Yanchan Rajmohan (born March 8, 1995), known professionally as Yanchan, is a Canadian singer, producer, songwriter, mixing engineer, and mridangist. Known most for incorporating South Asian elements into his production work, Rajmohan creates carnatic-hip-hop fusion tracks.
Rajmohan helped build Emtee Education, an artist development and music education firm, as well as Dirty Elephant, a music conglomerate focused on bridging the gap between the North American and Indian music scenes.
Rajmohan's first EP Yours Truly was released in November 2016 through his independent label Dirty Elephant Records, where Rajmohan is both the lead producer and founder. His music grew in popularity due to the blending of genres and styles such as Carnatic music, songs from Tamil and Hindi cinema, Alternative R&B, Hip-Hop, Pop, Soul, Trap, and a few sub-genres of Electronic. His song "Reminiscence" became track of the week in 2016 on Ashanti Omkar's radio show on the BBC Asian Network.
Rajmohan released his debut album Sentimental Kids on November 15, 2019. On July 20, 2019, Rajmohan and Shan Vincent De Paul released the first episode of their Mrithangam Raps series where Rajmohan plays the mrithangam and De Paul raps. The rap series has gained millions of views and brought Rajmohan to the forefront of the Indian music market. Rajmohan's music had been featured on Complex, Rolling Stone, and Star Vijay.
Early life
Yanchan Rajmohan was born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario on March 8, 1995, the son of Tamil immigrants. Rajmohan's parents fled their home country, Sri Lanka, as refugees from the civil war. He attended New High Castle Public School and later Woburn Collegiate Institute. After graduating from high school, Rajmohan attended Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, although he later dropped-out to attend Trebas College where he received his diploma in audio engineering.
At the age of six, Rajmohan began training in vocal and mridangam in Carnatic music. He was the youngest person in Canada at the time to perform his mridanga arangetram (or debut performance), at the age of eight. He trained on the instrument obsessively with renowned players Neyveli B. Venkatesh, Trichy Sankaran, and Karaikudi Mani. Rajmohan also plays the khanjira, the ghatam and the thavil.
Career
2016: Beginnings
In November 2016, Rajmohan released his first EP, Yours Truly. Rajmohan claimed, "The sound of my entire EP is rooted in the pain and experiences I’ve dealt with in the past. It is essentially a letter I wrote to all the people who tried keeping me down, a message to them and the world of what I’m capable of," hence the name Yours Truly as the title.
Rajmohan's debut EP contains a total of six songs, released by his studio Dirty Elephant Records. His song, "New Me," from the Yours Truly EP had a music video directed by Kid October and Gow Naguleswaran for SPICYWTR published on YouTube and Facebook.
2017 - 2018: Singles
In 2017, Rajmohan released his singles "All Out" in July, "Same Old" in November. He recorded a music video for his single "All Out" directed by Kid October and NGLSWRN.
In 2018, he released “Get It” in February, “Coming Down” in April, and “Yacht” in September. In Rajmohan's single "Yacht," he "tells the story of his first experience riding a luxury Yacht with some of the most powerful individuals in the Music Industry." This single granted him a feature in HipHopCanada and Complex Canada. Rajmohan is featured on Shan Vincent De Paul's single, "Slow Love," which Rajmohan also co-produced. Rajmohan first discovered De Paul when his sister showed him a publication he was featured on by Tamil Culture, and it became his goal to connect with him. A year from that day, Rajmohan went to De Paul's parents furniture store in Scarborough where he would meet his mom eventually leading to the two finally connecting.
2019: Sentimental Kids and Want You
On January 10, 2019, Rajmohan and De Paul released their single "Want You." The artists experimented with this single, mixing Rap and Carnatic music– and the song went viral immediately. Rajmohan released his debut album Sentimental Kids on November 15, 2019. The album includes three singles, "I Know," featuring De Paul, "Fantasy," and "Happen Like This" featuring S.A.M.