Music

Getting In Touch With Shaan Rahman

Published

7 years ago

May 30, 2017

Nikhil Wilson

The music for ‘Godha’ has been on the top for weeks now, and now, he’s working with Lal Jose and Mohanlal in their upcoming movie Velipadinte Pusthakam

Words: Susmitha Suresh Photos: Various Sources

A fun, free, positive, lighthearted soul. That’s how you could describe Shaan Rahman. His tracks, that are a reflection of his personality, has mesmerized us and claimed permanent places in our playlists. FWD Life got in touch with him to know more about his latest project with Lal Jose and Mohanlal and about the tracks in Godha that has us in wraps, be it the ‘Wow’ song, or Aaro Nenjil.

Here’s what he had to say!

shaan Rahman

I’ve noticed that there is a Hindustani touch to most of your tracks. So how did that come to be?

Yea, you can say that I’m a little bit more interested in Hindustani music. What I’ve felt is that Hindustani music is more universal, everyone loves it. My father really loved Hindustani music, so we used to listen to it a lot. That might be a reason for the influence. I’ve not studied it, but I listen to more soulful kind of music. Some element of whatever you listen to remains inside of you. It comes out when you start composing for a movie. So that could also be why.

Ghoda Movie Poster

I’ve heard people coming out of the theatre after watching Ghoda go on & on about the tracks and the BGM. Did you expect this sort of a response?

No, no, I did not. What I expected was, comments like why does a film that focuses on a sport require so much songs or why would you put so many songs in a two hour movie. So that was my primary concern. I even talked about this to the director. But he was like, it’s not coming in the movie like a song as such, but it’s more of a background score, songs melded into the movie. There are no song and dance sequences in the film. The songs support the situation, instead of dialogues you’re speak through the songs. I missed the premier over here as I was abroad. So I was so surprised when people started calling me up from India. They were like, ‘we didn’t feel the songs come and go, the tracks went that well with the scenes’. That was very interesting for me. I thought people would be counting songs, and they’d be calling me up complaining about the number of songs.

Yet another thing I’ve heard people talk about is that the music in this film is your best work yet. What would you say to that?

I wouldn’t say ‘Godha’ is my best work. My best work would be ‘Thira’. I’ve experimented a lot in Godha. Composing an album which contains 11 songs, you have to make sure that each and every song is different from the other. I composed the songs according to the sequence in which they appear in the movie. So in a way I was traveling along with the movie.

Shan Rahman 1

Have you worked for a film that you thought might get a good response but fell through?

I would again say ‘Thira’, because all of us, the direction department, the production department and every other department that worked for the movie, we had such high high hopes from that particular movie. We were dealing with a very relevant and sensitive issue. But somehow, the movie didn’t do as well as we thought.

How do you chose which projects to work on?

The first thing that I do is that I always listen to stories. I don’t read the script, I like to listen to being told. When the director comes to me with a bound script I tell them, ‘Listen, you can take the script back. I’m someone that loves to listen to the director narrate the story.’ If he can bowl me over with how he narrates it, then that’s it. I’m in, no matter what. But I tell them right from the beginning that no matter what the song is. I’ll try to do something different with it.

I’ve noticed that you take a lot of new singers on to sing your tracks. Do you have any particular reason behind it?

The primary point is that I go with voices that suit the song. I generally search for new voices. As far as I see it, for a song to work, it needs the right voice. I put a post on Facebook asking for demos and inviting new singers, because when I started with movies, I didn’t have that many opportunities.

Shaan Rahman Lal Jose Mohanlal Movie Poster

So you’re working for the much anticipated Lal Jose film starring Mohanlal. How has the experience been?

It’s been awesome. You never feel like you are working with a senior director. He’s so friendly, he keeps asking you, ‘how do you want this to be, how do you want this song to be, do you have any idea regarding this’. It’s not like he gives you situations and then goes ‘bye-bye’. Every step of the way he’s like, do you have any idea. Once you compose something and give it to him, he’ll give you a proper review of it. I went to the location last day, and all of them, the actors, the crew members, they’re all having so much of fun. I told him, ‘Don’t make me sit inside the studio, I’ll also come to the location, even I want to have a fun’. There’s a lot of positivity there. It’s a first for all of really. I’ve never worked with Lal Sir, I’ve never worked with Mohanlal, and Lal Sir and Mohanlal has never worked together as well.

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Entertainment

Ashwin Bhaskar I Making Waves In The K-pop Universe

Published

2 years ago

February 9, 2022

Jeslin Sebastian

The limelight is nothing new to the 27 year old Singer-Songwriter Malappuram native, Ashwin Bhaskar who went crazy viral last year for his insane dialogue remix – Perfect Ok. He is back and is making waves in the world acclaimed K-pop music universe as well.

Ashwin has released a cover collaboration of the Korean hit single Tattoo with the original singer herself – AleXa and is racking up raging views. The music video currently Trending #24 on YouTube Music is a huge shoutout to all the K-pop die hard fans right here in Kerala and we couldn’t be prouder!

Watch it here:

Checkout his music on Spotify and his latest single Story In A Nutshell.

Music

The Upcoming and Released Album Calendar

Published

3 years ago

September 11, 2021

Contributor

It’s nearly impossible to keep up of everything that’s coming out each year, with more music being released every year. The options are seemingly unlimited, ranging from pop to hip-hop to alternative to K-pop to country, not to mention vinyl, re-releases, and collectible editions.

Check out these upcoming and released Albums-

Sept 3-

Drake, Certified Lover boy

Sept 10-

Diana Rose, Thank You

September 17-

Daughtery, Dearly Beloved

September 24-

Diddy, Off the grid Vol 1

October 1 –

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennet, Love for sale

October 8-

Lala Lala, I Want the Door to Open

Words by: Malavika Venugopalan

Music

The Musical Journey of Adheef Muhamed

Published

3 years ago

August 27, 2021

Contributor

The 15-year-old boy, who won first in Urdu recitation at the 47th Kerala State Kalolsavam from Trivandrum, is now waiting for his upcoming Tamil movie track release, mesmerizing many.

Playback singer, Adheef Muhamed with his new release ‘Vidhooram’, found his passion at a very tender age through various school curricular programs like singing Mappila pattu and Urdu recitations. Later the baby steps he took as part of having fun during school days, turned to a passion driven career with his magical voice behind many songs mumbling on many lips.

Adheef came into limelight with his viral cover of ‘Mukkathe Penne’ which was released in the year 2014. The friendship bond between the friends and culmination of talents has made the cover happen along with the band ‘Elayappam’ featuring Nipin, Vishnu, Ebi, Sanu, Ramkumar. ‘Pazhamthamizh paattu’ was the first cover from the band, with an entirely different mood with Arabic arrangement. Their cover songs were more captivating to the audience during that time, and that paved the way for many other opportunities for them.

“During break times, we used to go to a nearby tea-shop to enjoy our tea break in between the jamming sessions along with discussions, and ‘Elayappam’ was the snack we all used to order unanimously which later became the name of our band. It was also a realization of how food and music were connected,” he said, reminiscing the initial days.

Adheef being the first person to suggest this name for the band had a genuine connection to the title, as it was closely knitted to their friendship and life.

His last independent work named ‘Goodman’ was an experimental track which was released before the pandemic as a visual treat. He gives the credit to the amazing crew which consisted of the lyricist Vinayak Sasikumar, DOP Venu Sasidharan Lekha and the wavelength they have in terms of unique output of the track.

Talking about his works he says “The future is all about independent music, which I knew right from the beginning, and I was always interested in collaborating with different talents and that’s how the beginning of my official YouTube channel happened. ‘Muthu Nava Ratnam’ is a song which is closely gelled with my family since it was the song my mother used to sing for me to sleep. And I always wanted to do a cover version of the song as it’s very much relatable to us”.

“I don’t compromise on video as I believe it’s an important element in every track of mine and I give 50-50 efforts to both audio and video. I strongly believe that the visual element was one of the main reasons the song has got its reach, although the song itself has its essence of magic no matter what the visual was.” he added.

‘Maraigirai’, a Tamil track released in the year 2019, is a familiar track with 12 million views in YouTube trending even now with a huge fan base. When asked about the success of the song Adheef says.

“For me success is the impact the songs have on people who listen to them. I happened to talk to a person who was a survivor in life, who told me once that ‘Maraigirai’ helped him throughout his healing process which made me happy, and I think responses like these are the true definition of success for me.”

He says, the places or people surrounding him were not into a professional music career and he is grateful to himself and to the evolving process along with the band, in trying out new things and this drive was the push for stepping onto the next opportunity.

“I never dreamed about becoming a playback singer and I’m very content with whatever I have right now and I’m grateful for all these opportunities I got, and the path I have come across.

I have seen both the phases of Malayalam cinema, where becoming a playback singer was a difficult opportunity, and the current scenario where many talents are finding opportunities in movies and they are growing through different digital platforms in the social media.”

Adheef has sung in many different languages. “The pulse of Malayali audiences are different from other industries in terms of acceptance” he remarks.

The fast phase of the growing Malayalam music industry with upcoming talents can be seen everyday with many drastic changes. As time goes by, I think there might not be typical song sequences in the Malayalam movies. As a drift comes in the making of the movie the growth of independent music can also be seen evidently” he says.

Sharing about ‘Vidhooram’ and its happiness

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adheef Muhamed (@adheef_muhamed)

“This is the first time I’m approaching something like this track which is very much ambient, and I’m experimenting with a low base tone in my singing. I’m getting many positive responses for this track” he said while talking about his recently released Independent track ‘Vidhooram’ by Ryan Biju Sam and mixed by Abin Paul.

Out of the box thinking and understanding the pulse of the audience is what makes Adheef Muhamed different, and drives him to go ahead with his passion.

Check out his new Tamil track from the movie ‘Lift’ named ‘Hey Bro’ starring Kavin and Amrita Iyer, Music by Britto Micheal.