Indians need mithaas in music, rock is distortion for them, says Leslee Lewis

SPeople weren’t getting western music in 1980s, so I had to simplify it.

LESLEE LEWIS, Singer

inger Leslee Lewis grew up with Bollywood around him, as he likes to put it, but he admits he always wanted to dabble in western music, too. Recently, he came out with an English song, Entourage, in collaboration with rapper-singer Omar Gooding.

Leslee feels that a large section of people in India didn’t embrace western music back in the day. “Nobody got it in the ’80s, when I did it here. People said, ‘English mein samajh nahi aata, do lines ke aage kya gaa rahe ho, kya bol rahe ho’,” he recounts, adding, “I would listen to English and Hindi, both. My dad (late PL Raj) was a popular choreographer; he had worked in films such as Sholay (1975) and Don (1978). I grew up with Helen aunty and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. I wanted to do other things. People weren’t getting western music in 80s, so I had to simplify it.”

The 61-year-old, known for the hit number Yaaron and his debut album, Colonial Cousins, with Hariharan, believes that people in India prefer sweetness in music. “Indians need mithaas. Rock, for them, is distortion, something abrasive. By the time I got down to Aapki Dua in my album Pal, it was a sweet rock kind of thing,” says Lewis.

Talking about Entourage ,he says that he is “probably the only Indian” singing in Hollywood, in English. Lewis is happy that his music is being embraced across the world. “I have started my own label, which is all about global music in Hindi. I released a song in June called Chhoda Tune, which did well. It made to three playlists in India, Brazil and Argentina,” he says.