Amit Trivedi feels 'alive' on stage, in studio

National Award-winning composer Amit Trivedi says he loves to spend time in a music studio and on stage - these are the places he "feels alive".

Amit, who is judging a music show titled "The Remix" for Amazon Prime Video, said he has to push himself for promotional activities.

"I think studio and stage are the places where I belong. These are the best places in the world for me. For the rest, I push myself. Whether it is a promotional activity, giving interviews, these are part of our profession. I only feel alive when I am performing on stage and making music in the studio," Amit told IANS here during the digital show's promotional activity.

Starting his Bollywood career with the 2008 film "Aamir", Amit went on to win the prestigious National Award for Best Music Direction for his second Hindi film "Dev.D".

While experimenting is important to bring change in film music, Amit believes that right marketing is equally required for setting a trend.

He also mentioned that, as a Bollywood composer, the fate of music depends on the success of the movie and, therefore, though his work in the film "Bombay Velvet" was appreciated by critics for bringing jazz music to Bollywood, the album could not gain commercial success.

"Yes, the music of 'Bombay Velvet' was way different from the rest of my work and that is why that needed some good marketing and special promotion. I think whenever we do anything experimental, we need a good marketing team to back the efforts... to set it as a trend. When it comes to film music, the fate of the album majorly depends on the fate of the film," Amit said.

"On the other hand, as a composer, we should also keep in mind that our experiment should be accessible for the common music listeners. For instance, in 'Bombay Velvet', I tried to Indianise those jazz compositions, but then, let's face it, the album was not well marketed because the film flopped," said the composer, who has also given music for films like "Aisha", "Ishaqzaade" and "Queen".

So, can only a musician market and position his music better than a corporate person?

Amit said: "No, see a marketing expert is the one who can sell anything and everything under the sun. As a music composer, though I will be able to explain music better, and would understand the pulse of my listeners well, I would not know how to sell it to the corporates. So, it is their job. Having said that, I do not analyse too much on failure because there is no formula."

"The Remix" is a unique music-based show that will give an opportunity to contestants to re-create old compositions. The spotlight will be on music producers, arrangers and singers. According to Amit, this is a great initiative.

"I doubt if common people would know who is arranging and playing the music between the lyrics. The fact is that we are all dancing to the beats along with the vocals. But who is playing the beat? Would we enjoy a dance number equally without the music and only with voice? The answer is no.

"Therefore, giving them equal respect is important, and this show is doing it," explained Amit.

"This will take Indian pop music to the next level and our talents will get much better exposure globally. This is big for budding talent."

The 10-episode show will start streaming on Amazon Prime Video from March 9.

(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)

--IANS

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