The interview which appears below, was originally published on The Mid Day in December 2009. ©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.
The countdown to the Grammys has begun. Double nominee A.R. Rahman has just returned after a whirlwind trip to America, which included a performance at the State Dinner at the White House. True to what filmmaker Shekhar Kapur said last week about getting over the giddy-headed feeling of being a double Oscar-winner or a double Grammy nominee, Rahman sounds unfazed as Jai ho is celebrated all over again.
He’s brooding over the deep edge with thoughts about meaningful art that lives on after the artiste and going back to the roots. Over an hour-long phone conversation from Chennai, the man who laid out a blazing new road with his progressive sound wants to go back to where it all began the organic sound. In a first, he also opens up about not wanting to live in a uni-dimensional sphere and wanting more from life. As always, Rahman sounds like a calm riddle.
Was there a moment during the Oscars when you thought ‘Hey I’m an Indian, my religion is in question world over and the track is in Hindi. What chance do I stand?’
It’s hard to make people accept things until something phenomenal happens and has that impact. We’re all lucky. We’re sailing on the same ship and a lot of good things are happening which is great. It’s a question of timing. It’s set by destiny, God. There have been even brilliant films that have got lost like the case of The Legend of 1900 which released in the same year as Titanic if I’m not mistaken. It’s a film about a pianist who was born on the ship and died on the ship. There have been scores of mine, which haven’t got their due. We can never orchestrate all that. It has to happen by itself. Most of the time we plan, ‘Oh we should make it a hit,’ and it never happens. So we just let things take their natural course. We can never plan anything.
When did you last get into the studio thinking you wanted to belt out a hit?
I just want to make every song in a satisfying way for myself. I know certain songs won’t get their due immediately but I know that the honest effort that has gone into them will be appreciated in the long run. Even when I look back I should know that I’ve done justice to the track within my own limitations. When you want to do something good and you never get at it and get distracted, that’s when the problem arises, isn’t it?
What do you do in a situation like that?
I get the blame for delaying the project. (Laughs). No it doesn’t happen to that extent.
What were your learnings from America post the Oscar run?
We all want the same thing. The destination is the same. We want something great. We want something that’s honest. Nobody wants anything that’s contrived or mediocre. How we get that is the only difference. So they (America) too want something that is exciting and new.
How does the music industry function?
I think in a place like LA or New York, there’s precedence for everything. Few break those rules. So artistes can’t be less than that whether it’s in filmmaking or music. Like everywhere else, sometimes you put in all the money into an artiste, make a great album and nothing happens to the artiste. The artist is abandoned and ignored until finally he or she does a number with somebody and that becomes a famous hit.
The thing with Slumdog Millionaire was that it was completely different from the orchestral soundtrack. It’s experimental and as a theme, we all focussed on something that excited us. We didn’t place huge stakes on it. It’s not a $100 million film. It’s a low budget film so we gambled on it. We didn’t think it was too risky or it’ll be good to have a sound that’s worked before. We wanted something that stood apart. It was same in the case of Roja. It’s the same formula so to speak.
The soundtrack of Couples Retreat also sounds like a world music album more than an OST
It was fun doing Couples Retreat. There wasn’t much scope to use the soundtrack in the film. It’s a comedy so dialogues are more important than anything else. I had the freedom to create the music I wanted. It’s not a masterpiece. It’s a fun film. Not everything is a masterpiece here either, so I have no regrets doing the film. Those who heard the soundtrack loved it. I don’t think people ever buy a soundtrack of a comedy and don’t expect much from a comedy music-wise.
How did Grammy-winning vocalist PJ Morton fit into the soundtrack?
Instinct really. I wanted to work with Joss Stone and Damian Marley (youngest son of Bob Marley) But Joss Stone was doing a TV serial and Damian Marley’s girlfriend was having a baby. So finally, things changed. A couple of big names were interested in doing the song but the deal was not made in time. PJ sent in the demo and everybody loved his voice and I wanted to make sure PJ sang the song. That’s it. PJ wants to sing Hindi songs. He loves India.
You and PJ must have hit it off, both being spiritually inclined and all that
He’s into gospel. He wrote songs for an album but it’s too early to talk about it. It’s based on a special subject. It’ll take a couple of years. So we’re looking at a future album.
Can you tell us a little more your performance at the White House?
I did three numbers Intervention from Couples Retreat, Latika’s theme with the Philharmonic Orchestra and then Jai ho. I met the President and he went, “Oh we’re all big fans.” We took photographs with the couple. It was a good feeling being at the White House, such an important seat of politics.
You sound grounded just before the Grammys.
I knew that after the Oscars, it will (the music of Slumdog) will go further and have an impact. Even at the White House, we came to know that Michelle Obama had heard all the stuff on the soundtrack, which was could have also been the main reason for the performance I guess, which is great.
The high comes when you do good work. It has its own vibrations. It might get recognised tomorrow. It might get recognised a hundred years later. Are you satisfied with what you’ve done? Are you doing justice? I know that some of my work may not get recognised, may get overrated. From my childhood, I’ve been in a steadfast sort of state not jumping too much or hiding too much, so that I get a feel of everything. I get to play a father, a husband, a composer, a principal of a school, a son, a brother. I wear different hats. I do want to be a part of everything and not single-handedly focus on something and be destroyed later. This life is a mortal life. We need to play everything equally.
Springsteen’s been co-nominated alongside Jai ho. Have you heard him?
I’ve only heard his big hit Born in the USA and he won the Golden Globe for The Wrestler. I met him at The Golden Globe Awards
What do you think of The Wrestler?
It’s a great song. I like it very much. The feel and the character match the film very well.
Do you think the Slumdog sound will spin a wave?
It’s a very complicated answer. Take the food we eat. We eat dal chawal but we can’t suddenly replace that and say we’ll eat fried rice for the rest of our lives. We won’t. We need to provide the dal chawal and somewhere you have to be exotic. It all depends on where the music is planted, mounted. I don’t think you can predict it.
Is there a new sound that is gaining new ground?
I think there’s an opportunity for everyone. There’s too much innovation. Substance-wise you always want to listen to songs with great lyrics, great tunes and simple arrangements. Those are the kind of songs that live forever and change the way you live, your outlook so that’s cool.
These are the qualities that add to a song’s longevity and make it a classic. I haven’t spotted another Lennon or Paul McCartney or Simon & Garfunkel or acts like Queen even. U2 has a great audience too. Maybe that kind of talent is around somewhere but is yet to be found.
In the film scene as well, it depends on the equations really. Very few people say that I want to be remembered for this movie even after I’m dead. How many people have that now? Now we’re talking about a movie making these many crores.
But are you proud of it? We celebrate the west or classics but what is our contribution? I’m not talking about filmmakers or lyricists here. I’m talking about audiences who have changed. The younger people want to just have fun and not be part of the creative process. They just want to talk about some film that’s not been made here. We’re not allowed to show sex or violence and within those limitations I think we are doing some great work out here.
You’ve always been a few steps ahead in terms of the format on which your music is released or technology. What do you imagine will be the next technological leap for music?
It’s become too easy to do anything on the computer whether it’s changing your voice or producing a new sound. How much can you listen to that? How much does it move you organically is the question. Does it change the way you think or get to your feeling? I met Vangelis, the great electronic musician in Greece. I admire him for the great quality of bringing a heart to synthesizers. He’d put in so much feeling into it that it would sound like the synthesizer’s singing. That’s great. In a way the Continuum is trying to achieve the same thing. It’s an electronic instrument that’s trying to achieve something that’s an acoustic expression.
You’ve also said in an interview that the voice is the best instrument. How did you make Sukhwinder emote in Jai ho?
Sukhwinder has a very unique voice. Kailash too has that kind of a voice. It has a good and bad side to it. The good quality is that it’s unique but you could make any song sound the same. Since our combination Sukhi and me worked and people look out for it I was very careful in selecting which song he would sing. I wanted a completely new sound for both him and for me and for the movie. Jai ho he starts at a very low pitch, which is very different from his style. He usually begins at a very high note, which would make one think, ‘Hey this sounds like Chaiyya Chaiyya or sounds like something else we’ve heard before.’ So we were very conscious of that.
What are the anthems that changed your vision?
I’m very inspired by Bharatiyar’s poetry. Bharathiar is a Tamil freedom fighter. Most of Roja’s songs were composed to his poetry. I’d always ask Mani for dummy lyrics and Mani would bring me Bharathiar poems and say, ‘Ok, tune to this.’ Since I did my schooling in Tamil Nadu we studied Bharathiar it was soul-stirring ad simple in a way. My growing up was based on that poetry and Tamil songs. Regarding English songs, I’m not a big follower of any band but there’s always been Queen and Pink Floyd. Almost everything by Jackson in his earlier years.
