I'm always up for some spice in my career: Raftaar

Rapper-lyricist-composer Raftaar says music is his life but he likes to spice it up by doing TV shows and more.

He has been a celebrity guest on various TV shows and was also a gang leader of "MTV Roadies".

"I am always up for some spice in my career. Music is life but these things make life interesting. I am not aiming to get into anything but if the calling is right then I will jump on that horse," Raftaar told IANS.

The artiste, who joined the music industry in 2009, has now focussed his energy to promote his solo album "Zero to Infinity". What took him so long?

"It was never difficult to release an album. The thought of releasing one in the era of singles is what took time. Gladly Zee Music became my home turf and pushed me to release one.

"In fact, I have two more planned with them as per the deal and with level of comfort and freedom I have, I probably might stay."

From "Sare karo dab" (hip-hop) to "Baby marvake maanegi" (commercial dancehall) to "Gaddi (Punjabi ballad), the album has a lot of different sounds.

"Every song has my element of rap in it. Most of the album has been composed and produced by me. The guest music producers are Blackout and Deep Kalsi," said Raftaar.

The name of the project was decided even before he had the support and money to put an album out.

"The songs kept changing. I still have a lot of songs that didn't make it to the album as they kept going out as singles on different projects. All the guest artistes I have on the album are like family to me," he said.

He will also head out for a tour next month.

On maintaining a balance between Bollywood and non-film songs, the artiste, known for Bollywood hits like "Dhaakad" and "Toh dishoom", said: "I don't need to. I feel like I need to do more as I have a lot of ideas just running inside my brain."

Did he ever put a non-film song on hold for Bollywood?

"Never have. Never will," he said.

--IANS

nn/mr