Music happens. It cannot be made.
— Ilaiyaraaja
I had difficulty in grasping how music was made for films. It was a huge learning curve and the toughest phase of my life.
Can someone do music for 24 hours at a stretch and never get tired? It's me. Because I don't 'work'. I enjoy what am doing. It's not like a regular job.
The performance of a music director should be judged in a holistic manner, which includes songs as well as background score.
Music is not a subject to be discussed. It has to be experienced.
Music is nothing but sound, and there is no place for value judgement among various sounds.
Western, jazz, folk, or tribal music, whatever the form, they all have the same sapta swaras as the basis.
The challenge for a good musician is to bring out compositions that seem fresh to the listener, even if the listener has heard the song or the composition before.
When you see the ocean and the infinite, it empties your mind.
A director should concentrate on his storyline and his characters.
I truly believe that music or art, in general, is the only thing that can unify a world that is plagued by war and violence, and I believe that it should be taken to more people.
To me, music is more like a spiritual seeking that takes one to unknown levels.
Composing is an emotional thing.
Only I hold the right to all my songs.
Genuine music, to me, is the one which has no purpose. It should be as natural and as purposeless as the flow of the river.
My music is religion, and my religion is music. They are one.
Good music is made with the help of many musicians who express their joy in the swaras.
For me, my music is part of me, and which is why it seems second nature, and my compositions are instinctive.
Isn't composing music akin to film direction?
Art is a unifying language for all of us from across the world, and it transcends boundaries.
People forget themselves in my music. It's amazing.
Till 2010, there was one national award for Best Music Direction. I have received it thrice - for 'Sagara Sangamam,' 'Sindhu Bhairavi,' and 'Rudraveena.'
No saint in the world lived like the great saint Ramana Maharishi. They say Jesus Christ was resurrected and rose again from the dead. But there's no proof of it. Ramana Maharishi is the only Mahan who has resurrected in life, and that, too, at the age of 16.
My commercial viability, coupled with my reputation, gives me enough freedom to assert my right as a composer.
Music and religion keep me young.
For musical compositions to reach a high level and to derive from spontaneity, of course, one has to do the necessary steps to learn the rules and regulations of composing high quality music.
I always felt music to be universal and undifferentiated - Western classical, folk, Carnatic or Hindustani and so on.
My practice is to take a sheet, write the song number in the left side, name of the production, and time of recording. Only when I have to fill the name of the singer do we look out to see who is free. When the singers we want aren't there, I end up singing it! That's how I became a singer.
