[Reader-list] Rehman's Tomorrow ,PRASHANT PANDEY

[Prashant Pandey]

Another Rehman shines



The interesting part of research is that I get to meet and interact with lot of artists who have great promise and will make big in years to come. Their stories of struggle and musical philosophies contains a unique historicity which hangs perfectly in balance between the successful and not- so- successful, content and not-so-content, famous and not-so-famous. One such artist resting peacefully on this inflexion point of his musical career is Afreen Rehman, another upcoming singer and composer.

He is based in New Zealand and works as an advisor (Organics and Plant Products) in the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.

He is another Lucky Ali (New Zealand), Stereo Nation (UK), Bombay Vikings (Sweden) - Indian expats who make music through international collaboration keeping Indian audiences in mind and whose music is promoted by Indian music companies.

After sampling "From Tomorrow" his unreleased album, I decided to get in touch with him. Even as I am writing this post I listen to his jazz colored soothing “aaja pardesi hai Chandni ratiya” the first of his 9 song compilation CD.

I leave you alone with the rest of post-


As young music director what do you think decides whether or not
what you are making is good or not so good?

I am not a music director. I do make music (compose and write lyrics), but I am more of a singer, performer. My music direction is restricted to composition and then giving ideas to Karnan- who is the main music producer for the album. I think melody of the composition is the most important. After I compose something, I keep it aside to work on it later. When the composition interests me the second time when I listen to it (which is usually the second day after a good sleep) then I think about elaborating on the composition. If it does not interest me later then I forget about it. If it does not interest me then I don't think others will like it (I may be wrong, but I can't work on something I don't like).

Tell me about your social as well as musical background 

 I am basically a scientist who is working as an adviser for the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (ministry of Agriculture and Forestry). I am married.

 I have not come from a family with music as a profession, but they all had a keen interest in music. My mother is a singer and I grew up with her singing at home, in the kitchen, or at family gatherings. My sisters are also into music. They played the violin, guitar and also were good singers. I started singing when I was young. I used to hide behind doors and sing (was shy at that age) when family members used to ask me to sing. I did my schooling from Daly College, Indore. My singing career actually started here when my music teacher (Mr. Patwardhan) pulled me out of a group of class mates and asked to sing alone. Since then he used to encourage me to sing and lead
group songs for the School for school functions as well as children's
prgramme at the All India Radio, Indore. In senior school I started
participating in school and inter school music competitions. I won the
first prize in most of these competitions. During my college and
universities days also I continued singing. While in the university, I
became a student of Begum Parveen Sultana. I could not continue
learning from her as I got a job in Saudi Arabia and for two years I was totally cut off from music performance. Then I moved to New Zealand and here things started changing again. I met a group of Sri Lankans and Indians who were involved in making music. I joined them and started to sing for their group. I started making my own compositions (influenced by light Indian classical) and finally last year I and a friend of mine Karnan (a Sri Lankan, whose music is heavily influenced by Jazz and electronic music) decided to work on an album. We are almost at the end of this project.

 Which bollywood music directors do u like and why?

>From old times I think Khayyam was unique (Umrao Jaan, Bazaar). Others that I liked were Naushad, SD and RD Burman, Jaidev and Madan Mohan. All of them had strong melody component in their music.

Of the new generation, I think A R Rahman and Ismail Darbar are good. Both of them have totally different style and approach. Others do not have the depth though at times they do come up with good melodies.

If you are making a song how do you go about it.

As I said before, melody is the strongest part. Once I decide on the
melody, I write the lyrics or get it written by someone. Then I record
the melody. Karnan then works on the harmonies and music around the melody. Karnan also plays a big part in deciding whether we should work on a melody or not. Sometimes he also helps me in creating a melody by giving me a harmonic chord progression on which I try to fit a melody. However, this process has not been successful in creating any melodies that we have decided to work on (except for one).

Did you evolve this process or is it a standard.

There must be others who work in the same way. I don't think there any fixed standard of creating a song.

 Do you ever fancy working on analog machines.

Not really. Digital systems are much more suitable for the way we go
about making our music.

Are you happy with the current Bollywood music scene?

A BIG NOOOOOO. It seems nowadays hearing good music from the film industry is once in a bluemoon. Tehzeeb (only three numbers) were good. Very few film songs that I would like to listen over and over again. Not what I am hearing for the last 10 years but there are the good ones from time to time.


 What do you think is lacking?

Melody that takes you to a new place.

 What softwares have you worked with?

Most of my music has been done in Frooty Loop Studio - Karnan is the main producer. My job is limited to the melody, lyrics and giving
suggestions regarding the type of sound I want. He is the one with the computer and instrumental skills.

 Please give details of your music setup.

Pentium based computer, an external sound card and Audio/MIDI Interface (M Audio), Alesis MK II powered monitors, Behringer 1202 Mixer, Behringer Pro condenser microphone.

What would be an ideal set up?

With our budget this is ideal setup. We can dream about a lot more, but we try not to compromise our music quality by going slowly with our work. What we loose in terms of better gadgets, we try to make it up with more involvement with the compositions. Karnan is good with
music as well as with the computers. It makes things easier... much much easier.

 
 What exactly is digital music making?

Digital music making is not that different from normal music making.
Both require good knowledge of music basics. You cannot make good music if you don't have the basics. I myself don't have the basic knowledge, but that gap has been filled by Karnan who is the producer of the album.

 If you ever do film music what will be your USP.

Did you mean Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - Well I don't think I
will ever do film music. I am not a music director as I mentioned
earlier. However, if I ever became capable of doing it alone then I will
again base it on strong melodies.

What are your influences?

Jagjit Singh has been my favourite (though his recent compositions are really not of my liking). I think I am influenced by any good music I
hear.

How has your album shaped up?

It’s almost complete now. We have made a lot of changes to almost all the songs. Recorded everything in Assamese language also to release in the regional market. 

Which companies are you pitching it to? 

Approached many companies during my visit to Bombay in December. Everybody was very keen to do it...... without even listening to the album as soon as they came to know that I am an NRI. The catch was that they wanted 2 music videos and Rs. 15 lakhs for marketing the product. When I told them that I will do the replication myself, they said no to it. They said that they will do it themselves and charge extra for the process. Now am I fool to agree to it? One company that we found to be quite different was Phat Phish Records. The philosophy they have outlined in their website is encouraging. We have contacted them and they have asked for demos of our songs. We are planning to send them the album by the end of this month. Hope they will like it.

Tell more details about your album... its aim ... philosophy... and a
small brief about the songs... 

Well our philosophy is just to make good music and have at least one
number in an album that has some social message. (There is a great song on Gujarat riots in his album).I know it is not easy to market a product that has only social messages. 

Do you ever fancy coming here to Bombay and making music from here.

Not really............. I like Bombay, but I think after staying in New
Zealand it will be difficult to adjust to the busy life there. Here it
is a very relaxed environment. Being a person from Assam where
everything moves slowly I find myself at home in New Zealand. I would love to go there frequently, perform and then come back again, but I don't think I can adjust to the rigorous nature of Bombay life.










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