MBW’s World’s Biggest Songwriters sequence celebrates the composers behind the globe’s greatest hits. Right here we speak to A.R. Rahman, an enormous on the planet of movie soundtracks, with a hefty assortment of Grammys, Oscars, Golden Globes, and Indian Nationwide Movie Awards on his cabinets. World’s Biggest Songwriters is supported by AMRA – the worldwide digital music assortment society, which strives to maximise worth for songwriters and publishers within the digital age.
Some Oscar winners cry. Some holler deliriously about how their countrymen are coming to take over Hollywood. Some even slap the host.
However in 2009, when A.R. Rahman picked up his Academy Award for Unique Rating for Slumdog Millionaire, he was coolness and tranquility personified.
“There’s a dialog from a Hindi movie, ‘Mere paas ma hai,‘” he mentioned, dressed all in black. “Which implies, ‘I’ve nothing however I’ve a mom’.”
Sixteen years later, Rahman has garnered many extra accolades and achievements (together with two Grammys, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe) however, as he talks to MBW throughout a break from the immersive spectacle that’s his The Wonderment world tour – which has been packing them in from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles – it’s clear he nonetheless retains that sense of perspective.
“I used to be in a really Zen temper,” he laughs, of that Oscars speech. “Three months earlier than, I had an important religious expertise, which was overwhelming for me, and I used to be not in a position to come out of it. So, every thing gave the impression to be smaller than what I had skilled…”
That mindset helped him address the huge curiosity, each at house in India and overseas, that adopted his world breakthrough. For a lot of, a double Oscar win (he additionally picked up Greatest Unique Track for Slumdog’s Jai Ho on the 2009 ceremony) may need been the top, however Rahman was simply getting began.
Already a longtime identify in Indian cinema and classical music, he has since change into one in every of western cinema’s favourite composers, engaged on the likes of {Couples} Retreat, 127 Hours, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Million Greenback Arm, Pelé: Beginning Of A Legend and Inside Man, alongside numerous tasks in Indian cinema and elsewhere.
He performed for President Barack Obama at a White Home state dinner, labored on the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and has moved into the worlds of musical theater and pop, planning his personal musical and collaborating with everybody from Mick Jagger to U2 and Diane Warren to Pharrell.
Hollywood is a good distance from Rahman’s roots in Madras, India. Rahman’s father launched him to the world of music – as a baby, A.R. would ship his father’s lunch and watch him conduct the orchestra at theater showings – and A.R. was enjoying piano from the age of 4. His father handed away when AR was 9, and the younger prodigy left college quickly after to assist help his household.
After working as a session musician and a few early experiments with rock music, he began making jingles for adverts, solely transferring on when he realized his work featured on each single advert in a present he was watching.
He shifted into movie music, making his debut with Tamil film Roja and successful a Nationwide Movie Award for Greatest Music Director. He grew to become the go-to composer for Indian cinema and arrange his personal studio and label earlier than heading for Hollywood.
Now, he shuttles between Mumbai and LA and now, having transcended classical music, can seemingly flip his hand to nearly something, fizzing with enthusiasm over future tasks reminiscent of his avatar band Secret Mountain; his mentorship of classical music/dance ensemble Jhalaa; his work with Zimmer on the forthcoming epic Ramayana film rating; his quite a few music training tasks; and his April date at London’s Royal Albert Corridor with classical composer Rushil Ranjan.
Rahman, nonetheless, stays supremely grounded – sharing a lot of his fellow musicians’ issues over streaming and the studios’ strategy to movie music. A lot of his catalog was recorded as a work-for-hire, a practise notably frequent in Indian cinema, which means he doesn’t take part absolutely in its streaming success, regardless of having over 40 million month-to-month listeners on Spotify (“And we get peanuts from that!”).
That partly explains his latest enthusiasm for taking part in stay, along with his The Wonderment tour taking music from all levels of his profession to an enormous, mainstream viewers; a bit like his personal model of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour – though he professes to know little about that specific cultural juggernaut. He’s equally bemused/amused to study that Jai Ho has change into the soundtrack to a well-liked faculty sports activities group consuming sport, the place folks must chug their beer between utterances of the track title.
However, earlier than he heads for the stage, it’s time for the legendary composer to take a seat down with MBW and speak Hollywood, Bollywood and the way he acquired concerned with the Pussycat Dolls…
ARE YOU FINDING THERE IS MORE INTEREST IN INDIAN MUSIC FROM INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCES THESE DAYS?
There’s, however not as a lot as Ok-pop I imagine! [Laughs]
I’ve instructed this to my group, after Jai Ho – which grew to become a complete world rage – I ought to have been slightly extra aggressive and completed extra live shows, extra entrepreneurial stuff in different international locations, however I simply chilled out. I used to be like, ‘Ah, I’ve arrived, let me sit back for 5 – 6 years’ – however it’s by no means too late!
DO YOU FEEL THAT WAS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY?
Not missed. I might have completed extra, however then all my life I’d been trudging away from the age of 12 so I purchased a home in LA, I chilled out and did stuff I by no means did earlier than – like going to events, assembly Spielberg, John Williams, JJ Abrams. I used to be flexing my energy I suppose!
I by no means thought I’d be crossing the border and folks could be recognizing me on that facet of the world. And individuals who I used to adore, like John Williams, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones – I met all of them.
HAD YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO WORK IN HOLLYWOOD?
It was a dream. I all the time felt my music shouldn’t simply be restricted to Indian motion pictures. In actual fact, from the beginning my interviews have been like, ‘I need my songs to journey past India’, so I labored in direction of the manufacturing and sound recording having a vibe that everybody can hearken to.
YOU’VE DONE AN AMAZING RANGE OF COLLABORATIONS. WHAT’S THE KEY TO A GOOD ONE?
A great collaboration is not only a field tick, however it’s one thing the place we jam, we speak about life, we speak about what we like and musical tastes. After which, when one thing comes out, it’s actually real. That hardly ever comes.
By way of that, we study from one another and we additionally trade audiences slightly bit, we introduce one another to our audiences.
YOU’VE WORKED WITH DIANE WARREN [Pictured], WHO LIKES TO WRITE A SONG EVERY DAY. WHAT’S YOUR APPROACH?
I don’t write a track on daily basis, however typically I sit and write 5 songs. It depends upon the temper.
Typically I really feel like solely empty bullets are popping out, and typically I sit there and really feel the vitality, then it simply flows. After which nearly 80% are worthwhile songs.
I’m additionally very self-critical. If you go ahead three a long time, you might want to depart many issues that are your safeguards and stroll into the hearth.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TREND FOR MULTIPLE CO-WRITERS ON SONGS?
Even after I hearken to a number of the Ok-pop stuff, I really feel like for eight bars, you understand which composer [was writing it] after which one other eight bars really feel like one other composer, the hook appears to be [another] composer.
The typical listener might not really feel it however, as a result of I’ve been writing songs for the previous 35 years now, I can see the way it’s been chopped collectively.
I’m slightly old fashioned that means, however I really like lyric writers. Now we’ve AI help with lyrics – like, what’s the rhyme? It’s enjoyable, it’s like an enhanced Google rhyme generator, so we use it like that.
Though, when it generates, after 3 times it hits the ceiling and begins repeating itself – and it additionally spits out what has been there, not a complete new perspective for all times. Then you definitely perceive, that’s how a lot they’ve stolen, they may steal extra to get even higher.
SO YOU ACTUALLY USE AI?
Simply as a reference level typically. It’s a very good instrument when it’s used proper, it hastens work, it opens up the creativeness, particularly in artwork.
I really like stuff like that, when individuals are empowered, regardless that they don’t have the expertise to be an artist, they’ve the imaginative and prescient to immediate and get one thing.
But it surely must be managed in order that it doesn’t fall into the fallacious palms, the place folks lose their jobs and nasty issues occur to humanity!
SO YOU’RE NOT WORRIED ABOUT BEING REPLACED?
[Laughs] I’m not frightened. Worrying is a foul factor. We all the time discover methods to outlive.
There’s all the time one thing this shit can’t do. The clichés shall be there, and folks must discover new methods to specific extra human expertise.
Like the entire stay business surge for the previous two or three years has been wonderful – there are nice examples of what folks need to come and watch; the artists whom they love, the songs which they love – they need to see flesh and blood, which is an efficient factor.
DID YOU EVER THINK SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE WOULD BE AS BIG AS IT BECAME?
No. It was very underwhelming for me, as a result of often after I rating a film, I rating round 120, 130 cues and for Slumdog, I most likely labored for 2 weeks and had 18 tracks, that was it.
However with Danny [Boyle], each rating was pushed up, he would crank it up in such a means that the entire world observed it. I give it to him, his type of film-making and post-production positively lifted the entire rating and portrayed me to the entire world.
DID THE OSCAR WINS CHANGE YOUR LIFE?
I wished to get the award and transfer on with my life, however I couldn’t. For the following three years it was ‘Oscar, Oscar, Oscar – we need to rejoice you and felicitate you’.
I needed to get away. We had purchased a home in a village close to Rajasthan. I instructed my Mum who was there on the time, ‘I need to get away from all that stuff’. I secretly went off till any person noticed me.
We didn’t have screens within the lavatory as a result of it was a brand new home, and there have been 300 folks standing on each rattling home with cameras! I didn’t come out for 2 days, I used to be like, ‘Simply feed me, I’ll simply sleep’ – they usually have been standing there for 9, 10 days ready for me to come back out. That looks like one other life now.
HOW DID JAI HO BECOME A GLOBAL HIT?
Jimmy Iovine preferred the track quite a bit, so he mentioned one thing which my agent hated: ‘How about AR and the Pussycat Dolls?’
My agent went, ‘No means is AR going to do this!’ However they referred to as me and I mentioned, ‘Why not? Take into consideration the attain if I do it in English’.
“The one factor I’m remorseful about it’s, I might have stored the momentum and expanded far more, completed extra issues.”
So that basically labored. In that film, no matter determination I took was nice for me! There have been folks insisting I shouldn’t do the film, however I mentioned, ‘No, I’m going to do that’.
I wished to pat myself [on the back] like Snoop Dogg says, for doing all of the brave issues. The one factor I’m remorseful about it’s, I might have stored the momentum and expanded far more, completed extra issues.
DO YOU USUALLY KNOW WHEN YOU’VE WRITTEN AN EXCEPTIONAL PIECE OF MUSIC?
It might go both means. Typically you assume it’s nice and folks don’t prefer it, typically you assume it’s OK after which individuals are like, ‘Oh my God, what have you ever completed?’ It’s exhausting to foretell.
However they know that I need each track of mine to change into successful, slightly than, ‘Oh, I’ll simply write one OK track at present’ – I received’t try this. I need to discover one thing that’s fascinating.
ARE YOU REALLY DRIVEN BY HITS?
Properly, not a ‘hit’ hit. However one thing distinctive, one thing which provides a brand new perspective or a brand new vibe.
No artist desires to repeat themselves like, ‘Let me do a track like no matter I did three a long time again or twenty years again’, you solely need to discover what’s new.
You possibly can see the keenness within the group, the engineer or the musicians, and that’s actually cool once they say, ‘I really like this’. Largely, you simply need to write one thing that individuals will bear in mind endlessly. The thought is, one thing that everyone can embrace in each state of affairs. Like Lean On Me or I’m A Imaginer. All that stuff may be very engaging; we’re all hard-wired to seek for ourselves.
HOW TOUGH WAS IT HAVING TO LEAVE SCHOOL SO EARLY AND WORK?
It was the psychological torture, considering, ‘Nobody’s going to respect me, as a result of I left college’. That was the mentality I had, that the one that didn’t graduate was not revered in that society – I hope nobody cares anymore! Now it’s like, ‘How a lot cash does he have?’ [Laughs]
YOU MUST HAVE BEEN VERY DRIVEN TO SUCCEED…
Properly, I fail, however secretly! Not like earlier than, we don’t must show our work in entrance of 70 folks with an orchestra.
So, after I do tunes, most likely round 50% get rejected by the director, however no one is aware of about it.
SURELY YOU DON’T GET REJECTED MUCH THESE DAYS?
I’m not an individual who’s like, ‘That is it, take it or depart it’. I need them to be completely satisfied, to spend money on it and are available again once more and say, ‘I really like this, folks find it irresistible, let’s work collectively once more’ – and principally that’s the case. I’m a folks pleaser!
Bear in mind, if I need to do my very own factor, I’ve my platforms, I can put something out, in order that’s how I persuade myself. Like, you’ll be able to afford to do it your self and fee your self, why combat with folks? With out compromising what I need to do after all…
IS FILM MUSIC TAKEN AS SERIOUSLY AS IT SHOULD BE?
Good administrators include imaginative and prescient and [when they] associate with good composers, nice issues can occur. However with the studios, I quit.
With all respect, studios need to rehash what’s already there. In my expertise, they placed on temp music and ask the composers to repeat it.
That’s the top of creativity – that’s why I misplaced the zest for scoring in Hollywood. I’d slightly rating some lovely indie motion pictures the place folks let me unfastened.
I’ve had nice experiences, however with the large studios there’s a lot bulldozing. And this scapegoat they use – ‘We screened it in 5 totally different locations they usually mentioned how nice the music was’ – it’s already chewed and spat, why do you need to decide that up? Why can’t you do one thing new – until you do new, how will you understand?
Individuals nonetheless bear in mind La La Land and Black Panther for the rating, so the music makes the films extra memorable. We nonetheless bear in mind Cinema Paradiso due to the theme, we nonetheless bear in mind Schindler’s Listing. Think about they needed to put one thing spinoff [on that], it could by no means have stood the remainder of time. We nonetheless bear in mind the primary Gladiator for its music, even should you don’t bear in mind the rest. There’s nothing like a tune. You bear in mind Titanic for that tune, not for the temp music.
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS, RIGHT HERE AND NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Musicians and writers ought to receives a commission pretty.
The credibility of the skilled ought to go up. I made a film referred to as 99 Songs which addresses this entire factor – no one takes a musician severely. Like, if any person says, ‘What does your son do?’ ‘He’s a musician’. ‘No, what does he do?’ That second query all the time comes. ‘He performs the cello’ – ‘Sure, the cello’s tremendous, however what does he actually do?’
And that’s as a result of the equity is just not there, there’s no credible construction for finance and pension, all that stuff. Music training ought to begin from the decrease grades [in school]. Individuals can hearken to a bit of music and be transported, however all that stuff solely comes while you study music and also you perceive it.
They need to be educated from the bottom up, so that they change into higher people and have extra empathy.
