I like Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar and I had a wonderful opportunity working with Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan as well      - Wayne Sharpe

Says the Filmfare award winner for the original background score for the film Gangaajal who in his next bollywood outing has given his music for the forthcoming Indo – Pak relationship flick ‘Lahore’ which is already enjoying festival limelights. In a brief encounter with indianmotionpictures.com, the composer speaks about his music, bollywood and his favorite Indian composers.

Excerpts

Q: How do you manage to do background score for Indian films without knowing the language?
A: The director of the film takes me through the whole film scene by scene explaining what is the film all about and also give me sub-titles. We just finished Lahore and the director of the film Sanjay explained me everything and that is how I get to know the exact emotions I need to add in the sound.

Q: When did your association with Indian music began?
A: It started when I met Prakash Jha in New York through a friend. He came to my studio and he asked me to do background score for Gangaajal as he wanted a western touch to his music.

Q: When was the first time you came across Indian music?
A: I am listening Indian music for many years and I am a big fan of A.R. Rahman and his first music score I heard was ‘Taal’ which really influenced me and change things for me.

Q: How much has the association of Indian music changed your perception about music at large?
A: Ans. Oh yes, I have been very much influenced and have been opened up with different music styles. There are unbelievably excellent artists in India and it affects my score and my approach to the music as whole.

Q: Have you used any Indian instruments for this Indian score?
A: Yes I have. Basically the process is that I compose music score at my studio in New York then I brought all the tracks and we added the musical instruments here in India so I did lot of programming in playing and we had live instruments like drums and flutes; we had Indian choirs too.

Q: How’s the background of ‘Lahore’ sounds?
A: It is coming out very well and I am really I am really proud of the score as Lahore will be releasing soon. It was incredible working with Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan. I met him in America and we worked hard together to make the score right and the music is really powerful. And I have full faith that the music will do really well.

Q: What research have you done for the sounds in Lahore?
A: I wanted to have a western sound to it and highlight the action also and we had to keep Indian audience in mind along with that. We wanted to have different sounds for the action. We highlighted Lisbeth Scott’s voice and Sanjay was really keen for this music as he had many ideas to it.

Q: Besides A.R. Rahman, do you have any other favourite Indian musician?
A: Yes, I love the work of Ustad Sultan Khan as I have worked with him in Gangaajal as he is a beautiful singer and I like Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar and I had a wonderful opportunity working with Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan as well.