Versatility is Amit Trivedi’s middle name as the music director-singer can switch between genres effortlessly. His discography speaks for itself and diving into OSTs like Dev.D, Udaan, English Vinglish or Dear Zindagi will only make us miss mentioning countless other hits. The 43-year-old musician has a new offering in the form of a solo album, titled Jadu Salona, which has love as a connecting thread through six songs. It’s Trivedi at his finest and most romantic. Here’s what he has to say about the solo effort, the mixing process involving Spatial Audio (on Apple Music), and a love song he grew up on.
It seems like the album Jadu Salona has been in the works for some time.
I’ve been working on it for almost a year and I wanted to keep it simple. It’s not very out of the box or anything that will jump at you. It has a simple, beautiful love story. I wanted to tell a simple love story through simple songs and there are six of them.
You are constantly working on presenting the vision of film directors through music. When did you get the time to step back and find a plot that holds an album together?
I always enjoy doing something that has a structure and something that has an idea or a plot; I always enjoy working in that space since I’m a film composer and have always been doing that. Here the plot is a love story and personally I’m a big fan of romcom… love stories. We don’t make too much of it in India; I don’t know why. It’s a beautiful space, which one should explore. The last (romantic) film I remember is Sita Ramam and one or two other films. So I thought of exploring this genre because it’s my favourite. This plot of telling a love story through an album is really fascinating and exciting for me.
Recording a love album at age 25-30 and after one turns 40 (Amit Trivedi is now 43), is the approach different?
I made a love album called Dev.D (laughs). This is a very simple album. After 40, ek thaharav aata hai. At 25, the hormones are raging while after 40 you settle down and you see love from a very different angle. Your perspective towards romance, love and relationships changes; you settle down to a very different place in life. So I guess that is this album.
Listening to the songs on Apple Music with Spatial Audio is a unique experience. How did you go about mixing it?
The whole thing has been mixed with a 7.1 surround experience, which is Spatial Audio. And that is a brilliant experience. You’re talking of love and in Spatial Audio that surround experience of listening to a song with various elements, the arrangements, the instrumentation coming from all sides of the room… you never know what is coming from where and that hits you with a certain degree of excitement; there’s newness and it’s just beautiful. This is my second album that I’ve done with Spatial Audio and it’s very “special”.
While working with Spatial Audio do you work backwards; do you keep the end result in mind and then make the track?
It depends from genre to genre; depends on the sound that you’re dealing with. Of course, obviously everything can be placed in Spatial Audio. But this soundtrack, which has a wider spectrum in terms of elements, you have more scope when it is spread across the entire 7.1 surround. That’s a lot of fun, especially with the album Jadu Salona. There is a lot of scope to work on the technology. When somebody listens to it with the (Spatial) Audio experience, it’s next level… it’s such a next-level experience.
Coming back to the songs from Jadu Salona, we are living in divisive and difficult times. Do you think an album like this can bring people together through emotions, through love?
I would love to see that happen. Yes, of course. Love is the most powerful emotion in the world at the end of the day. It’s age-old and however clichéd… boring as it may sound but still — for thousands of years, even now and even the next 5,000 years — love was, is and will be the most powerful emotion in the world.
Did you get a chance to try out the new songs at concerts? Maybe you tried them out and then after the initial reaction, changed the tracks.
Yes, I did, of course. There was this Parx Music Fiesta that happened in Thane and I played Jadu Salona there. It was received beautifully there. A few days ago I was at BITS Pilani College and I played there. Once again, it was beautifully received there. Wherever I go from here on, I will play these songs and others. People are loving the songs even if they’re listening for the first time; they are accepting it. It’s a great sign.
What’s been the most favourite part of making the album?
I think creating songs, giving them a beautiful shape is always exciting and sometimes it surpasses expectations. When that happens, it makes you feel really good and that feeling is priceless. There are some songs, like Nirmohi and Dil Na Tod… the way these turned out have surpassed my expectations. It’s making me feel happy and beautiful.
George Benson, the man behind the song Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You
When I think of love songs, I keep going back to the Beatles and the Eagles. What kind of love songs did you grow up on?
Like you mentioned, the Eagles and the Beatles, we have all grown up on this music. There was this pop song, which used to play a lot in my school days and my friends used to go crazy over it. It’s called Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You (he sings a few bars).
The George Benson version or the one by Glenn Medeiros?
George Benson I think. Everybody was going crazy over this song. My friends at school, at the building… everywhere I went… it was a rage in the ’90s. That kind of had a very special impact on our generation.
It’s great to see that you have recorded an album where the songs are held together by the idea of love. Do you think the album format continues to live on despite all the talks of singles?
Yeah, definitely. It’s come back and people are wanting to do albums. Besides albums, how can an artiste best express his thoughts, his musicality and experiences? There’s so much that goes on in an artiste’s mind and he hones his skills for years. In one song you just cannot put it all across; you need to express yourself and that can happen over a number of songs.
Amit Trivedi with A.R. Rahman
What was the first album you bought with your money and you still cherish it?
I would say Thiruda Thiruda. Of course, before that I have had many other albums but AR sir (A.R. Rahman) blew my mind and my life. It was insanity to the next level and that album pushed me and inspired me to become what I am today. It’s the most amazing album I’ve ever heard in the Indian film context. It was the most daring, most ballsy stuff that I’ve ever heard. This was in 1992-93, like 30 years ago.
And it still sounds so good.
It’s timeless; ahead of its time. If you and I have a chat in 2052, this album will still be relevant.