Your new song Love, Pray, Hope - before we go into any
background, just talk about the song as such for a bit, the composition,
musical influences, arrangement and the like?
So,
all of this started with being in isolation and not having to go anywhere.
A thought came up to my mind about how I could write a song that could
spread some love and energy across the world. So I began writing some
lyrics for the song but it wasn't turning out as I expected. So I happened
to speak to a friend of mine, Shaharukh Irani, who agreed to
help me out with it and surprised me with some amazing lyrics that had a
lovely message for the world. It got me inspired to immediately get on to
composing the song. My aim was to create a melody that was simple but
catchy, something that could run in your mind even after the song was over,
and I guess I achieved that since most of the artists found it quiet
memorable when they heard it the first time. I was always fascinated with
what Michael Jackson did for We are the World when he brought
all the artists from across the world together for a purpose, and I always
wanted to do something similar. So I decided to speak to some of the
artists who I've already worked with in the past, and most of them really
loved this idea of coming together to put this song across to the world.
From
an arrangement point of view, I wanted to make this song very
inspirational and grand. I didn't want to just stick to a very basic and
common arrangement of piano, guitar, bass and drums. So I decided to add
some orchestral instruments to the arrangement to add richness to the song,
so I brought in some very amazing french horn, cello, flute and viola players
to collaborate from all different parts of the world on this project.
Now what
actually inspired you to write Love, Pray, Hope? It
was just a spark that came into my idle mind. I wanted to use my time
wisely and put something out to the world. Of course, I've grown up
listening to the king of pop Michael Jackson and loved his concept of
bringing art from all across the world together and putting out an amazing
song for a higher purpose. Love,
Pray, Hope is a big international collaboration project - so do talk
about your Global All-Stars for a bit, and how did you get them to
do the song? I
have had the honor to work with my friend Amanda Cole in the past, who has
shared the stage with Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston back then. So my
first call went out to her, and I shared this idea with her. And the moment
I knew she was up for it, I just jumped into planning and thinking
seriously with this whole concept. I began contacting some of my friends
who are internationally known for their songs, and they all seemed really
excited to be a part of this collaboration. So far, I already had 4 to 5
artists on board. Some were singers, while some were instrumentalists. So
the first step began with Elena Moreno (from Spain) helping me out record
a cue track with her amazingly sweet voice which would be used as a
reference file for all the artists to record their parts on. So the first
instrument to be recorded was the bass guitar played by Anne Reburn from
California. While the track was sent to Kristens Kupcs to record the acoustic and
electric guitar, I stumbled upon some lush and vibrant
french horn parts recorded by Marc Papeghin from France. This was the
turning point for the song when it started sounding more like the Disney songs than just a regular
pop song. This brought me to the idea of
bringing in some cellos, flutes and violas to support the french horn and
add emotion and expression to the song. And finally with all the
instruments coming in, it was finally sent to Amanda Cole to add her
powerful voice to the song. Love, Pray, Hope was entirely
recorded by all performers under quarantine - so what are the challenges
of creating a song that way? Being
in Isolation, I had no access to any of my studio gear all the time. Not
that I wouldn't be going to the studio, but only if it was necessary. So
the only thing I had with me was a piano where I composed the entire song
and a Mac Book Pro with Garage Band to hear and put all the parts
together. It was quite a challenge to work on Garage Band after working on
pro tools at my studio for so many years. The other challenge was to
constantly communicate and hold meetings with all the artists, sharing
ideas, constantly providing them with various mixes that would be
comfortable for each one to record on. The $64-question of course: When and where
will Love, Pray, Hope be released?
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This
song will be released worldwide on all social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and more. Every single artist on this
project has millions of fan followers, so the song will also be posted on
their respective pages and social media handles. So please do make sure to
keep an eye out for all these artists and posts from me to know about its
release which is scheduled for next week around April 27th. Nobody knows
exactly when the lockdown might end - so if this goes on a bit, will you
record more songs with international performers the way you did Love,
Pray, Hope? And/or any other future projects you'd like to share?
As
of now, haven't yet thought of making more songs, but depending on the response we get from the first one,
we shall consider thinking about some
more.
Thanks
for the interview!
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