Sonu Niigaam chose you for Classically Mild when he could have gone to any of the biggest names. Why is that?
(Smiles) He is better qualified to answer this question. But we have been associated for a long time, since his album Bijuria.
Still, how did it happen?
When a poet comes to Mumbai to make it big, he has dreams of all kinds and not just of success and money. He wants to bloom in his poetic expressions. I speak for most of us when I add that we all want to write timeless songs and get to work with men who respect quality and depth, want elegant language and in short, verse that is not just a mechanical job. Sonuji is like that, and he was also doing something that had depth. He has a great sense of aesthetics in poetry and music. I am told that the music company gave him full freedom to choose the biggest names, but one day he called me up and asked me if I wanted to do something different amidst all the commercial work I was doing. I said, “Mere dil pe thodi dhund zaroor lagi hai but it can be cleared.” He immediately called me over. This is the first time that I have written an entire album to tunes. And Sonuji told me to take my time. It took 8 months to prepare 8 songs.
That is a lot of freedom indeed.
Yes, it was. Sonuji said that if it creatively helped I could go literally anywhere. I adopted a very Nomadic way of life, and I went up North. I had to prove my worth in terms of literature and thought. I consider the living legend Neerajji as my guru and it is my mission to revive poetry. We have tackled different aspects of life like Sufi philosophy, a song on naari, a romantic song and so on. There is one track, Sochta hoon main yeh khel kya hai about the purpose of life. I am never fond of conventional cliched writing and this is my way of venting my creativity that was always bottled up. After working on Classically Mild I have become calm - my bhadaas for literary work has been quenched for the moment.
At the same time it is the regular flippant writing that gets you a comfortable life and a long innings.
True, but even light verse can have depth or at least can be appealing. I have written O what a babe for Rakht too. But somehow my work has always attracted people who have a keen sense of quality, like Sudhir Mishra, Pradeep Guha, the show Mission Ustaad for which I have written 14 songs, and eminent singers in my albums.
You are a very good singer too, and that’s a rare combination, though many poets sing out even in metre at mushairas.
My family roots are in the Bijnor gharana. I think that both my talents supplement and synergise with each other. The writer in me can thus visualise a song and present easier phonetics so that a singer is comfortable with the words. There have been times when I could see how uncomfortable a singer was in a song and could offer alternatives because I sing and write. All writers change verse to fit into or enhance the phonetics of a tune but since they are not actually singers, they do not realize such technical aspects.
Would you say that paucity in thought is the real cause of degeneration in lyrics today?
Yes, for what is poetry other than shabdon ki hera pheri? The language is just the tip. The real iceberg is the thought.
Your songs till now have been appreciated. Will we hear you in the days to come?
Well, Khoya Khoya Chand’s title-track was a new experiment by Shantanu Moitra, and he is now using my voice again in the arty film Phir Kabhi in which I have sung a duet with Shreya Ghoshal. Mann yeh baawra from Hazaaron... started my singing career in films. I have also sung in Pradeep Guha’s short film for which I have also written lyrics. My album is coming soon and I have also recorded for the title-tracks of several serials like Durgesh Nandini and have also sung for Shyam Benegal’s Mahaadev Ka Sajjanpur.
