The interview which appears below, was originally published on Passion For Cinema in August 2008. ©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 have worked with great composers of today, Vishal Bhardwaj and A.R. Rahman? How was it working with them? They both come from completely different schools of music, so how do you adjust yourself when recording film songs?
I have been really fortunate to start my film career with people like Vishal, Gulzar Saab, Hariharan, Sureshji, etc. These people have become like family to me. Subsequently, I got the opportunity to work with Ismail Durbar, Nadeem-Shravan, Jagjit Singh, and finally, A.R. Rahman.
As a sound engineer, your job is to record the sound to the best of your ability on available equipment and reproduce that emotion for others to hear, capturing that bit for posterity. So I take that approach with whomsoever I work. I give my collective best; from whatever I have learned, in music, in production, or in engineering.
Both Vishal and A.R. are composers who invite suggestions and are open to incorporating them if it really suits the music. In fact, that is the reason that A.R. works with very few outside engineers. He does not want someone who will just move faders; there has to be artistic input as well. Contrary to popular belief, he works all through the day! There is some work or another going on in various studios of his, and he walks in and out to check how things are going. It’s only when he is composing that he needs his solitude. So he can be calling you at any point in time to start work, and that is something you have to be able to do. With him, the music is never finished till it has been sent in for replication! So small changes, tweaks, and additions are all part of his mix process.
Apart from the acoustics, how much emphasis is on the sound of the “words” (the biggest difference to me in approach of Vishal and A.R.R. towards a song)…any instance?
Again, coming from the old school of music making, I personally lay a lot of importance on the lyrics, if it is a song, and the dialogue, if it is a film.
Vishal himself writes and is immersed in Hindi literature. His sensibilities are very tuned into the lyrical content of a song. And that is evident from “Chhod Aaye Hum” to “Beedi Jalayle.” I do not know A.R. that well to comment on him, but I can say that his Tamil songs always sounded far better than the Hindi translations of the same until he did a movie with Gulzar Saab—Dil Se. And then RDB with Prasoon and Guru with Gulzar Saab again. A.R. is also a master at the sound texture and arrangement, so it seems he is less tuned into the lyrical part, but I don’t think that is so. He has worked with the best of Tamil poets from Mr. Valli to Mr. Vairamuthu.
What is the scope of innovation/improvisation/degree of freedom for a sound engineer over a composition of a music director?
I think that totally depends on the relationship between the music director and his sound engineer. There is plenty of scope to play around with textures and sounds during a mix. The music director has to have full faith in his engineer, and it can be seen in works of Jagjit Singh with Daman Sood, A.R. Rahman with H. Sridhar, and also to some extent with Vishal and me. I have made changes to bass lines, the sounds of keyboard parts, etc., to a few songs during the mix.
The music directors have to be really secure in their art to allow this to happen. But today, it is the reverse. Most engineers are given tracks and expected to make creative changes to make the song stand out since hardly any thought has been given to the arrangement or tracks before that. Please do not mistake that for a healthy relationship.
Live Shows
K.J. Singh loves to do live shows as well. He says that live shows require a lot of spontaneity and adaptability to work in different environments. He talks about incidents like Kishore Kumar Nite at IG Stadium in New Delhi, where he was the sound in-charge. During the event, he was asked by the singer to shut off the echo unit, only to be told that it was the dome-shaped hall that was responsible for it!
He also recalls his association with Jazz Yatra. He was there during the first-ever musical concert of the band “Shakti” in 1983 in New Delhi, with John McLaughlin at the helm of affairs and later at IIT Delhi with Larry Coryell. All this while working as an assistant for the Chandra Brothers, from whom he also learned the basics of sound.
He has worked with A.R. Rahman at his live shows all around the world and in India. Singh traveled extensively with singer Padma Shri Hariharan for Tamil, Bollywood, and Ghazal shows, apart from mixing his albums Kaash at the Real World Studio, UK, and Waqt Par Bolna at Phase One, Toronto.
Artist Development & Management, and Royalties
K.J. Singh strongly believes that budding artists should be trained at an early age, similar to how young gymnasts are trained in Eastern European countries.
In earlier years, India boasted a huge pool of classical and semi-classical artists. This was because of the strong “Guru-Shishya parampara,” which seems lacking in today’s system. Good music will only flourish under able patronage and correct guidance, as well as a strong royalties system.
We probed further as to why artists do not receive royalties in India on the same scale as in the West. He explained that earlier, selected people (mainly film producers) owned all the rights to songs and content under contracts signed by the artist, for perpetuity, which was criminal.
Nowadays, composers like A.R. Rahman rightfully ask for royalties and publishing rights. A few others have started music combines, which are also planning on asking for such rights. Even today, if some video game company or a Hollywood picture house picks up a tune from a certain old movie, the producer will get his dues and not the artist who originally created it.
K.J. says that royalties are important because they allow the artist to concentrate on new projects without worrying about where their next meal might come from. There will be a steady flow of income through royalties. Such a hassle-free creative environment is difficult to find in India, which eventually mars the quality of music produced. In Western countries, high-profile engineers also earn small royalty points, something unheard of in our country, as they too have contributed to the songs they have mixed.
During one of his visits to a London recording studio, he came to know that Oasis, the band, was recording in the adjacent studio. On visiting their studio, he learned that the band had been living there for the past six months—all for creativity’s sake. This is the kind of creative space available in the Occident. They can afford to do it because of the steady flow of royalties.
To further support his train of thought, he recounted his meeting with Sting’s producer of the album Sacred Love. Apparently, Sting and his crew recorded their songs in a chateau in France, drinking wine and nibbling on cheese. Although this is extravagant, it does portray the creative space available there to an extent.
