Journeyman

Playback singer, songwriter and artiste Shaan says he likes to keep his shows simple. "They should be spontaneous and I allow the audience to guide me."

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For enterprising playback singer, songwriter and artiste Shaan, nothing beats being happy with where he is right now. “I do believe in destiny to an extent. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve got a bit of everything. I’ve been able to strike a balance and I can say I’m having a complete life.”

In Bangalore for a performance recently, Shaan says he likes to keep his shows simple. “They should be spontaneous and I allow the audience to guide me.”

With a long-drawn career as a singer, songwriter and having ticked hosting television shows and acting in movies off his bucket list, Shaan says there’s more to him. “There is still a lot I would like to do. I go with the flow. If tomorrow something interesting comes up, I’ll take it up. At the moment, the priority is composing.

I’ve formed a composing trio with Gourov Dasgupta and Roshan Balu called Superbia and we are composing music for soon-to-be released movies. There was a time when I was doing film songs and shows constantly. Now I have some time so I can sit back and figure out what’s next and try out different things. I will go anywhere I can test my skills.”

On his evolution as a musician, the artiste says he has had a transformation as a singer in the last four-five years when things got quieter.

“With more time on my hands, I am trying to better my range and sound tonally different. I am also getting into the details of composing and opening myself to different genres.

I still feel young like the guy who started off. So I don’t plan to hang up my boots any time soon,” he laughs. When asked to give a message to upcoming musicians, he turns a bit grim and says: “I honestly feel my opinions might be a little outdated because I really feel the new generation perceives music differently. Right now the kind of stuff that becomes a hit confuses me.

Music has become an extension of entertainment. I can’t figure it out myself so I don’t know if I should give advice.”

However, he returns to his cheerful self and says music is subjective. “At the end of the day, I’d like to think it’s easy now to get success and popularity.

But don’t let that be your objective. Let your feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment of achievement be your goal rather than success.

I was telling you about me feeling evolved earlier. That’s a great feeling. So do something that makes you feel evolved.”