Let’s talk about You!

Armaan Malik makes a transition to an English pop music career appear seamless And yet several unsuccessful attempts by artistes before him suggest otherwise As he discusses ldquoreturning homerdquo to the genre of love ballads with You mdash his latest lilting pop rendition mdash he opens up on how his seemingly overnight success as an English singer was a ldquomaster planrdquo a decade in the makingEdited excerpts from the interviewHow did the concept of creating a love song in Paris in the middle of a pandemic come aboutYou has been with me since two years It was recorded and produced around the time I had released my debut English track Control Recently I was in Paris for a show and decided that since I was in such a beautiful place I should record a song The entire team thought that since You was ready and we were in Paris the love capital it was a nobrainer that we should film it there The whole thing was conceptualised and shot in 48 hours even though it may not look like it has As soon as I came back we saw cases rise again I feel God was looking out for me I managed to go there shoot and come back with such a beautiful product Also when I began my English music career I did so in a different zone when pitted against what I was doing in Bollywood People didnrsquot relate to me People know me as this romantic singer who has his way around ballads So with You I felt like I was coming homeThere is only a small chunk of your major fan base in India that also consumes English music As a singer with a fine business acumen who is your target audience thenI am an Indian singer with a body of work in Bollywood and in the Telugu Tamil and Kannada industries The ability to do what I did in that market came from the push that I got from here I am a mainstream artiste trying to make it internationally My ultimate goal is to develop and create a global audience For them I am a new artiste Some of them could be NRIs who know me through my Bollywood work and are now discovering me with my English music I hope they say lsquoWow he can sing Bol do na zara and something like a Control toorsquo I am a multilingual singer I canrsquot stop singing in all these amazing languages that I know India is a very big market for international music labels Just the way Korearsquos music exploded across the globe with Kpop I think it is Indiarsquos time This changes how Indians have been perceived so far mdash which is a country that primarily consumes Bollywood music I want to make a dent in the international sceneSurely that has to do with the entire packaging of the product that you put out When Control released it didnrsquot seem like the work of a deacutebutante but one with experience in that marketThatrsquos because this was my master plan Not too many people know this but my English career journey was in the making for about a decade It may look like its just the beginning but I have dreamt this dream over and over again as a child Releasing Control was a mammoth task for me A lot of Indians release English songs but to do so with the aim of creating that impact is not easy Which is why I went to Los Angeles and spent time with people to learn the kind of songs that people write I spent time in New York understanding the industry I knew that if I wanted to make a dent in the industry I need to understand it first Also while I went about my work in Bollywood I would silently practice singing in English as well I have 100 demos of English songs in my laptop only four of which have released into the world Every artiste needs to keep hustling I had this dream at 15 It was realised at 24The reception to your Hindi songs was testimony that you were on the right path But how did you judge yourself as an English singer when you had no one to guide youItrsquos not easy to sing in English the way I do People say Indians donrsquot sing in English correctly because it is not polished But Irsquove consumed it since I was nine It is as engrained in me as Hindi ragas Just as much as Irsquove listened to Mohammed Rafi sarsquoab I have heard John Mayer and Bruno Mars Itrsquos part of my DNA Itrsquos been a silent journey and now people are seeing the results I didnrsquot have anyone to brief me Vocally a lot of the training was selftaught But the knowledge of being in the right direction came from the reception I got from an acclaimed music label head who wanted to sign me That came as a seal of approval