Welcome 2 Rams World: 2008

THE MAN BRINGS THE WORLD HERE!

WILL HE CUT DOWN FILM MUSIC?

Rahman’s Dream‘land'

Author: Subhash K Jha Date: 17 Jan 2008

The composer has acquired property near Chennai airport for a music conservatory(Musical School)

A.R.Rahman, who won the Best Music as well as Best Background Music trophies for Guru at the Nokia 14th Annual Star Screen Awards is on a professional whirlwind - wrapping up scores and songs and planning his music conservatory in Chennai are among his current activities that prevent an interview over even the telephone.

A R Rahman has already bought land to build the state-of-the-art music conservatory that he first talked about on his birthday, “It’s near the airport in Chennai. And we plan to start work on it very soon.” Now that the land is in place, preparations are underway to ensure that all functioning starts off in the 2008 academic year.

Dream...

Rahman says starting a music conservatory is a dream he has nurtured for years. “I feel young talented musicians in our country specially those who want to learn western classical music, have nowhere seriously creative to go.
We need to cultivate a taste for western symphonic music so that an average musically-inclined young musician would be as enthused about learning the violin as the sitar.”
The land purchase puts Rahman’s dream plan into third gear. “We’ll soon be working round-the-clock. I want it to be one of the best music schools in our country.”

Looking back, Rahman is not the least content with his achievements. “It’s never enough,” he rued. “Music is my only therapy. There’re so many awful things happening in the world. I wish I could heal the world. My peace anthems like Vande Mataram and Pray For Me Brother are a small candle light in the storm. But you never know which candle will light a thousand other candles.”

Here is wishing the maestro all the best to finish his dream project soon.

A R Rahman is deliberately turning down big assignments here because of copyright and royalty issues regarding music sales. The reticent retainer of the raga and rhythm is reluctant to discuss the issue.

“It’s too complicated. But, yes, the issues do stop me from accepting more Bollywood offers. Those who want to work with me in Mumbai but won’t agree to my conditions. At the moment, I’ve also cut down film assignments because I want to focus on creating a Western-classic music conservatory in India. With this I hope to bridge the gap between Western classical and Indian ragas. Imagine a thumri being played by an orchestra! Or a Carnatic raga being a part of a big Hollywood epic,” said Rahman.

The musical visionary says he needs to take his music to another level now. “I can’t be doing just films, films, films all my life,” said Rahman. “But whenever I work in Mumbai, I give my fullest concentration, as I did for Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar , which I’m proud of.”

However, international assignments are getting more prominent in Rahman’s career. “I enjoyed doing Shekhar Kapoor’s Elizabeth — The Golden Age . Now my music for the stage adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings is ready. The album is being released in Feb.”

Rahman sees this album as his big international leap. “Every song has a minimum of 200 musicians and technicians involved in it. Huge choirs and orchestras were brought into play. We recorded the album in London and mixed it in my studio at Chennai. The whole crew came down from all over the world.” All the songs are in English and in Elvish...the language of The Lord Of The Rings. “I had lots of help from fellow musicians like Christopher Nightingale. It took me three years to do the album.”

Dipankar De Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service
London, February 12, 2008
13:31 IST(12/2/2008)

Music composer AR Rahman, making a self-confessed "U-turn" after his success with the Lord of the Rings musical on London's West End, is now planning to bring a mega Broadway-style musical to India.
"Yes, it will be very soon," Rahman said at the Jet Airways-sponsored gala launch of the Lord of the Rings compact disc in London on Monday.
Rahman said his plan is to create an original musical play - of the kind seen in London and New York - to be put up on an Indian stage, most probably in Haryana, near Delhi.
The staging will hinge on plans by Indian events management and entertainment company Wizcraft to develop an entire town near Delhi, patterned after Las Vegas, Rahman told IANS in an interview.
"There will be a big theatre, that's all good news. It's good to see people opening up," he said.
Although Rahman is keeping his plans tightly wrapped, it is aimed at linking Indian tourism with a modern musical stage, just as London's West End attracts millions of international tourists.
"A lot of things are too early to say, let's hope for the best."
Whether the original musical will be on the scale of London's musicals remains to be seen - Rahman himself prefers something on the scale of "Lion King", based on a popular Disney film.
Lord of the Rings, the most expensive West End production, is an eye-popping spectacular that cost £12 million (about Rs.950 million) to put up. On any given night there are 226 people - from computer programmers to actors - involved in the show, which brings British author J.R.R Tolkien's fantasy epic to life.
But Rahman, who has breathed life into the cult classic with his music, said he has made a "u-turn" after his stint with West End and Hollywood - he scored the music for Elizabeth: the Gold Age - and is now looking at India.
"I've been given great respect in India. It's time for me to give back," he said in the interview.
His biggest projects at the moment are his music production company KM Music and a music school that he launched in Chennai on his birthday, January 6.
Looking at India again, he said, has had "a liberating effect" on him.
With American and British musician-friends ready to fly to India to help with his project, Rahman said his school is designed to teach "the minutiae" of music to young Indians, adding: "That's what every kid wants to do - learn music the right away.
"Some of this stuff is beyond money - it's about changing people's perspective on things. This can only be done if you have a musical vision. It might not give instant gratification, but in the long run it's going to help shape up a lot of things."

BEYOND THE FRONTIERS

Rajiv Vijayakar

In the fifteen years that he has been around, he has turned trends on their heads and reset music parameters. This year, A.R.Rahman has achieved the rare distinctions of winning both the Best Music and Best Background Music trophies for Guru and also opening an unique Music Conservatory in Chennai. In an informal chat, the elusive composer talks of - what else? - his music

You launched the K.M.Conservatory , What exactly is the concept behind this?

Conservatories are widely known in the West and the concept comes from the orderliness and harmonic structure of Western classical music. When I worked abroad, it struck me that I could prepare and record music in three days flat - and yet it sounded so beautiful. Over here we are not so well organised., and it is extremely difficult to find certain instruments like oboes and French horns because there are no players. Most of today's musicians are into electronics and the learning of instruments is neglected and music is compromised because they cannot sustain a livelihood with them. But in the conservatory, a young musician can learn the violin or even a rare instrument and sustain himself by doing, say, its edit on the computer. So he learns - but earns well too. This is a common practice abroad where people do something else for a livelihood and also play music. There are musicians, for example, who are also web designers, so that they can afford a decent lifestyle.
I have extended this concept even to Indian classical and folk music. Musicians can come here to learn different styles of music like kirtanas and thumri. A world-class orchestra is also our goal. Since electronics sounds came in and their new sound was liked for its freshness, live classical music and instruments began to lose appreciation, which was ominous. So many Indian composers have to go abroad to find orchestras for recording. KM Music Conservatory aims to eliminate this shortcoming. For a modern classical musician, having knowledge of both music performance and music technology is invaluable. Therefore, as I said earlier, excellent music production capabilities will ensure many more career opportunities and financial security.

Where is this Conservatory located?

The KM Music Conservatory and Audio Media Education will be India's first Apple-authorised training centre. Right now, it is located in a small premises next to my studio but by the end of this year we will shift to a proper campus just outside Chennai. We plan to have a faculty of professors and musicians from both India and abroad and start the first batch in 2008, when we will audition vocalists as well as flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, and percussion players.

What will be the curriculum like?

We will have courses including Western Vocal and Instrumental, Indian Classical Vocal, Western and Indian Music Theory, Music Appreciation, Ear Training, Piano, Audio Engineering, an Apple-certified course in Logic Pro, and a Digidesign-certified course in Pro Tools. We will also have a professional KM Music Symphony Orchestra for those who complete the programmes, and the A.R.Rahman Foundation Scholarships for deserving students.

A Mumbai daily stated that you are curtailing assignments, especially in Hindi films, to give more attention to this new mission.

It was my dream to have such a conservatory for years but I held back each time as news floated about others planning similar things. Finally, since nothing was happening I decided to move ahead. And it's not that I am cutting down on Hindi films. I have always been fairly choosy, I think, and I can't do 10 films at a time here. But yes, I am trying to choose the cream even from among them.

This time you were in Mumbai a day before the Screen Awards. So why did you not stay back?

As it happened, you annexed both the Best Music and Best Background Music trophies for Guru. I know, I regret that I could not attend the Screen Awards show. The problem was that I was in a whirlwind at that particular point, so I was not even accessible as I hardly had time even to check emails and SMS-es! Besides the launch of the Conservatory, I flew down for the music launch of Jodhaa Akbar on the 9th, but I had to fly abroad as a studio had been booked for two days for some background music work on the film.

We just spoke about classical music. In Guru, Barso re proved the most popular song along with Tere bina. The item song Mayya mayya came a third. Does that indicate a trend?

By itself, it is a very good sign, though Mayya mayya was also popular, besides being the first song that we recorded. It is a fact that item songs or electronic music does not satisfy in the long run, unlike folk-based or raag-based songs. But Barso re was an afterthought. We had earlier recorded a song that was based on Gujarati folk that was to be shot with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on a bicycle - Main chali. But then she suffered an injury and we thought of a rain song instead and that's how Barso re happened. Tere bina was a Sufi number and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khansaab has always been a great inspiration for me.

What kind of song comes easier for you?

Making any good song or tune is never easy! (Laughs)

Today, software for pitch-correction is available. On the other hand, you have always been known to use amateur singers and maintain their natural tones, even if they are not in immaculate sur. Why is that?

As a lover of world music, I have come to believe that it is not necessary to have perfection when someone has a passion for music. Too much polish can be boring sometimes! (Laughs) See this jacket that I am wearing. It's a new jacket but there is a deliberate faded quality at the edges. That makes it more attractive!

You tend to do a lot of Hindi films with a period or historical backdrop - The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, Bose - The Forgotten Hero, Mangal Pandey - The Rising and even Lagaan and a part of Guru. How do you approach these film scores vis-à-vis a normal contemporary assignment?

Such films make you think differently. For example, there is no catchy groove that you can use and a certain authenticity is needed. At the same time, there should be a contemporary appeal and quality, and I have to see how friendly my music can be while retaining the correct vibe. Today even kids are smart - they pick up the best and the most interesting of songs, old or new.

A common allegation is that you use instruments that were not present in those eras.?

Well, I try to avoid something that has too modern a sound, like a guitar. I love acoustics anyway. But such aspects are not always possible or necessary. And no composer has been able to be a purist in this genre of cinema. The effect and quality of the orchestration and background music are more important.

This recognition you have got at such a young age, the fame, and the expectations... Don’t they scare you?

Only if you take anything, whether it is success or failure. As your own will you have these fears? I leave everything to God. Nothing will affect me even a bit. All this fame and praise is not for me. It is for HIM. Isn't it?