusion. A number of Indian singers have been guests on their cover songs, such as Pragathi Guruprasad, Jonita Gandhi, Andrea Jeremiah, Nikhita Gandhi, Alisha Thomas, and Ash King.

Keba has produced music for Tamil and Hindi films, including Paiya, Pasanga, Engeyum Kadhal, Savari, Avan Ivan, Mankatha, 3, Action Replay, Rockstar, and Ek Deewana Tha.

Jeremiah has performed at various live shows, collaborating with artists like Leslee Lewis, Naresh Iyer, and Vijay Prakash, and international artists, namely Don Moen, Bob Fits, Steve Kuban, and Sean Michael. He has appeared on television programs and music competitions including Airtel Super Singer, Ooo La La, and Kadhal Unplugged.

Jeremiah's repertoire includes experimental and acoustic music. His solo material incorporates influences from jazz, rock, and R&B.

• A.R Rahman's London concert
• Rahman's Chennai concert, "Nenje Ezhu", 2016
• Rahman's concert, "The Magic of A. R. Rahman", 2016
• Anirudh Live in Concert 2016 – Malaysia
• Anirudh Live in Concert 2016 – Toronto, Canada
• Sid Sriram Live 2017 – Malaysia
• Verasa Pogaiyile – "A Musical Journey with D. Imman", Live Concert 2017 – Singapore
• Rahman's "One Heart"
• Rahman's Dubai concert, 2017
• Rahman's Sydney concert, 2017
• Rahman's Manchester concert, 2017
• Rahman's Encore Concert – Mumbai (2017), Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Delhi
• Rahman's Bhubaneswar concert, 2018
• Rahman's Cuttack concert, 2018
• "Celebrating 25 years of Rahman"

As director

• Soundtrack to Demonte Colony (2015)

The song 'Vaada Vaa Machi' from the film was performed by Anirudh Ravichander. On Twitter, music director Rahman wished Jeremiah luck on his new endeavors: "Wishing our guitarist, Keba, the best in his first musical venture".

As musician

• Acoustics guitars: Taylor 410ce, Taylor 914ce, Taylor NS34, Taylor classical guitar, Cort Earth Series 1200 Nat, Maestro
• Electric guitars: Ibanez JS2400, Fender Telecaster, Fender Stratocaster, Paul Reed Smith, Suhr
• Bass guitars: Sadowsky

• Official website