MUMBAI: After a successful album ‘Sound of Sophie’, DJ and singer Sophie Choudry went on a hiatus to attend acting and singing workshops, working on her live performances. But the passion for music brought the songstress back to the limelight as she launched her new single recently.
Her new single ‘Hungama Ho Gaya’, has her collaborating with producer John E Stewart. The single took nine months to produce with Choudry changing the lyrics and parts of the melody to give a fresh sound.
In between promoting her single, which is available on SaReGaMa’s digital platform, Choudry gives Radioandmusic.com’s Zuala Chhangte the low-down on her life, her work and Bollywood dreams.
Excerpts:
As a multi-talented person, what took you so long to come out with a song?
I have been extremely busy traveling, doing lots of live stage shows which is what I love. I have also started shooting for a new film and above all I just needed to take a step back and figure some things out. More importantly, after my last album Sound of Sophie, I realized how tough it was getting for non-film music to get a platform. My album hit the number 1 spot in the charts but in terms of visibility on TV and radio, it was disappointing because everyone has clearly become Bollywood obsessed.
I miss the days of seeing film songs, Euphoria, Shaan and Dalerji all on the same channel. I was chatting with Vishal-Shekhar about this and they suggested I should do a remix since my songs like ‘Ek Pardesi’ and ‘Mera Babu Chail Chabila’ have been chart-busters. They connected me with the amazing producer arranger John E Stewart and it took us a couple of months to work on ‘Hungama Ho Gaya’.
Why did you release just a single instead of an album?
I decided to do just a single to see how it would fare. SaReGaMa loved the song so much that they agreed to go this route. I didn’t think it would take nine months of work on one song from start to finish but it did.
Club & Electronic Dance Music (EDM) seems to be the ‘best’ way to debut in the music industry. Comment
I remember Bhushan Kumar of T-Series once telling me, ‘Audience ko ya toh rulao ya nachao’, and that has stayed with me. People like to see me dancing and I like to make them dance to my tunes. It’s pretty awesome how big EDM has become in the urban Indian culture but the masses still relate to Bollywood style music.
How important are lyrics to you?
I have always written my songs. In fact when I was 17 and debuted with my girl band, I had written the lyrics of the entire album including our hit singles ‘Yeh Dil Sun Raha Hai’ and ‘Habibi’. Even in my first solo album ‘Le Le Mera Dil’, the lyrics were written by me and the same goes for almost all the songs in my album Sound Of Sophie. Even all my remixes have had fresh words in them.
How was your experience singing for Preity Zinta’s ‘Ishq in Paris’?
That was just great fun. I adore Preity Zinta and everything she stands for. She’s a friend and knew I spoke French, but I think it only hit home when she saw me conversing with the French Consul general and Isabelle Adjani at her Ishq In Paris party. She rang me the next day wanting help with the track. The song ‘It’s all about tonight’ was already recorded, Sunidhi Chauhan’s vocals were on it, and it sounded cool.
Sajid-Wajid did a great job with the music already, but Preity wanted an international feel. I suggested writing French lyrics and they all loved the idea. The next thing I knew, we were in the studio creating magic.
Actress Priyanka Chopra has also launched her single internationally. How is SaReGaMa planning to promote your single?
Priyanka’s deal is an international deal for an album but even she knows her Indian fans are crucial to her success which is why she gave them a sneak peak of her song first. She is truly blessed to get the opportunity she is getting and I wish her well. Trust me; every single singer must be envious of her right now after all who wouldn’t want to work with Jimmy Lovine? My song is purely for desis all over the world. It’s a commercial, massy song released almost 6 days ago and I’m already getting reactions from DJs in South Africa, Canada, America and Australia.
What do you think of the contemporary music scene in India today? Do you think it lacks ‘depth’?
Absolutely not. India is the most diversely incredible country when it comes to music. We have everyone from Pentagram to Raghu Dixit, Pandit Jasraj to Shubha Mudgal, Sonu Nigam to AR Rahman. How can we say our music scene lacks depth? It’s just that all the money goes into Bollywood and yes, most people feel that compared to yesteryear’s melodies, today’s music is frivolous. I think it’s just that life moves so much faster now that people constantly want new things to hear making it pretty tough for the composers too.
What are your upcoming bollywood projects?
I’m already shooting for a film and hoping to start another one very soon. I think a lot of directors thought I wasn’t interested in films. That’s not the case at all. I just wanted interesting roles in interesting set-ups. I’m hoping that the video of Hungama Ho Gaya has made a lot of people take notice of me again. It’s been so encouraging to get text messages from people like Raju Hirani and Anuvab Sinha since I have produced the video myself. Sometimes you just need people to sit up and say ‘wow’.