The interview which appears below, was originally published on I Love A.R. Rahman Podcast in April 2021. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
You’re currently in quarantine in Vancouver after returning from India. How was that experience?
Yes, I’m in mandatory quarantine for 14 days after coming back to Canada on a repatriation flight. I’m in the basement suite of our house, so I’m not able to hug my brothers and parents yet – hopefully after 12 more days!
The whole travel experience was surreal. I’ve never entered an airport and seen it completely shut down – no air conditioning, conveyor belts not functioning. They charged three times what a normal flight would cost, and despite telling us to maintain six feet distance in lines, we were seated two inches away from each other on the packed flight. It was completely contradictory and irresponsible.
You just had a release with Rahman sir during the lockdown. Can you tell us about that experience?
We were told the song needed to be recorded and shot, so I recorded the whole thing on this little Chinese microphone in my bedroom in India and sent off the files. Everybody recorded at their own homes – some on cell phones, some on setups if they had one.
Then we were told to send a couple of angles of videos shot on our phones. It doesn’t look like phone shots though – a lot of people look amazing! I just woke up in the morning with a two-hour deadline, and the upload ended up taking nine hours because everybody was on their phones during lockdown. But it was very fun – we just kept the phone there, lip-synced our lines, and that was it!
You’ve been learning music since childhood. Can you share some memories about your self-taught Hindustani training?
A lot of it was actually self-taught. I used to listen to audio sets and CDs when I was growing up. I would keep listening to these CDs until I had them memorized – all night I would just keep pressing the rewind and play buttons on my audio set.
I still have this weird habit from childhood – when I sleep at night, I always sleep on the left side of the bed and always have an arm dangling under the bed. That’s the hand I used to use to rewind and play! I’ve never grown out of that habit.
That listening part of music helps me when it comes to singing in 13 languages. I listen to how words are pronounced and replicate them. Trust me, I’m not well-versed in 13 languages – I’m not a genius or anything, I just listen very carefully.
When was the first time you met Rahman sir? I believe the Coke Studio meeting wasn’t the first, right?
No, that wasn’t the first time. The first time was insane! I had played some of my work to Sreeni sir, and he told me to come to the studio because there was something Rahman sir was working on and they’d like me to meet him.
I got lost and somehow made it to their studio in rickshaws that kept taking me around and around. Sreeni sir had told me, “When you see him, jump on him because he’s just gonna come and go and you won’t even know when he’s disappeared!” I took his instructions very seriously.
I waited for like an hour and a half in the waiting room of the older version of the studio. I remember seeing PG there, meeting Benny there. Then suddenly I see what I’ve seen on television – Rahman sir walking very quickly. I literally ran out of that room and was like, “Excuse me sir!”
He turned to me and said, “Hi, yes,” and I was shaking – my hands, knees, legs were all shaking. I could barely get a squeak out of my mouth. I told him I’d come from Bombay and asked if I could play something for him. He looked like he was trying to tell me I’d just interrupted his work, but he was such a sweetheart – he said “Okay.”
What happened during that first meeting?
He took me inside and told me to sit on this chair that would keep going round and round – he would go round and round in his chair, and I would go round and round in mine. We both have that habit clearly! The best part is we’re both Capricorns, so I felt an immediate connection.
He asked me questions about who I am, where I’m from. When I told him I’m from Canada, he said, “Oh, Toronto?” and I said, “No sir, I’m from Vancouver.”
Then he asked me to sing something. I chose a classical composition in Raga Gujari Todi, but the fan was going off really loud. I very calmly told him, “Sir, the fan is really loud and I don’t think you’ll be able to hear me properly.” He actually had somebody come and switch the fan off!
But here’s the thing – because I was shivering and shaking so hard, the fast runs in the composition became even faster, so much that I ended up sounding like a chipmunk! I was so scared. I think I sang so horribly that day – probably the worst singing of my life. When I got up, he asked if I wanted to leave a CD, and he said, “No, that wouldn’t be necessary.” I never heard back from sir for six years!
Six years later, Coke Studio happened. How did that change everything?
I auditioned for Coke Studio five or six years after that incident. I don’t know if sir remembered he had met me, but I really hope at this point he doesn’t – it would be so embarrassing!
But yes, absolutely, “OK Kanmani” was a major breakthrough. The morning after it released, I probably had 3,000 followers overnight – it just skyrocketed. I think that album and Rahman sir’s belief in me is why people came to know of my existence.
“Parandhu Sella Vaa” was such a unique track. I heard Rahman sir used his iPad for that one – the “loop song”?
Yes! That’s the one where he used Apple Loops and kept looping. When he called us to sing, we were supposed to sing certain parts in that looping fashion. He would keep taking chunks, and when he put it together – whoa! He just transports you into another dimension.
He made Karthik do body sounds, made me do certain sounds, and he would keep making loops of them. It was created pretty much on the spot and didn’t take more than two hours. He was on fire that day – throwing ideas at Karthik and me. We were both recording at the same time in different booths.
There was something in the air during that recording – something that I think will always resonate with that song.
Can you sing a line or two from “Parandhu Sella Vaa” for us?
[Sings beautifully] Of course!
You mentioned you’re a night owl. Do most recording sessions with Rahman sir happen at night?
For me, I could never sing in the mornings, even as a child. My parents would force me to practice classical music at 4 AM before school, but my voice would feel really weird in the mornings. In the evenings, when I practiced film songs, I would feel much better.
Today, my practice timings are 12 midnight onwards – that’s the most beautiful time for me to sit down and practice. I’ve been like this for over 15 years now. So when I met sir and he would call us to record at 3 or 4 AM, I would be like, “Perfect! We’re so in sync!”
Most sessions would start at 6 PM and go on until 10 AM the next morning. He would call us for one song, and it would turn into recording three other tracks. Sometimes we’d just sit and talk to him without recording at all, and those sessions of gaining insight from sir would be so informative, invigorating, and spiritually uplifting.
“Nenjae Nenjae” is such an energetic track that sets concerts on fire. Any memories of recording that?
Thank you! But at the end of the day, anything we sing – it’s very easy for a singer to take credit, but I feel it should be the other way around. It’s the way the composer gets you to render it, the brief he gives you, the way he makes you sing.
Rahman sir will get the best out of you and won’t expect you to thank him in return. Even with “Nenjae Nenjae,” I had practiced for two hours before sir came into the studio, and after he came, he changed the entire way I was singing it – he changed everything. That’s why it sounds the way it does – because of the way he made me sing it, not the way I had interpreted it.
The entire credit goes to sir, not me. I was just a medium of rendering his vision.
Can you sing a couple of lines from “Nenjae Nenjae” for us?
[Sings powerfully] Of course!
What’s your playlist like? Do you have any songs that serve as lucky charms or get you in the zone?
Of course it has Rahman sir’s songs – how can a playlist be complete without them? If you’ve grown up in an environment where Indian music has been played, there have to be AR Rahman songs. How can your life not be influenced by that?
Other than Rahman sir, I have a lot of Bon Iver, Radiohead (my favorite band), alternative music, Stereophonics, Norah Jones. I listen to everything and anything under the sun except death metal!
For lucky charm songs that inspire and motivate me, it would have to be “Chanda Re” and “Vande Mataram.” These are two songs I just cannot get out of my system. A little later in life, “Kun Faya Kun” became one of those songs that does something to me.
Would you love to perform “Chanda Re” on stage with Rahman sir someday?
Oh my god! I just visualized myself performing that song with sir, and something happened inside me. Yes, I would absolutely love to sing that with sir! I hope he watches this!
Let’s talk about “99 Songs.” Your track was incredible, especially the “Soja Soja” part.
Thank you! I call that song a whirlwind because there are so many dimensions to the track. It’s like a jazz standard with various subgenres. You have different sections with completely different vibes.
It starts with “If you don’t love me, I’ll put a bullet through your heart” – there are so many emotions! I resonate with that because I’m a very animated person with a lot of expressions. That’s why they took me into theater. The song itself has a lot of different expressions, and that was the coolness of this composition.
I would be curious to know if you fell asleep during the “Soja Soja” part because I would feel that I went very deep into the lyrics – like when she says “soja soja,” it is a lullaby, so time to sleep!
Before we wrap up, the Australian Rahman fans wanted me to pass along a message: “Sasha, keep rocking, we love you a lot!”
Aw, my love to all these Australian fans! Seriously, thank you for loving my music, thank you for loving me and whatever I’ve tried to offer to you guys. It’s your love that keeps me going. I mean, if you dispose of what I sing and what I do, I wouldn’t be singing. So I am because of you guys – thank you and keep it coming!
Do you have any message for Rahman sir if he’s watching this?
[Gets emotional] I’m going to get emotional if I say something because I have this problem – every time anybody asks me how I feel about him, I get a lump in my throat.
I just have too much love and respect for him, and putting words to it would contaminate how I feel. So I’m not going to say anything, but he should know how much I love him. It’s my parents, then Rahman sir, and then I don’t know – I can’t think of a third entity.
This might sound crazy, but does Rahman sir come in your dreams?
He came in my dreams even last night! I dream of him every alternate night, and this has been for years – about 12 years now. It’s gone a little less frequent now, but it used to be every alternate night.
They’re very random dreams – sometimes I’d just be standing somewhere watching sir, just knowing he’s there. Another night I’d be interacting with him, or in a studio (something from my imagination before I met him – like a spaceship kind of thing). I’ve seen him in my house having biryani! Very random dreams, but I’ve been dreaming of sir every alternate night for 12 years now.
Can we close with “Malare” from “99 Songs”?
[Sings beautifully] Of course!
Thank you so much, Shashaa! This has been absolutely amazing.
Thank you! The fact that you, as an honest fan, are doing this out of love and respect for sir, and all of us colleagues are coming forward to support you – it clearly shows the love and respect we all have for sir. A lot of it comes from your genuine fandom as well. Thank you!
