He's in the groove with some great music

CLAD IN a seemingly fake Reebok T-shirt, a barefooted Shaan, with long hair, and ear-stud could have very well been the boy next door. A smiling face and ready-for-the-errand attitude. Studying in Mumbai, he wasn't very good at studies and Shaan admits he had ``no great track record'' in `Loveology' either.

Being brought up in a family of musicians, Shaan and sibling Sagarika were informally trained in-house, quite literally. The duo started off singing jingles, ``one thing leading to another.''

Though Shaan has a few big jingles to his credit, including Whirlpool, Coke (`Jo Chaho Ho Jaaye, Coca-Cola Enjoy' and `Pyar Mohabbat, Coca-Cola'), it is the jingles of his `wonder years' that are still close to his heart - `Tobo Cycles', `Maltova Mum'. The Kingfisher jingle with the Caribbean feel, `Ola la la la Ole O' - that is Shaan again.

And then there were the likes of ``Preet Hawai Chappal, DM Pocketwala School Bags''. ``God knows where they were played,'' he grins. Those were the days when he used to be signed because he was ``cheap'' and ``quick'', he reasons.

Of late, Shaan has done playback singing as well - `Musu Musu Haasi', `Woh Pehli Baar', both from `Pyar Main Kabhi Kabhi'. His pop credits include `Parda Hai Parda' from the album Q-Funk, `Naujawan', his duet album along with Sagarika, `Dil Kya Kare', which he sang for the album `Dance Masti', his first solo album `Loveology', `Hum Bewafa' for Dance Masti 2, and now his latest release under the Virgin banner, `Tanha Dil'.

```Tanha Dil' (the title track) is about the feelings of migrating from a small town to a big city in search of better prospects, and the confrontation - `Am I really enjoying life as always','' Shaan elaborates on his new video that is being played on the music channels.So, is it auto-biographical? ``No, I'm very stuck to my roots. It's inspired by my friends, who are becoming alienated,'' he says.

``Music'', he continues, ``should be a shoulder to cry on. It should be contemporary, progressive if it is going to cater to urban educated youth. If it has to be sold to truckers, then there is only one typical formula - Pop Music like `Deewana'. But then how would you distinguish between film and pop music?''

``Sixty per cent of our so-called Indi-pop is Bhangra, another 20 per cent are pop songs that sound filmi, 15 per cent is trashy stuff - like some big time producer's wife wants to release a cassette or some actress suddenly wants to give a shot at singing. It is only 5 per cent that is actually Indi-pop,'' he believes .

``That is the reason why I would like to encourage music that is progressive. Lucky Ali is not the best singer, but his albums worked. He is one guy who comes close to impressing me. Shankar (Mahadevan) as an overall musician impresses me. I feel he has something big to contribute. I like Hariharan, but not `Colonial Cousins' kind of music where there is no link between the shloka and visual,'' he concludes.

Shaan loves to sing live. Later, that evening at Match-Point, Taj Coromandel, it showed.

By Sudhish Kamath

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Section  : Entertainment
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