31 May,2013 07:38 AM IST | | Deepali Dhingra
The singer, who came into the limelight after Phir Mohabbat, says that he tends to forget songs after he's done recording them. "But that didn't happen with Tum Hi Ho. It was stuck in my head. I knew it was a nice melody and it would touch people's hearts, but didn't think it would become such a hit," he told CS. In a light-hearted conversation, he talks about his singing style, being level-headed and how he left Mumbai only to come back prepared to take on the competition:
Preparation mode
There was time when nothing was happening for me in the music scene. This was post Fame Gurukul. That was a time when music directors were singing and it was a bad time even for big singers. There were better and experienced singers. I packed my bags and called Shankar Mahadevan to give me one work, so that I have enough money to buy my tickets and go home. He called me to sing a song for the album High School Musical. I was not frustrated or broken-hearted. I just wanted to give that phase some time and come back and try again.u00a0
My kind of songs
The kind of songs I'm singing, I think I'm attracting them for a reason. I'm in love with this style of singing. I believe that if you don't like it, it won't come to you. I'm happy that I have been getting opportunities to sing the kind of songs that I have always wanted to sing. As a child I used to idolise Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh and I got Phir Le Aaya Dil to sing. I sung a bit of R&B in Rabta.
I recently sang Dilliwali Girlfriend which is a complete dance number. Ilahi is a philosophical type of song, while Kabira is a Sufi song. I think God is the only manager who's been managing my career. I can't say that I can sing any kind of song. I will just have to accept that I can't sing in a certain way. If I can't sing it in the first try, I will try and improve myself. It's a learning process.
Singer and the star
Stardom is a different thing altogether. That place is very dangerous. Once a singer achieves that, he starts thinking that even he should look like a star. Other things like clothes and lifestyle comes into play. Then the entire concentration shifts from singing to all this. But if you're a technician, then you're the better guy because you're always creative. You have to have the concentration to make things right. My friends are all technicians and I'm myself a music producer. It's because of them that I'm like level-headed.u00a0
