Long before Indian musician and composer A.R. Rahman became an Oscar-winning global phenomenon, the Jai Ho! writer was already legend in his home country, credited with changing the face of contemporary Indian music. In a nation obsessed with Bollywood music, his unique ability to blend Indian classical music with electronic sounds redefined an industry, and propelled him to the top, following his acclaimed debut in 1992 with the film ‘Roja’.
Then came 2008’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and Rahman is officially one of the busiest composers in the world, shuttling between Los Angeles where he is lunching with Steven Spielberg one day, and Chennai in south India where his studio is based.
It’s no wonder then that it has taken the ‘Mozart from Madras [old name of Chennai]’ 15 long years to release his solo single. Following the seminal 1997 album ‘Vande Mataram’, which is still the largest-selling non-film album in India, Rahman last week released ‘Infinite Love’, a single and video, which he calls his “message of peace and hope amidst a time of dark omens of destruction”.
A project two years in the making, the song, and the upcoming album, sees Rahman back in his element. Although the first single is in English, details of the rest of the album are still held in secrecy.
The musician spoke recently about the inspiration behind the solo effort, music, world peace and living in Los Angeles.
‘Infinite Love’ was conceived about two years ago…
I worked on a scratch and then got busy and came back to it about a year ago and things sort of fell into place.
I think it’s a very relevant issue to talk about love and peace right now. There are so many things going on right now which we need to change and that was the trigger for the song.
If the world ended tomorrow…
I think it’s important to live your life every second. When you do that, you give your time to things that you get the most pleasure out of. Sometimes you can live 10 seconds and that could define your whole life. Sometimes you can live for eternity and it may not be valuable at all.
I want to inspire children…
I wanted to make ‘Infinite Love’ kid-friendly. Kids don’t have exciting content to watch these days. There are so many inappropriate things all around. I was focused on triggering some kind of inspiration for kids, to inspire them to be leaders and to remind them that we have such a great culture. There are such great pools of wisdom hidden in our country and we need to take them and give it to the world.
My son Ameen makes his acting debut in ‘Infinite Love’…
He really wanted to do it. He’s always wanted to be a musician but I’ve told him he has to work hard for it. For the video, he took acting lessons for three days before the first shot.
I like Priyanka Chopra’s voice and attitude…
She approached me when she was an upcoming actress and I didn’t really know her. And we lost touch. But I’m really glad that a major actress like her is taking this direction [moving into music]. She has fallen into the right hands and is working with the right people. I’m happy that people are branching out and expanding. I hope she grows and gets even more experimental.
Tabu and I are working on some songs…
It’s a work in progress. She has the right spirit and she loves singing. But we’re still working on it.
I am hoping for good things on qyuki.com…
The social media platform was Shekhar Kapur’s (Oscar-nominated director) brainchild. It’s a platform for creative people to express themselves with a mission to create creative leaders and to moderate the mediocre from the genius. It’s a great opportunity for people around the world and I am so happy it has caught on so beautifully.
I’m currently reading a book about screenwriting…
It’s called ‘Save the Cat!’. A really funny book. But I read half of it and slept off. Most of my reading is done on flights. It’s a long way to Los Angeles from Chennai.
I don’t have time to listen to music much…
I don’t even have an iPod. As they say, when you’re working in the kitchen, you don’t want to eat.
The last time I did something for the first time was drive in Los Angeles…
I recently received my international licence and I leased a convertible and drove all over town. It was interesting because in India, you drive in the left and in the US, they drive on the right. I haven’t driven for three years, so it was nice to take the top off and have the heater on full blast. It gets cold in LA, you know.
*Catch the full interview with A.R. Rahman on Josh Drive on Josh 97.8 with Samer and Valda tonight between 7 and 8pm. For more, go to joshfm.ae.
