AR Rahman Has a New Song in My New Movie!

(soft piano music) Lemonade. - Thanks for listening to Hussam Menhaj Doesn't Know. Listen to and follow Hussam Menhaj Doesn't Know add free on Amazon Music or just ask Alexa. Alexa, play the podcast Hussam Menhaj Doesn't Know on Amazon Music. Also, with Amazon Music Unlimited, you can now listen to your favorite music, podcasts, and audio books, all in the Amazon Music app. Listen to Hussam Menhaj Doesn't Know on Amazon Music. Donald Trump asked RFK Junior recently why he wasn't doing more to prove a link between vaccines and autism. Trump apparently wants to reduce the overall number of shots recommended for children. Now, I just think once you're in the Epstein files, you don't get to decide what's best for kids, but that's just me. I read about the story on ground news, our podcast favorite independent news platform. Ground news shows you all the publications reporting on a specific story, including breakdowns on the political leanings, typical factuality, and onings of each news source. It's not about completely eliminating bias, but it does help you be a more informed consumer of the news, factoring in potential biases with your analysis. With this story, I notice that the right leaning publications emphasize that autism is on the rise. Subscribe to Ground News today. Use the link in the description or head to groundnews.com/hussam to subscribe and get 40% off the Unlimited Axis Vantage Plan, the same one that we use here at HMDK. That's groundnews.com/hussam to keep media transparent. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're sitting down because I got some piping hot tea for you. Some of you know our new film "Best of the Best Premiers" on Netflix September 18th. This is a big deal. It is an ode to collegiate Hollywood dance and flaming hot cheetos. Now, if you've seen the trailer, then you can probably tell our cast is outstanding. The dancing, incredible. The outfits are sick, but what you don't know. The part that I have had to keep bottled up for the past year is that our soundtrack just might win us an Oscar. Because we got a guy who made Slumdog a millionaire. And the Oscar goes to AR Rachman, the Slumdog millionaire. Zach really put the brown sauce on that. AR Rachman. Rachman, that is the sound of allyship. This is 100% true. You are the first to learn about this. "Best of the Best" features a brand new track from the one and only AR Rachman. If somehow you've never heard of AR Rachman, he doesn't really have a Western counterpart. Take the film score career of Hans Zimmer. They hit singles of Quincy Jones, the musical innovation of Max Martin and the performance chops of Stevie Wonder. Jam them into one person and you get AR Rachman. And like Stevie Wonder, he also loves wearing sunglasses indoors. That's kind of my best attempt at describing AR Rachman. Now, if you're not South Asian, you probably remember Gio from Slumdog, which was huge in the moment that AR Rachman broke out in America, but even before '09, real ones we knew. If you grow up on Indian film like me, you grew up on AR Rachman. Cheia, Cheia, and Dilsett, with Sharah Con dancing on the motherfucking train. Ashwarya Rai and Abhishek Bucchan do wedding. Therabina and Guru, his music is a through line between multiple decades of Hindi and Tamil cinema. And I mean decades. This man has not had a flop era. He just had a massive tiktok hit with Devana Devana last year. It is Desi Zoomer's bumping AR Rachman, not just your Tamil auntie who was still spin in the Roja soundtrack on Compact Disc. Like not to get all Nat Gio with you guys, but in a country of 1.5 billion people. But in a country of 1.5 billion people, with 22 recognized languages, most Indians could hum. And AR Rachman sang. And I am not just talking about the chart toppers. From Rockstar, or Lagann, or Bombay, I am talking about the ringtone for Airtel. [PHONE RINGING] Hey, do you want to hear this? [PHONE RINGING] The Indian cell phone provider composed by AR Rachman, and maybe the most heard piece of music ever in India. This man composes ringtones that go so hard they get covered by orchestras. Is the London Philharmonic covering the Windows 95 startup noise? [PHONE RINGING] No. It was composed by some nobody named Brian Eno. [PHONE RINGING] You, Brian Eno? Rahman's gone multi-platinum. He is one every major award in Indian cinema. He is sold out. Cricket stadiums last year for the Wonderment Tour. And with apologies to Chris Christie, I have never had more pure superstar wattage in this studio than when we had AR Rachman in the building. This was a bucket list guest, you guys. My whatsapps were going fucking crazy. In my interview with the Mozart of Madras, we talk about his upbringing as a musical prodigy. Is it true that the synthesizer that you played on as a young child was the first synthesizer that ever existed? Lee's in South India. South India. The time he almost went to Berkeley instead of pursuing a career in the '90s. Does that ever blow your mind that you could have-- that there was a possibility that AR Rahman is just playing at a jazz club? Yeah, absolutely. And we talked about his songwriting process. What's your favorite element of the song? Can you tell me which part of your body you like the best? Best of the best. Coming to Netflix September 18th. Stream at folks? Because I want that Oscar. [PHONE RINGING] Hurry right away, lonely place, stop there. You have been one of the rare artists in global music history that's been able to go from the '90s to the 2000s, to the '20s, to now the 2020s. It's a four-decade plus. You'll make me feel so old now. I don't know if it's old. I don't know if you feel it's-- I feel like it's a testament to longevity. Don't you feel that way? True. I think it's hard. For me, I think that I have got nothing else than music and art. And initially, I found music as-- because I was driven led to it by my father and mother. My father died very early, so my mother said, do what your father did. Don't waste your time on education. That is so rare. How old were you when your father passed? I was nine. And then when I went to the studios, it was 12. So then I went there. I didn't have games or friends or anything. And I was playing the studios with, you know, adults like, or 50s and 60s. And by the age of 1920, then I started getting interested in composing jingles. And from the film crowd, this crowd was very young and international. So that taught me a lot of things about international music, the sentiments, and yeah. But as a nine or 10-year-old, how did you feel being around different musicians and being in the studio? I think the other kids want it. You want to go outside. You want to play. You want to do other things. True, but there's a level of focus. But there is no comparison for me. The level of-- I couldn't compare my life to other people's life, because this is what I saw. I thought this was natural. Got it. Then when I grew up and when I hear stories about it, I was in the school. I was in college. And I felt like, oh, my god, miss something very big. And back in the '90s, there was a studio called "XIC" in Mumbai. So when I go to Mumbai, I will record in that studio, just to see the life of college people. We have to go to flows, passing all the students to that studio. So your father, he played piano as well. And then he taught you. My father was actually-- he was playing for stage musicals, I think. Then he became an arranger and a conductor for all the Malayalam movies. Then he went in his own music stuff. He bought synthesizers and all that stuff. Which, when he passed away, I became my toys to learn what I'm doing now. Is it true that the synthesizer that you played on as a young child was the first synthesizer that ever existed in-- at least in South India. So what was it at the time? So your dad shows you this thing. I was not supposed to touch, because it's a pro thing. After he passed away, it became my toy. Because he was lying there, he went for rental. So I would have to clean it up, set it up for people. If they don't know anything, I'd probably try to get the sounds from the synthesizer. But what is the synth? What does it look like? Synth is a cog synth, which is a SH700. And the synth is a kind of monophonic tone generator. It comes from you can have sort of the square wave and sine wave. And you can modulate with filters and pitch and all that stuff. So when people would come to the studio and see this device, what did they think it was? Because you're one of the only people that has it. And basically, a child is explaining to them what this new piece of technology from the future is. Yeah. I think at the age of 13, I had-- because I owned all the equipment. I was invited by the Durdashan, the TV channel, TV channel to come and play some stuff. Then I would set it all up, and my fingers wouldn't even reach the last key. With a double manual and the synthesizer would set up. That was fun. Who was the biggest influence on you musically in your life as a child? Was it just your father? Or did your father-- I think it was father's own music. So when once he passed away, everywhere I used to go, there were only good stories about them. Oh, my father, you worked in four different places at the same time, and we were in this band of him. And he would call us and say, sit in the fourth row, get the money and go, help your family. So it was like that very philanthropical kind of thing. Did you feel the pressure to do what he did? Or were you saying that you were just trying to find your way? I didn't have any pressure, because I-- because we grew up with such great stories about him, everyone would say that he made me who I am. He made me who I am. You know that? It's a great thing to hear when you're young, and it sets up the standard. So I had three sisters. I had to be a good boy and all that stuff. You were the oldest to the youngest? I was the second one. I'm having an elder sister, who's son is also a hero and composed a colgivi percussion. Oh, amazing. So you did something that's incredibly rare that I think very few musicians are able to do, which is translate and have music that resonates in different languages. So let's just take four of your biggest hits that-- Terrifying. - No, but let's just take four of the biggest hits that resonated and defined my youth and my family's life. Okay, you had Roja 1992, you had Bombay 1995, you had Bill San 1998 in Thala 1999. That's just one decade. And you're jumping between two different genres of movies, Tamil movies in Malayala and Hindi movies. - Yeah. - That's the American equivalent of going from, I play baseball and now I'm gonna play ice hockey. It's a version of that. Or the musical equivalent would be, yeah, I do country music. And I also do gospel or hip hop. How did you, - That's true, that's, I think you're articulated very well. - Yeah, because when you don't analyze all that stuff, you do it and nobody's judging you and you're forced to do things. And they expect you to be that, I keep saying that like in India, because Indians don't pigeonhole you in one, one thing, composed of a movie. He's a music composer and music director, they call. And he's expected to do so, as a composer and full fill, what the director wants, what the story wants. So there's no thing, I only use these, there's the parrot of my, there's no limitation on that. So you force yourself to become everything. You are like a John Williams, not that level, but you are like a Michael Jackson doing pop. You are like a, what do you call an African band, or you are like a reggae band. And because I loved listening to different genres of music, my whole thing was, because I was in the film music, which is very narrow, I kept my mind very open. I was fascinated by different sounds. And whenever I used to come to any country and, by all the cities, listen to all the weird, radio stations all in the world. And that opened up my mind. I was like, this is beautiful. These four bars, I think, how do they do it? And they just have a drum and a vocal, and totally near the deep thing. You know, like a repeated phrase. And then you start enjoying all the stuff. And then without even calculation, it comes into your own music. And it feels like, yeah, it'll work. And, but the country is so huge. And it's a huge country with a multitude of subcultures and sub languages in different movie styles within it. How did you know you could jump between those styles? - So when I started, I didn't want any influence of the previous composers. And because all the composers in the South were using kinetic music. And as I like, I used to listen to cousins and I used to listen to Kavali and, you know, Tom Reeson. So I felt like, let me use Raga, which are North Indian Raga's, Deish and Pilu and Dharbari. These kind of Raga's. So all my tunes in Roja was that. And the movie was about Kashmir, right? So when it transcended into a Hindi film, people didn't feel it was alien to them. And for Tamil people, for the South Indians, it felt like there's something different which you've never heard. So it worked out, I don't know, my instinct, I think, my mind was so, what do you think your greatest gift was to be able to play for both teams? 'Cause sometimes there's a beat between Hindi films and then Tamil films. - Yeah, so if you look at Rukmani, the song, it's not Indian culture. There is a hook which is very much African. And it has a kind of a taiko in it, which is Chinese or Japanese, right? So, oh, it's very pop, Western pop in a way. But then there is a story about what happens after marriage, you know, like a very mischief, it's kind of a old lady singing about this stuff. So the concept itself is very beyond the cultural frame of what Tamil movie would have done or a Hindi movie would have done it. So it surpassed all the stuff of the sound and then people accepted it and talked to the new sound. So if the directors had known or stick to what the native sound is, he's an innovator, right? Mani Ratnam is a great visionary innovator. He was cool with anything new, which thrown at him and said, "Ah, now you made me, okay made my left tough, so I have to shoot this." And that's how it was a very friendly, brotherly way we worked and he was a mentor for me. - Well, the story of Roja is pretty interesting and we had been chatting about this the other night when we grabbed dinner. But you think about the sliding doors of life. Tell me the story that it about Roja and you potentially not doing Roja and going to Berkeley College. - Yeah, the story is, as a young person, musician, I was practicing classical music a little bit and folk and all this stuff. I was in the studios working. And during Saturdays, I learned piano and there was a very kind master called Jacob John who said, "I'm your father's friend, you got great potential as a teacher." When that happened, nothing after a while, he felt like I was listening to Chikkourya and Dave Groosen. I don't want to play like that. I want to play jazz and I want to play keyboards like that. And somebody said, "No, you have to go to Berkeley to do that, Berkeley College of Music." So we were a backing track for El Shankar, the violinist behind Shakti at that time. And we backed him and then I asked Shankar, "Mr. Shankar, can you get me Berkeley?" "Oh, of course, I'll get you a Berkeley prospect." He brought me the prospectors from there. And then I said, "What about mother and sisters?" So we built a studio for them. I said, "You can rent the studio out." And I sorted everything out and it was about to go to Berkeley. I had my $15,000 ready. And then comes one of the jingles which I did became a massive hit. And it happened to be Manit Ratham's cousin sister who produced it. So she said, "My brother's movie is happening." It's like, "Who's your brother?" Manit Ratham was like, "What?" "You have a money sister, you never told me." And so, during the party, he came in and I invited him to the studio. So why don't you come to the studio? And then he comes exactly six months later. I said, "Can I hear what you do?" And he said, "I'm doing a movie called Thirudah Thirudah. I want you to compose." And then that didn't happen the beginning and then Roger happened. But you were almost on your way to Boston. Yeah, so then I had to decide whether I need to take and I was such a big fan of Manit Ratham at that time, I said, "Yeah." I can go to Berkeley later or I don't have to go when I get an opportunity and mentorship from a person who's huge. You know, the most Harvard director. - Does that ever blow your mind that you could have, that there is a possibility that A.R. Rahman is just playing at a jazz club. - Yeah, absolutely. (laughing) - And then five people drinking and watching me and they're like, "Oh, very good piano play." - Totally. Yeah, it would have been that scene out of La La Land. You would have been, - Absolutely. - Yeah. - Ryan Gosling. - But then what I said, what I didn't know about, because I didn't, I was strapped in that film culture, didn't allow you to explore anything. So that's the reason why I wanted to escape and go and learn stuff. Because it was the same sound, it was catering to movies. And when I came in, technology came in, and then DTS and all, we all this stuff came in and expanded the whole theatre system sound. So it was a great timing and all that happened. So after Roja, you do Bombay in 1995. What were your biggest fears as you continue to progress in your career? Because through the '90s, you solidified yourself as one of the biggest hit maker in both Bollywood and Tallywood. - Unintentionally, yeah. - Yeah, I was like, "This is the next movie, "next year I'll quit." And then I was like, "Next year I'll quit." Then after 10 years, I was like, "What are we gonna quit and do?" - No, just to do something more greater than getting caught, even though it was flattering to get offered so much of money. And but, you know, my spiritual self and my material self are constantly in conflict. My spiritual self is like, it's nothing. It's my, you know, it's all delusion. All this fame and all this, everything's delusion. I think leave it. And then I was thinking like, and then 9/11 happened. 9/11 happened and then I felt like, oh my God. Now I feel the purpose to do more. Purpose to be a bridge through music, through love, through mentoring people, or, you know. So that actually solidified my permanence, I would say. Then I went to, you know, England, met Angeloid Weber, introduced by Shake it Up or did Bombay Dreams. Then I did, a lot of the rings co-composed, a lot of the rings on stage. And then the foundation came in, my foundation came in, which we open the came music conservatory to educate kids. Because I was saying all the musicians were making their kids into dentists and doctors and lawyers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I said, okay, let's-- Well, your life story is the inverse of that where your mother's telling you. Exactly. Yeah, don't be an idiot. Don't be a doctor. That's exactly the musician. I think she was genius. Yeah. And so I said, I looked at the school opposite my house. And I said, we'll start with home. Get these kids, teach them music, I don't see how many states. So we start with 50 kids. And out of which now, 18 people have become a chamber orchestra in India. They travel with me. They play with all the composers. And so we have the school, which all the people are-- it is like a school, kind of. Oh, you're from KEM. You're in KEM. Join us in. Join us a program. Join us a singer. Join us an assistant in. So that's great to see all the future of all these kids. You've been able to grapple with probably the toughest paradox of being an artist, which is if you're an artist, you have a spiritual identity. There's something that's calling you within your heart, whether that's-- spirituality, religion, Yahweh, there's something divine that's happening within you, and you want to express that. But then also being an artist is engaging with the material world. Yeah. So do you have a hit? Is this resonating with audiences? Is the box office this? Is it this many views? Yeah. How did you navigate the pressure as your career grew that every director is coming to you in saying, I need a hit. Make me a hit. Yeah. You have to. No, it's non-negotiable. But it's not in your control. What do you mean? No, then after value learned the tricks, you learned, okay, if I have this lyric, I can tune this. If I have this rhythm, I can tune this. If I, of course, I pray a lot, I sit and like, oh my God, save me this time. Don't get me humiliated. And then also, I'm not taking the judgment. I'm not releasing it as an independent artist. It's a combination of the director, lyric writer, singer, you know. And the way the hero acts, that's the main thing. If he sings something and he dances, you know, convincingly. And then the, like, recently I did a song called 'Chickery' for Ramsharan, who's part of 'Not to Not to' R-R-R. Right. So the song went as number one on YouTube all over the world, I don't know. And then people from Mexico, they have articles in Mexico saying that this Telugu song, you know, dethroned our Mexican song, all that stuff. And so that, again, this director who comes and is done over movie and is one national award, he said, I want to work with you. But is that. Because same nostalgia which you talk about, he comes in and says, I want to work with you. I said, when I see that kind of a love, I said, yes, I don't know, listen to the story. And it works out. With the trust. But is it real what you just said? Which is, you hear particular things and you say, I can tweak it this way, I can change it this way. Or it's going to be a hit. Is it really like that? 90%. Sometimes you feel like it's a great song, it drops dead because it's not marketed or because it's the way they've filmed it, they've used it in a very disrespectful way, not given that love and attention or the dance steps or anything. Mostly this, it's, other stuff is easy, not easy. Melodies are, you know, for musicians, it's a piece of cake, have a rock or have a progression and do beautiful melodies. So you need one, one like this to take things off. So as a composer, break down one of my favorite tracks of all time. Before you got here, I was just telling the office how much, just the music video of Cheyachanga, what that meant to me. The iconography of it, the composition of it, the music video, the film at large, break down how you make that piece of something so iconic. So what are the component pieces of that? So I, you know, after listening to Nusrat Sahib, I was becoming this fan of Punjabi lyrics and what it means and the potency of what it does to a soul. And so I called one of my friends called Bridge Pusion and he said, I need somebody to write Punjabi lyrics. And so he suggested Sukun the Singh, Sukun the Kamas lyric writer. And then we worked on a movie called Takshak. Then I was doing one day Madhya Ji Salam that time and said, Hey Sukhi, I want to, I want a song, the Sufi song. So he said, he bought a Bolesha stuff, he said, I'm dancing, you know, the whole, Tayyataya. Yes. So a jamming, I was programming stuff and recording and I was chopping and doing all the stuff. And then I felt like this song is not right for this album. So it threw it. You threw out Cheyachanga? No, Tayyataya, it was called. So it was not used. It was for my album, right? Okay. Money comes and says, I'm going to do a movie, but I'm not going to tell you the story. It's about seven stages of love. So give me seven songs. I said, wow, this is great. And then I said, I have a song and I chopped stuff from that. I said, here this, oh, I like this. I'm going to film this one of the train, you see, because it sounds like a train, the rhythm. Yeah. And then Gulzazab writes Cheyachanga and then we record this Sukwinder and Sapnavasti, the Singh. Right. And then it became like a masterpiece. Everything was so unique about it. Yeah. I think it was. And also the writing blessing, if you look at those lyrics, they have more life than what it just sang or comes from a very special place, I think. When you watched playback for the first time of some of your biggest records and some of the biggest things you've made, does it still give you chills? Does it move you? Did you know it was going to be a hit? I mean, most of the stuff which Iconic hits, even if you take slum dog in there, and you just have a feeling that it's special, you don't know how to gauge it like, like Mataji Salaam, the music video. It was a music video which we'd never seen a music video like that ever. So it's Barat Bala and Kanika, they worked hard on it. They cut it in a way where it was very national geography, slash Michael Jackson. And you know, a very rare combination, very colorful, very beautiful. And so when I saw it, I felt good, there were two extreme reactions to that. One was a director's like Ram Gopal or Ma and some other director's whom I respect, they said, I don't think it's working, it should not be doing stuff like this. And they were extreme other. They were like, a director's like Deepa Metha came, I played this and they went out and came and she was like, weeping. And she was weeping. She was like, what is this song? So I don't know whether people are going to like it or not. And I'm on screen for the first time there. There's a very rare moment. Yeah, that's right. Obviously, you're one of the most brilliant composers in the world, but you've occasionally sang. Why did you sing Vande Matara? What made you go? I need to get in the booth and I also need to be because Sony came inside me as an artist. Sony Music was launching in India. They signed me for that album and 50 years of Independence of India, 50 years of Pakistan. So Baratbal also suggested that I should sing the song and I should also do a song with Nusrat Fateh Le Khansab. We came to New York, went to the radio city, saw him live, asked him, they will do a song with us. He said, yes. So all this stuff happened actually in New York. And at Radio City Music, I'm one of the most iconic venues in New York City. Okay. I don't know. Obviously, you're dropping some jewels on us. People don't know the significance of Kavali Music and who Nusrat Fateh Khan is. What is Kavali Music and what was its influence on you? Kavali Music, I first heard, I think my spiritual teacher, 89, he used to come to my house and my niece, his tuning was funky, but then when he used to sing, I don't know where the butterflies would come. You know, there was like Jasmine, all the stuff, my mother would be sitting and he used to sing on Kavajasab and there will be butterflies coming, you look at them and smile. You mean, literally butterflies or you would feel butterflies? No butterflies. They would come and then they said, and so it is almost like a standing like Angel, so Farishto, they say, or people in disguise, right? Spiritual people. And so that's the first time I had Kavali. And how old were you? I was 89, 22, and I was not a big fan of Kavali, I was not a big fan of Kavali because it's a form which is very non-South Indian voters, right? Then one of my friends, Sarangana, he gave me, he went to, he was married to a New York government and he brought a CD, I said, "Hey, I should listen to this" and there was Must, Must, with a product by real world and that changed my mind, I said, "What is this music? Who's the sky? Who's the singer?" And what is he doing? I became obsessed with that. You come on the street. Yeah. Yeah. And I was being obsessed and then finally, then I learned my friend, Shakyakapur, who came to me in '94 and said, "I want to work with you," he showed me a bandit quaint and he said, "Who's the music?" No, so I said, "I come." And I said, "When he comes here, you know him, right, please introduce me to him." So he was in Bombay, Santo Hotel or something. So first time I met him there. And then I came met him in New York. And was he familiar with your work? Of course. Yeah, because Bombay, Rangila, all the stuff I had released by then, right? So I said, "Teach me something." But would the American equivalent be, "I've tried to describe this to my friends?" Is Kavali music basically gospel music for Southeast Asia, essentially? Which is. I think it's rock 'ems or prayer songs. Because the power of rock is then Kavali, like what do rock singers do? Yeah. And the spirituality of maybe gospel, in a way. Yeah. So there's a combination of that and it's so unique. Like, when I went to Radio City, I was seeing just Western audiences vibing to Valla Hu. Yes. And what an ambassador. Right. And then Radio City Show was in '93, right? No, it was '97, '98. It's just around six months before he passed. I think six, one year or six months before he passed. Right. What was that experience like seeing the Strathe play? It was. Radio City music. Just to hear that. It was pretty internet. This is kind of pre-streaming. Yeah. And the internet was in its infancy. Correct. But social media wasn't that thing. So I came here because my album, after they heard the first song, they wanted to market all the world, the whole international sauna about it. So they want to release it all over the world. Yeah, so it got all over release for the first time Indian album or thing And so they said come to New York to sign the contract. So we came in here Yeah, and I was talking on the straight and Bala was talking on the straight And he said who on the straight is performing in Radio City this it was just complete coincidences complete co-incidence And then I said every all of us went from Sony and all of us went there. Yeah, we watched in magic And then then there was a queue to meet him after the there were like 300 people yeah, and his assistant Spotted me and took him straight to go straight. You're just waiting in line with this bunch of other fans. Yeah, they took him straight and I want to learn from him and still is a teacher like to many people in India all over the world Who take us music rearrange or sing it again? And so it's fascinating. Okay, so I don't know how much time you spend on the internet, but there is intense Internet debate about your catalog spanning four different decades There are sub debates of people that just talk about your Tamil catalog. Okay, Tyler show them real quick Oh, I can't tell you how many threads there are if you could only listen to 25 a.m. on songs for the rest of your life one per album What would they be? Okay, and I wanted to ask you How do you feel about this list here? Do you have a favorite? I don't have any favors I always feel the best is yet to come really yeah I mean if I look at that I feel satisfied and it's like okay, that's enough Is there a particular track out of any of these from lovebirds to Roja to Mr. Romeo to Bombay is there a particular Film or track that means a lot to you that you feel like should should be in this list or is already represented in this list For me there's no song which is Just done for the sake of it Even if it's not if you use for 10 seconds, I make it like a three-minute track Yeah, I expand it so that people enjoy that stuff So I don't have any favors at that point. That's the best song of my life And I work really yeah, that's how I do it if it's if it doesn't have enough meat I call you know endless put some strings in it. Let's put some flute in it Let's have a chorus in it so that people enjoy the experience of the song What do you like if you look at highway song, right? Mahi way yeah, Mahi was actually a leftover of Pataka goody same beat Yeah, same BPM same clap everything and so I told so Mthia said We won this in the end of the song. I think this is song by itself man. Let's not waste it Right. I'm gonna expand it to a song. Yeah, so I don't I don't need it is it then after doing it Oh, I love this is the last song so you used it so it is not even there Sometimes you feel like something has a potential and then we expanded what's your favorite element of the song some people love bridges Some people of course is some people of hooks. What is your can you can you tell me which part of your body? You like the best? Do you want me to tell you honestly on the brains? I mean, I tell you honestly I think I have a good head of hair. I think I have decent shoulders. I know my strong points. Yeah No, but I for me the whole thing Really? Yeah, do you ever listen to the Justin Timberlake album justified? No, the one that for all produced Just it Justin's first album justified. It's a solo album. Do you mean the song? Sing it? I can't hit I can't sing it. No, it's just You've never heard the song like I love you produced by the Neptune's I have to hear it I'm ready bad enough. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna sing Justin Timberlake for air of mine I'm gonna look like I'm gonna look like an absolute fool sing your song for me. Yeah, this you're a good girl And that's what makes me trust you. Yeah, I play this for my wife all the time late at night. I talk to you I think you get the idea. Yeah, so I would say one of Pharrell's greatest qualities. It's pretty due bridges No, no, he's he's it's got great ideas. I think it's got a great mind empowering mind I keep telling that The problem a lot of people including me It took it took ages for me to break the walls of limitations of what I can do as an artist You know, because people love to pigeonhole you. Oh, he's an Indian composer. South Indian composer right that broke Roger broke North Indian he only do Indian music then you go do, you know, a lot of the rings on stage right co-compose then He can only do music so I started writing stories right then I directed a lemask, which is a M.S. of cinematic experience Because nobody would take that route because it didn't make money I said if money is up the only thing then Innovations would have happened in the world is a humanity to see what other is there. I think you're Singular taste that cannot be matched is your ability to make anathemic melody Thank you I think that's what touches people's hearts around the world irrespective of what You're composing for whether it's 127 hours whether it's a Bollywood movie whether it's lambda millionaire whether it's Pelle you can jump between Isabella, of course Yeah, I love doing belly. Yeah. What was the inspiration with that one? So my agent calls up hey, they're asking you to do the music for belly. Yes, I said who's ballet? You didn't know Zero sports man. One of the greatest I know I was like oh my god this is Pelle and it was inspiring to see his story and Nambless brothers. Yeah, directed it and So I met him in Calcutta so we hung out together. You met Pelle. Yeah. Yeah, we hung out in Calcutta together and You knew who he was at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, then slowly of course. Okay. Thank God. And many things I don't know many things which you think I wouldn't know I would know but many things you think obvious stuff. I wouldn't know right because It's too much the lives got so much to give Yeah, yeah, you live in there's many different multiverse is my reverse. Yes. Um Tell me the story of how Danny Boyle became obsessed with you So I got an email Hey, I'm Danny Boyle and I want you to score my movie. I would love to meet you. I think okay, so I'm super busy. I'm doing like 12 30 movies Ashutosh go article stuff and many other things things 2008 and We have started work on everything. I said, oh, how am I gonna do this one and so suddenly Like a couple of months go away and then one day. Hey, are you are you in Bombay as a race? I'm in Mumbai and I'm in this hotel. Oh, I'm in the same hotel. Can you come to the you know, whatever launch area? So I go there He's emailing you or he's texting. Yeah emailing. Wow. So I'm going down and so I did any boy and he gives the DVD. Here's the movie I made I'm not sure how I've never made a movie like this So please look at it. It'll be a great honor if you do the music So he hands you the DVD for some dog millionaire and there's no score on it. No, no, that is like Tim's stuff. There's that is another Hindi song on the end and all the stuff so then I I call my agent Hey, um, So Goffin and Schwartz, right? Um, I call them and One the representatives says don't do I said why no, I think that is a very different kind of director. He works with multiple people He might throw your score out very soon. It happened to some of our clients and controversial, but I said no, he gave it to me and he smiled at me. It looked very genuine. He's looked at And so I said okay So I told my Ashutosh like I've got a movie in my workout it might not work out, but I can't do I have to leave one movie to do that one Yes, and so I think Ashutosh is doing a movie with Pranko Chopra at that time. So I had to ditch that movie and secretly work on a slum dog millionaire. It had only three weeks to work on this right secretly work on it because if he fires me Nobody would know so it's fine. So you put everything together in three weeks for three weeks. Yeah So I was working in New York and I know MIA was doing stuff and Alkay Agni was doing stuff in Mumbai and I was working in Chennai I and we are mixing in London like all four things were happening So I have a Danny's bouncing between the the Danny was in London, right? So I was in my house in London Yeah, and he would come and hear the stuff in the evening and go and give me notes and go So we finished and we mixed it in London little bit of stuff All this stuff happened then Toronto happens And then my agent calls up I was like hey you did the music finally We saw your name on that. Yeah, I did the music and the last song is a big hit and so coming for, you know, whatever PR stuff and the rest is history. So The the final dance jaiho that was attempt Track that they were dancing to they were dancing to archki rath right Which is from another movie right yeah, and I said like if I'm doing music I need to make a original song. Yeah, so then I quickly made the stuff chopped it speed Compressed it and put it on to that one Are you afraid that it was going to mash or you said no? I can if I have this time No, I could sometimes you feel it the gut feeling oh that song is slow if it can speed it up to the speed yeah So he heard it and I played him like what about this song because you didn't have an lip sync right? I like it, but I want more strings. I said, I'll give you strings right away. So put a strings bash great I like that And I still didn't know that it's gonna use it or throw it away So my mind is like he's gonna throw it away. It's fine. But I love this experience working with the man who has great soundtracks in his movies. Like, I know if you take all of the movies. What's the other movie? You did 127 hours with him. No, no, before that. He's got a great record of having great soundtracks. And so no way, not even a percentage, I thought it's going to get anything, a Grammy or a Golden Globe or a BAFTA or Oscar. Anything. You just felt what, you felt it was going to be emotionally resonant? I felt like I'm working with a great director and who was going to place my music. And then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, all this stuff happens. You've worked in both America and in Bollywood. What do you think the biggest difference is between those two industries and the music you make when you compose and do scores for both? If you look at, I'm a little bit intimidated. I was intimidated by Western directors. Because I'm coming, it's a South Indian thing. When you're from a city like Chennai and suddenly you see all the stuff opening up after, I'm not going on after the Oscars and everything. So I go to every studio to meet all the music supervisors and music heads. Yeah. I should have, I should have taped it, you know, to Fox and Warner and Sony and what were they saying? You know, it was great. Oh, we'd love to work with you. And I was getting all these movies. Sure. Michel Gondres movie, but things scheduled in March. So I wanted to do something non-Indian because I've been doing all, that's why I did couples retreat. Oh, yeah, you did. You did. You did couples retreat and then I did people like us. But people have always given you your flowers. Spike Lee in 2006 put Chang'e into. Yeah. Inside my inside. So people have always seen how brilliant your work is. What quality do you think you bring in terms of the emotion? I have an adjective to describe. Please go ahead. But you go first and then I'll tell you. I don't know. You don't know. I don't know. I just, I'm a very internal person, spiritual person. So whatever I want, whatever I fear, I just leave it to the almighty. I would say yearning. Yerning or passion. I think that's like Rumi describes us. Why is the flute always playing a sad tune? Because it was cut off from its source. So we all have this hard-wired feeling of yearning of our souls to meet the grand soul. But in the Western world, that's not a thing. Well, in America, people are emotionally unavailable. Yeah. And you can't just Asia, all emotions. You can't paint everybody the same brush. The in pockets when I see certain things that people are like, like when I meet Hamza Yusuf, he's such an intellectual and he's so Western. But then he brings a whole new dimension to the, the wisdom. You know, just sitting with him, you can just sit with him for like ages, like five, six days and just follow him. And yeah, he can talk about theology. He can talk about music. He's in a crabble human being. Hey, it's Julia Louis-Dreyfus from The Wiser than Me podcast among other things. And I've got a little holiday wisdom for you. Hosting during the holidays means lots of cooking. And that means your trash is going to be full of smelly, rotting food, yuck. So here's the wisdom. Get a mill food recycler. I did. We've had ours for years and it has totally transformed our kitchen. It's unbelievable how much cleaner everything is now. Plus, it's so easy to use. You toss in basically any food you don't eat. Peels, pits, meat, dairy bones. Last year we put in a whole turkey carcass, really. While you sleep, mill automatically dries and grinds all your food waste down to about a fifth of its size. That means at night, you can fill it after a big, elaborate dinner. And by morning, they'll be room for breakfast. Nothing rots, nothing stinks, no fruit flies. And my favorite part, no more of those gross, drippy, mid-dinner garbage runs. If you want a cleaner, calmer kitchen this holiday season, go to mill.com/wiser for an exclusive offer. That's mill.com/wiser. Happy hosting. I want to ask you a question just as a friend. I've been a fan of you since the day I was born. The fact that you're sitting down with us, this just means the world to me. But a lot of people don't know. We got to do a song together for the film, best of the best. Now when I reached out and we asked you, would you do a song for our collegiate Bollywood dance movie? I thought it was going to be a million to one shot. Why did you say yes? Because I thought it was for sure going to be a no. I don't know. I think I go by instinct and how it comes to me and then what you're intention of doing stuff. And we are actually living in a world of device or politics. It's important to add to the culture of where we belong, right? You belong to America. You're adding so much laughter, a lot of humor and love to people. So I admire what you do. So I felt like it's a good team. And I saw the email of Lena in 2014. She had sent me. Will you do my music? And then she was directing it. Yeah. So it's all a whole circle coming. Yeah. Lena Connor, our incredible director reached out to you, you know, over a decade ago. She's been a fan and been passionate about your music I've to see for such a long time. Look for us as the creative team behind the film. I've felt this way as a fan of your entire catalog. I feel like your name needs to be added to the catalog of what is called the American musical or the musical just as a genre. You have Chicago. You have rent. You have Hamilton. The list goes on and on of the different types of musicals that have shaped people. Your entire catalog in four decades, one could argue that's all you've done. And your name should be added to that canon of what is possible within the American musical or the musical at large. And so what Latino music has done to the telenovela or what American or British composers have done for the musical. I feel like your name needs to be added to that. Yeah, I think amazing. I meant what Andrew imagined ambition was that he said you have to take the mantle of musical theater forward. I never understood what it was. So that's something that I'm trying back in Chennai and India to revive the musical theater thing experience and start from a fresh place rather than repeating what people had done before with today's technology, today's sensibilities and making something from India to the world. Yeah, well, I have a little surprise for you that we're going to show you. So I can't wait to show you that. But I want to finish, we're just going to do the rapid fires. Is that okay? So look, I have a surprise for you, but I wanted to do a musical rapid fire because, you know, AR, you're very chill. You're basically the human equivalent of the sunglasses emoji. But I wanted to do a quick, quick little music lightning. Be kind, be kind. Which of your songs are you the most sick of? Psycho. Like if you're walking through and you know, you know, you know, or a restaurant. My only thing is like, whenever I go and sit for a function, we have a band performing my songs. I said, oh, my God, here we go again. And sometimes they're surprised by the quality. Sometimes they're like, okay, I have to be kind. These little kids, they're trying the best. So that's, that's the moment which I always feel. But you know, do you ever give them notes, even if they're children? No, actually, in a way, it's flattering. And in a way, it's sometimes you feel like, oh, I had to go through this again. And, yeah. What is the last song that you heard that the first time you heard it, you immediately loved? The Ramos song, baby calm down. I was sitting in the lounge during COVID. Yeah. And I was hearing the stuff and the bass, just the bass and baby calm down. Yeah. Actually, spoke to me, I zoomed and we spoke to him to collaborate last year. That's amazing. What is a band or a musician that surprised you? How much you love them? Band of musicians, Michael Jackson. But you were surprised that you love Michael Jackson. I mean, Michael Jackson, you know, transcends. Is there a genre of music that you were shocked that you're like, oh, I'm really into this genre? Oh, like that. I think there's the, there's a song which happened last year. Shine on. Something. Who's the artist? You know, Jake, JVK, cool. Cool. Cool. I'm going to list off a series of musicians. You give me the Aramand Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down if you like them or you dislike them. Bad Bunny. I'm not listening to bad Bunny. Sorry. You haven't listened to Bad Bunny. You play me. I would have played you after Taylor Swift. Okay. Morgan Wallen. I'm like, I have to listen to him. Okay. He's a huge country artist. I'm going to play you some Morgan Wallen. Okay. Do you put any of your own songs on your Jim playlist? I never going to do a Jim. Okay. What is the most underrated instrument? Another sort of, what's that? Another sort of South Indian instrument played and made. manages. Oh beautiful. It's very loud like a trumpet. Yeah, but it plays, it just hits your heart. What is the most overrated instrument? For me, it's the saxophone. I just can't stand it. Maybe the players who we listen to, who we listen to. You know, when Lisa plays it on the Simpsons, I'm like, this is kind of overrated, this is stupid. I mean, it's a very expressive instrument, it depends on what you listen to. And actually recently on my scores, Gandhi talks, I've used three saxophons. Really? Yeah, I'll send you the please. You were in a super group with Mick Jagger, describe them in five words. Oh, describe them in five words. Definition of for rockstar. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Nicely done. As a musician, what lesson took you the longest to learn? I never forced myself ever. I always had this time to chill out. If I don't get anything, I'll just go, I don't work every day. I wait for that magic to come and I just go lock myself like nobody would know. Every asleep or it's early morning or late night. My lesson, which I actually would learn is like to not be limited by what people define you. People define you and they'd gaslight you into making you believe what you are, but you should go beyond that. Something I think about all the time, especially in comedy and I feel like comedy comedians were cousins or were family members with musicians, very close to types of art form that it is. It's a very raw art form. It's a very pure art form. It starts from within. Oftentimes in comedy or in showbiz, they define you by what you've done. Yeah. And I get asked about what I've done a lot, but people don't ask me what I'm trying to say. Yeah. And I think that's what I'm trying to articulate in every project. Here's what I'm trying to say. As you enter this era of your career, what are you trying to say? Everybody, every good soul or trying to be a good soul, we all want peace. We all want to make other people's life better. Life's better because due to politics and due to power, the every move people are doing is to divide people. They don't understand that. We are one human body and we can't just cut away a hand or a leg or, you know, cut away ear or nose or mouth or a tongue. We need everything functioning for us to be a human, you know, breed. And whatever we can do to get that message into people to if you see somebody or smiling, God is going to smile at you. Right. If you make somebody smile, they're going to smile. So this is the formula which I feel like my life's mission, my school's mission, my kids and my friends. We believe this. Obviously philanthropy is such a huge part of your work. Tell me more about the ARR foundation and the work that you guys are doing. The foundation started like back in 2006 and now expanded to the US too. Yeah. And they just see what how we can create leaders in music or in art where, you know, once you create these leaders and they they find things where they're going to get jobs and they change the society for the good. And it's starting in India where we train people to become shrink layers and, you know, musicians, composers, singers and all that stuff. Now we're going to theatre, we're going into technology AI and everything. How many schools is it now? So I have one in Chennai, one in Mumbai, one in Nagaland. And then now we're expanding to the US. US is slowly coming up to the foundation. It's called the ARR Genius Foundation and we're hoping to make a difference through education, not just Indians alone, but, you know, main. What are you teaching them and what are they teaching you? I don't think that I'm teaching anything. I just wanted my being as to be reflective of what I'm made of. You know, we're all made of the light of God. Can you just remove all the screens and make that brighter, you know, within your heart, then you intellect and not hide it? It's really beautiful. Aero, man. Thank you so much. Hey folks, you can now watch HMDK on Spotify. If you're subscribed to Spotify Premium, you don't get any Spotify ads on my video.