Interview with Shahabaz Aman by Ajith,THE HINDU

Online edition of India's National NewspaperFriday, Jul 18, 2008

Poetic ventures in music
P.K. AJITH KUMAR, THE HINDU

Music director and singer Shahabaz Aman believes in quality and not quantity.
Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup Singer-composer: Shahabaz Aman.

Shahabaz Aman has sung only four film songs in three years, including two chart-toppers, and has composed music for only one film. But he is a happy man. He is happier these days because ‘Alakalkku,’ an album of Malayalam ghazals compose d by him, was released recently and he won the award for the best music for ‘Paradeshi,’ at a recent film festival in Spain.
But he is no hurry, and does not think twice before rejecting the offer to be a judge on a reality show on a channel. “I have certain ambitions in music, but that doesn’t mean I am dying to be the busiest singer or composer in Malayalam cinema,” says the Kozhikode- based singer-composer.
“For the past seven months, I have been working on my sixth album, ‘Alakalkku.’ It has come out even better than I anticipated. It was a challenge to compose lines written by Rosemary; even she was surprised at the end result. For this album, I was particular that I needed good lyrics. Moreover, I wanted the songs to have a common thread – the journey.”Musical journey
Shahabaz had no idea where his journey in music would take him when he fell in love with notes and lyrics while listening to old Hindi film songs at his home in Malappuram. The self-taught artiste says he enjoys both singing and composing. “Composing, especially an album like ‘Alakalkku,’ gives you a lot of satisfaction,” he says.
As for singing, he is best known for ‘Chanthu kudanjoru…’ (‘Chanthupottu’) and ‘Ishtamalle…’ (‘Chocolate’); both were chart-toppers and rendered expressively.
He says he has no regret that he has not sung too many film songs.
“I am happy if I get a song or two a year; the only film song I have sung this year, so far, is for ‘Parunthu.”’
Last year, he had made his debut as a music director in films by tuning ‘Ya duni duni…’ for ‘Paradeshi.’ “The other day when it fetched me, and Ramesh Narayanan (who composed the other songs in the film), the award for the best music at the Madrid film festival I felt happy; in the citation, the jury says that ‘Paradeshi’s music was chosen for its ethnic charm.”
He had turned composer way back in 1995 with ‘Ashiana.’ “It was what I would call Malabari songs; I wanted to deviate from the traditional Mappila songs. My next album, ‘The Soul of Anamika in Black and White came,’ came out after about 10 years. I experimented with that album.”
Recently he composed ONV’s ghazals in ‘Sahayathrike.’ “That has been my most popular work so far, but I hope ‘Alakalkku’ would do even better,” he says.
Shahabaz is planning another ambitious project – a blues album in Malayalam. “That has been at the back of my mind for a while, but I am in hurry to begin working on it,” he says.