How
did you get into playback singing?
Hariharan heard me sing four years back and thought i was good enough
to be recommended to Vidyasagar who was looking for a new voice for
uyirodu uyiraaga.That was how i started my career in music.
Why is the long gap between Uyirodu Uyiraaga
and Aalavandan?
One has to stay in Madras and be in touch with the music directors there
to be able to sing more frequently.I dont stay in Madras and neither
did I send my demo tapes to anybody out there.Worse I didn't ride the
hit wave when my song 'I love you' became a hit...I guess at that time
I didn't know much about the value of Public Relations in the industry.
Have you sung in any other language?
For films, only Tamil and Hindi.For advertisements, Telugu,
Kannada, Marathi, Oriya , Bengali and even Nepali.
Howmany languages do you know?
English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Who is your role model in playback singing?
My role models would be Hariharan and Shankar Mahadevan because they
are not only great singers but also very good and original composers.
What is your career ambition?
I am a pathetically unambitious person.I take each day as it comes.But
i would love to share my idea of music within me with a wider audience
since i also compose and play the guitar.
Have you released any music album?
I have released an album with pakistan based Mahmood Khan called Panah.It's
basically Mahmood's album and it features me as a singer.The album was
released by Magnasound.
Who is your favourite music director/singer?
My favourite singers are Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohamad Rafi,
Kishore Kumar , Talat Mahmood, Hariharan,Shankar Mahadevan.Music directors
are Ranjit Barot, Shankar, Ehsaan,Loy, Sandeep Chowta, A.R.Rehman and
Ilayaraja.Among the old timers I like R.D Burman,S.D Burman and Madan
Mohan.
Pop singers/albums are extremely popular
in the West.Why do you think in India they are not as popular as movie
albums?
Movie stars in india are anyday more popular among the audiences than
the pop stars.So the film songs are also promoted by the movie and the
stars which substitutes a great marketing strategy.Whereas for pop albums,
firstly the quality of singers is pathetic, if the singer is good the
marketing is pathetic -
Would you mind singing songs that are
vulgar?
If the lyrics are vulgar because the film story or character or situation
so requires then I don't see any problem with that..but if they have
been put just for the sake of vulgarity then it is meaningless.
Do you think MP3s will ruin music industry?
mp3s have a long way to go before they can actually start ruining anybody.As
of now I think they are a boon for the audiences and a pain for the
record companies.As for the artiste he/she always gets a raw deal either
way .
