Born in Pakistan, he was raised in the U.K., holds Canadian citizenship and climbed the charts of popularity in India. The well travelled Adnan Sami is an accomplished pianist, composer, actor and singer. With his beautiful voice and a mad interest in music, Adnan Sami says he listens to everything and anything that sounds good to his ears. Excerpts from an interview:
Being raised up in London, you had a close encounter with Western as well as Indian classical music. In this extensive journey what have you learnt and what you gained?
Singing Western and Indian classical music, has allowed me as a musician to create a sound of my own. It has allowed me to create a blend and balance between the two genres. This is the reason in one side of my music you can hear the guitar and on the other side one can also hear the tabla and dholak.
Who inspires you in the Whom do you inspire if we talk of Indian classical pantheon? How do you define your music?
I am most inspired by Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. He was the true person in Indian classical. Also Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma — he has also been my guru. I learnt Indian classical music from him.
I would call my music world music. My music is stretched from western to eastern, from Arabic to Russian. You cannot put a finger to define my music as one type. It is reflective of the kind of person I am as I have been to different parts of world.
Don’t you think you are the expert of romance, as Your albums are full of romance. it? Any particular reason behind your this connection with love and a bit of sadness?
(Laughs) I am a romantic at heart. Love is a beautiful subject to sing or write about as there is nothing more beautiful in this world than love. It is something which is very close to my heart, that’s why I really enjoy creating love songs. Love does create a bit of harshness. There is a time when love can hurt you and love can take you to a completely different world where you can float in the air. Where there is love there is an ecstasy and there is a bit of sadness.
You are said to be the fastest keyboard player and a born pianist.
To be very frank I never tried to become the fastest keyboard player in the world. This is something that happens by chance. I just used to play in the manner that I play. When people started to notice that “oh my god how can you play to this tempo,” that’s when I began to realise that, “oh ok… I am the fastest keyboard player in the world.” I sound great but it’s not something that I tried to do. The piano is the first instrument that I put my hands on. I started playing the piano when I was five years old. Piano is very much a part of my life. It is only my true passion. I decided to introduce piano as an Indian classical instrument. It’s never done before but it has always been part of Indian music.
Any particular album you are working on and any plans for Bollywood?
I am doing two movies and they will be coming next year; both would be commercial family entertainers... I am also working on my album and in January I am finally releasing it. It features Punjabi track and for the first time I have composed a Sufi song. It is a complete mixture of fun and party music with love and romantic songs also.
