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 From
re-mixing, to composing, to singing, Harry Anand’s made
quick progress. Chatting him up to know about the response to his
new album Ittefaqan Pyar, and his other pursuits...
Composer-turned-pop-singer
Harry Anand seems a hellava confident person. He’s just cut
two pop albums as a singer, but his well-designed website, harryanand.com,
heralds him as the "international singing sensation,"
and proclaims, "He is here to rule." But when he speaks
to us in his boyish voice, he cuts a contrasting picture, that of
a humble person, who knows his limitations, but is trying to overcome
them and prove himself. "I definitely want to be among the
leading singers, and I know that with my perseverance, I’ll
make it," he says, and adds thoughtfully, "But then it
also depends on the support and encouragement of a lot of other
people, like my music company, and the producers who give me a chance
to sing. Success is a team effort."
Harry’s
first album as a pop singer was Chahat, released by T-Series in
1999. "It did quite well. According to T-Series, it sold four
lakh copies," the singer-composer gushes, "That spurred
me to work on my next album, Ittefaqan Pyar which has just been
released. And believe me, the initial sale is encouraging. My title
song is already among the top 10 in the countdown charts."
In the two-year
gap between Chahat and Ittefaqan Pyar (doesn’t the title seem
inspired by Kambakth ishq), Harry was busy with his composing and
remixing, and singing for films. "I was concentrating on my
riyaaz, since producer Guddu Dhanoa, who’s my godfather, wanted
me to sing for his film Bichchoo. I sung two songs for the film,
Jeevan mein jaane jaana and Ek vaar tak le, composed by my bhaiyya
Anand Raaj Anand, and both were hits. Around the same time, I was
composing for Vikas Bhalla’s new album, which will be released
by Universal soon. I also did the remixing for Universal’s
UMI 10 - Vol. 1, which had the song Sehri babu. That album recorded
great sales. Besides, I was working on Ittefaqan Pyaar. So I had
my hands full," he says.
As the title
suggests, Ittefaqan Pyar is all about love. Harry’s first album
Chahat too was about love. Is he love-struck? "It’s not
just me who is love-struck, I think the whole world is love-struck.
Everyone in this world is a romantic, which is why most of the albums
revolve around love. The most-bought albums are also on love,"
he opines, "Indians especially patronise romantic albums, which
explains the succes of Sonu Nigam’s Deewana or Jaan, or the
recent super-succes of Adnan Sami’s Kabhi To Nazar Milao, which
has such beautiful compositions. Romantic gaane hi chalte hain.
My second video, currently on air of Kabhi khushboo kabhi jaadu
is very mushy, and that has been liked more than my peppy first
video of the title song."
It’s with
Ittefaqan Pyar that Harry says he has realised he has his quota
of fans too. "The album inlay has my telephone number and e-mail
acddress, and people have been calling me up and telling good things
about my album. I am also getting a lot of e-mails. It feels nice
to see your work being appreciated," he says happily.
Variety is
what Ittefaqan Pyar offers to the listener, according to
Harry. "As a composer I want to give the listener a good fare.
In Chahat too I had composed peppy songs. In this album, the title
song has been composed by my brother Anand Raaj Anand, while the
others are by me. If you hear the nine songs, each of the song sounds
different. And I have used live music in my album, as against electronic
music. It’s a lot more effort to get 100 musicians playing
live at the recording, but then it is worth it since your album
has a human feel, rather than a mechanised one," he explains.
Another thing we noticed about the album was that each song mentioned
on the inlay had a one-line English meaning below it. "Oh yeah,
that’s my idea. You see, when one goes to buy an album, one
can’t open it there and listen to the songs. The one-line explanation
in English sums up the gist of the song for the buyer, and makes
things easier for him. Like Ittefaqan Pyar has the English explanantion,
"Love is never a coincidence," and you know what the song
is all about. Even my first album Chahat had the English one-line
summary on the inlay," he says.
Initially,
Harry had done almost 25 remix albums with his younger brother Vipin.
But now the Harry-Vipin team doesn’t seem to be there on the
scene. "Vipin is very much working with me and bhaiyya Anand
Raaj Anand," he clarifies, "Only he doesn’t want
his name in the credits. He’s kind of superstitious. Vipin
looks after the technical side of the recording, and he has worked
with me on Chahat and Ittefaqan Pyar, and my other albums."
Due for release
now is Harry’s remix album UMI 10 - Vol. 2. "I am singing
for Guddu Dhanoa’s forthcoming films," he says, "I
have sung a number for Umesh Mehra’s Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai, a
song for Indian, which is not in the film, but only shot for the
video, and a song in Rajkumar Kohli’s multi-starrer Jaani Dushman."
Well, all these films have music by Anand Raaj Anand. Doesn’t
he want to work with composers other than his bhaiyya? "I do,
and I am going to approach Rajesh Roshan for work," he replies.
When not working
in the studios, Harry performs at the concerts with his bhaiyya,
which he says has been a great experience. "I love performing.
I am looking forward to the concerts in November, in the US and
Amsterdam," he says.
But his one
and only aim is to make it as a singer. "Singing is what I
want to concentrate on. I am looking for that one big break,"
he says with hope, "I know I have to go through the grind initially,
like everyone does, before I make it big. But then the success of
Sonu Nigam gives me hope. He too had to struggle, but today he’s
achieved perfection in his work."
—
Salma Khatib
salmakhatib@hotmail.com
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