The interview which appears below was originally published in Nasreen Munni Kabir's book, A.R. Rahman: The Spirit of Music. ©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.
NMK: My favourite of your background scores is your music in Iruvar (1997) by Mani Ratnam. It was brilliant. Another interesting example is Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades. The story starts in America and the hero, played by Shah Rukh Khan, then travels back to an Indian village.
A.R. Rahman: The background music in this instance did match the visuals while suggesting the character’s emotions. When the hero is in America, we hear strains of Indian music that remind him of his homeland and intensify a desire in him to return to his roots.
Ashutosh Gowariker is among the directors who believe, as I do, that there must be melody and heart to music. When we work together, we always try and find that balance. I remember when we were working on Lagaan and Aamir Khan was sitting outside the studio. He could hear the title track through the studio door. He opened the door and came in. His eyes were moist and he said: “AR, you’ve lifted my film to another level.”
After the huge success of Lagaan, Ashutosh was under a lot of pressure to deliver another big film. He was keen to make Swades because it was very close to his heart. I liked the intention of the story and thought it was good. It’s an unusual film for its time. Though some people thought that Swades was a bit slow, others really liked it. The soundtrack of the film attracted many fans.
NMK: I like Swades very much and thought it was Shah Rukh Khan’s best performance. You have worked with the same musicians for years. What is your relationship with them?
A.R. Rahman: My favourite musicians are like family to me—the percussionists Sivamani and Raja, the flutist Naveen Kumar, bass guitarist Keith Peters, Pravin Mani, and my Chennai string players, choir section and conductor Srinivasan Murthy. There are other Chennai musicians who are also very dear to me.
My favourite Mumbai musicians are Ranjit Barot, who is a drummer and music producer, vocalists Clinton and Dominique Cerejo. And the sound engineer K.J. Singh is terrific.
NMK: You work to a brief and you allow the music just to come to you. How do you balance craft and intuition?
A.R. Rahman: It’s like eating the right amount. If you eat too much, you get this dull feeling and want to go to sleep. [both laugh]. Composing is very much like that. You can’t sit for hours and hours in the studio, toiling endlessly over a song. You just get fatigued. You must go away and return to it later.
NMK: Recording technology is changing all the time. How does this affect your work?
A.R. Rahman: Coming up with a new sound was technically very difficult in the early days. We used to record on floppy discs and if you hadn’t saved the tracks properly, they would get deleted. We lost a lot of data. Now it’s much easier.
I usually create the main melody and have the singer record the song then layer in different instrumentation in the same tempo, pitch or raag. We record on computers, so I can record as many tracks as I want. A sound engineer then comes to the studio and hears all the tracks. He is usually surprised and asks me: “What’s the duration of the song?” “Five minutes.” “Oh!” He is surprised because there is so much recorded material, which I later edit and mix together.
Producing a song like that can take five times the energy and time that usually goes into a song. But the result can be satisfying. Producing good tunes can also happen spontaneously and those are the ones I love the most.
NMK: How long did it take you to learn to play a musical instrument?
A.R. Rahman: Ages. I’m still learning. The first musical instrument I owned was a small synthesizer that my father bought for me from Singapore. That synthesizer fascinated me. It was like a forbidden toy. I would spend hours playing it. Then I learned how to play a pedal organ. I had wanted to play the piano, but couldn’t afford to buy one because they were so expensive. So I first learned how to play the keyboards and combo organs.
I finally managed to learn Western classical on the piano. That was until I was seventeen or eighteen; I’d stop for a year and then start again.
NMK: In 2008, you decided to open the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. The ambition of the school is to: “…expand the horizons of musicians in India by creating an awareness of Western music and Music Technology, while continuing to respect and strengthen the art of Indian music.”
Film composers in India don’t often set up music institutions, what made you take this step?
A.R. Rahman: We have film orchestras, but we didn’t have a proper conservatory in India where you could learn Western classical before KM opened. If we require an orchestra for a film score, we have to record in London or Prague or use samples.
The reason that I started KM Music Conservatory came from the belief that we must have more imagination to initiate new things. If something doesn’t make money, it isn’t usually valued. We don’t think enough about the future.
I am hoping KM will bring change in the music scene and widen choices for students, thanks to all the many extraordinary teachers who work there. In the initial stages, Srinivasan and Selvakumar were key in helping to set it up. Jyoti Nair Belliappa and Catherine Dhinakar, KM’s administrators, work so enthusiastically—the whole team firmly shares my belief in it.
At KM’s first anniversary, I remember telling all the students: “If you succeed as musicians, I succeed. When you go out into the real world, your victory is my victory.”
