Adnan Sami doesn’t mince words. The singer-composer is not too happy with the lack of creativity in the music scene worldwide and why he is only driven by passion.

When your single Alvida had released a few months ago, you had said that this heralds the beginning of Adnan Sami 2.0? What is your 2.0 version all about?

I think that for the longevity of any artiste, it is imperative to keep reinventing yourself. To just find new avenues to get into and in a way to reinvent themselves. Stagnancy is death for an artiste. As a person, I keep evolving, like we all do in our own respective ways, and it’s important for me to express that, you know. And that’s where the approach to this particular single came from.

I am not the kind of person who, by nature, is somebody who likes to rest. I have done a great list of things in my career, but I like to move on. For any person, especially an artiste, it is very important, is that you should not become defined by your success.

When that happens, you can fall into a trap where you start analysing your success and say: ‘Okay, what is it that made it work? Let me just keep doing that.’ What worked at that point in time seems fresh at that time. People liked it, but they won’t keep liking the same thing always.Forget about people, even I won’t like it. It’s very important for me to keep moving on and trying new things in order to keep the excitement alive for myself as well.

Your independent career apart, is the industry now more receptive to artistes undergoing an evolution or reinventing themselves or breaking free of a certain formula?

Can I be a little blunt with this answer? The world over, not just here, the industry has somewhere lost its voice. Everybody’s gone into a zone where they just want to be infinitely safe. The level of guts that used to be prevalent in the artistic industry the world over is just not there anymore. The reason behind that is that earlier, the industry used to be pretty much handled by people who were artistes. Now it has mostly become corporate with the mentality where they look at music, or even cinema for that matter, as a product. Come on, it’s not a product... it’s a piece of art.

There is a difference between making music and trying to sell a soap where you think the fragrance is working and so just keep producing it. Did Francis Ford Coppola, after the success of (The) Godfather, suddenly decide: ‘ I am only going to make gangster movies because it works for me?’ No, he didn’t do that. Same with (Steven) Spielberg. Look at his body of work... Lincoln and Munich on one hand, and Jurassic Park on the other. As an artiste, you need to keep experimenting.

But the quality of the majority of the music in cinema being churned out has gone down. Most of them are anyway rehashed remakes. A lot of the time, the music director or the singer gets the flak for it, but it’s not their fault. No one becomes a composer with the agenda that they will only do remakes. Everybody wants to come into the business to create their own mark, to have their own identity and their own brand. But they get pushed into that (remakes). By those who tell them: ‘No, no, this is safe. We know that this song is a success, and so we don’t have to work hard to make it a success because it’s already got a history of success.’

You mean the music companies?

The non-creative person, who has control over money, is telling the creative person: ‘No, I want this because I know this is safe.’ You need to stay out of each other’s domain. You need to do what you do best. There was a time when everyone knew exactly what their department was and they were hired because of the fact that their ability was respected. Now it’s not like that.

Is that one of the major reasons why we get to hear less of you in Bollywood both as composer and singer?

Partially, yes. I have been in the business for 26 years... my first album came out when I was barely 18. From that point to now, you will find that I have not ever been, for lack of a better word, a ‘factory spinner’. I have done a limited amount of work. But don’t get me wrong here... those people who are able to do tremendous quantity and also deliver great stuff, my hats off to them. But some people can, some people can’t. I’m one of those people who does things a little slower. I am a Leo, so that sort of automatically brings laziness into the mix.

So I am going to have to change as far as I’m concerned also. But I have always been selective in what I do, primarily because I am the kind of person who is driven by passion. And unless I actually genuinely feel it in my bones, I cannot do it.

I am not able to just create music for the sake of creating music. If I don’t genuinely feel within my inner being for a particular song or melody or subject, I disconnect. And if I cannot do justice, I will prefer not to do it. For better or for worse, that’s why I have always taken my time and I have never been driven by money.

So maybe that’s why in comparison, I have not done that many things. But whatever I’ve done, I have done it with a tremendous amount of passion. And when you do something with passion, it radiates and goes through. Whether it’s cinema or whether it’s music, ultimately your legacy will comprise a handful of things.

How has your process and approach, both as a singer and composer, changed, if at all, over the last decade or so?

The basics always remain the same. But as you go along, you just become a little bit more self-aware. And, therefore, you are able to analyse a lot of things that in the past you never really paid attention to. That is a process that happens with time. You learn to smell more flowers on the way and become more aware of the journey.

Are there any Indian musicians from this generation whose work you like?

Arijit (Singh)...I am very fond of him. He’s a very good singer and he’s very well trained. I like his versatility... you put him in a ballad, he scores beautifully. If you put him in a dance number, he does very well. You put him in a classical situation and he aces it. He’s a very well-rounded singer.

Anyone in the independent music scene?

Today, there is a very thin line between independent music and otherwise... everybody’s doing a little bit of everything. For me, music is music. Both require the same seven notes. It’s just the platform that changes.

What’s the way forward for you?

I have a lot of ideas that I want to fulfil musically and creative things that I want to put into motion. I always like change. If you look at my career... I started off as a pianist, then became a composer. From that, I suddenly went into films. I was never planning to be a singer. I went into independent music, and then I went to France, and then from there, I suddenly moved to India. So I am the kind of person who always wants to try new things and explore my creativity. I like being challenged.