‘Playing a musician will come naturally'; Singer Armaan Malik hints at new possibilities

Sheetal

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It’s true that songs come out well if singers can relate to the emotion. But is it always required? For the talented singer, Armaan Malik, it’s more of a complementary thing. Here’s a hint—his latest single Barsaat for which he has collaborated with his father Daboo Malik for the first time.

I hate it when it rains. But that doesn’t stop me from singing rain-songs which I know most people can relate to. — Armaan Malik

The singer says, “I never liked the rain. In fact, I hate it when it rains. But that doesn’t stop me from singing rain-songs which I know most people can relate to. It’s true that when you relate to a particular element of a song, the feeling comes naturally. But otherwise, you can always plan and prepare a song and carefully examine how you want to sing it. You can call it method singing.”

As a playback singer the success that he has achieved is yet to sink in. He says, “It’s very important for singers to keep changing the texture and tone according to the actor and the character you are singing for. At the age of 20, when I had sung Main Rahoon, I had to sound mature because the song demanded that.”

He says his voice suits Tiger Shroff and Siddharth Malhotra whereas it’s challenging to sing for actors like Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar. “To match their on-screen stature with my voice is a challenging task,” he says.

He sung in various languages like Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam, Urdu, Gujarati, and Hindi and recently he sang English songs too. It put Armaan’s songs on Billboard’s Top Triller Global Chart, making him the first-ever artiste to have achieved this feat twice within one year.

Armaan says, “One needs to be exposed to all kinds of music to be able to sing in regional languages. I have been doing voiceovers and ad jingles since the age of eight.”

If forced to choose between film music and non-film songs, the singer would opt for the latter as he believes it would help him explore his artistic side. He is also open to acting in films. Armaan says, “Playing a musician on screen will come naturally. There are interesting ideas and stories out there and if something clicks, I would not mind trying out acting.”

One thing he would want to see in the Indian music industry is, “Reforms. In the West, things like rights, loyalties, copyrights have been dealt with, whereas in India we lack in this department. Many musicians don’t even know how much money their music is earning and where is it going.”

In the pipeline, Armaan says, there are a couple of singles, film songs and international collaborations.

Up, close and personal

What is Armaan for his friends?

What comes first to my mind is that they call me ‘the fault-finder’.

Do you take your fault-finding habit to your studio?

I am a perfectionist. I am always there till the end. I am at the edits, be it music or visuals. I make sure my antennas are up to find all the errors and correct them.

One thing that your father discovered about you during the making of Barsaat?

He was quite surprised at how good I am in the front of the camera. This is one thing that I have realised quite recently. It doesn’t look like I am forced to act. This song has made me a natural performer.

Two artistes on your playlist?

Ella Mai and Troye Sivan. You will find mostly English songs on my playlist.

Your take on trolls?

I keep it simple; I scroll the troll. I don’t take things to my head. I go through comments but do not take it seriously. A lot of people have free time to bring others down, so why give them importance?

Favourite Punjabi artistes?

Diljit Dosanjh, AP Dhillon, Jaani and B Praak.