Strings of success

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Anupam Roy

Anupam Roy talks about his rise and rise in the music world.

A real lover of the 33-year-old singer-songwriter-composer Anupam Roy’s music, is always careful to take it for exactly what it is — a product brimming with melodic freshness and charm, exquisite in design and perfect in craftsmanship.The gold-medallist electronic engineer shot to fame with “Aamakey amarmoto thaktey dao” (composed and sung by him) and “Bechethakar ei Gaan” sung by Rupam Islam in the Bengali hit film “Autograph”.

A tremendous fan-following resulted from his numbers in films “Hemlock Society” and Srijit Mukherji’s “Chatushkonehas acted in films and theatre, regularly contributes to the Bangla publication “Ebela”, written and directed short films, authored four Bengali books of songs, poems and essays, released consecutively from 2012 for four years at the Kolkata Book Fair.

The crowning glory was his music direction and singing in the film “Piku” through which he has reached Hindi film industry. Post his performance in Kolkata’s Tollygunge Club, the singer took some questions.

Tell us about your music training

I learned tabla for three years when in school, then started picking up the basics of the acoustic guitar when in college. I did some voice training. Since early 2013, I have been learning from Prattyush Banerjee. I do my ‘riyaaz’ regularly. Listening to music has been my main training.

The guitar seems to be an indispensible part of you....

I compose melodies in my head and then interpret them musically with my guitar and keep them recorded. The guitar helps me to build unique chord structures on simple melodies.

Did your first hit come as a surprise to you?

I was always a wannabe ‘singer-songwriter’ but nothing was happening. I was trying for albums. I was too afraid to quit my job for nothing. But my friends kept on encouraging me. I kept on writing songs. My first hit was probably my 150th song. I was 27 when I wrote it. I felt people will love it but it was more than that. It changed my life!

Your number ‘Amakey amar moto”, took you to the top…

I was not even sure if anyone would ever listen to it. It is an honest song. I was going through something when I wrote that song. I feel that’s how a songwriter connects with the people.

“Bechethakar gaan” and others of this genre’e have a special literary style. What would you call it?

An artist is usually responsible only for the creation of a particular art. It’s up to the critics to label it. It’s just another honest song

to me.

You use alliteration and repetition of words like ‘na, na, na, na’ and ‘jani, jani’ which adds intensity and musical flourish to the composition

“Na na na” is just a melody without lyrics. This portion of “Amake amar moto thakteydao” was conceived on stage while rehearsing. This was not there in the original composition. “Ami ami jani jani” was a part of a vocal lesson I was practising in my Bangalore house. It goes like this “sa re sa re, re sa re sa” - I got bored and put some lyrics on it so that it sounds like a song. Later I used that melody while making that song.

Your love songs are subtle and tender. Are they written for your love?

Well, not all but a majority of my songs are on her. She is my perfect muse. There are other songs written about other girls too! Love plays an important inspiration for me to write and to compose.

You are also a successful author but what is your first love?

Writing and music – both. I don’t have a target. A poet, a writer and a singer-songwriter. This is how I would like to be known as.

How did “Piku” happen?

Piku is another magic moment for me. One fine morning Shoojitda called me and told me about the project. I was soon roped in. Shoojitda and his team were mind blowing. There was so much independence. “Bezubaan” is my favourite song.

Would you leave your loving Kolkata for Bollywood?

Maybe…I don’t know definitely. It’s for time to tell.