‘I want my songs to have a strong recall value’
He picked up the guitar when he was a four-yearold, and now 24 years later, Varun Ahuja doesn’t feel he could have done anything “else” other than pursuing music. The 28-year-old Delhibased musician, has played at more than 2,000 concerts, and has finally decided to record songs on his own.
His latest single is with popular singer-songwriter — Lucky Ali. Titled Alvida, the song, which released this month, is a dedication to the people in Kashmir.
“We decided that the song has a lot of hope, and the only way it sorts of resonates is that people there need that. That’s how the song personally resonated with me. Obviously, it wasn’t written with that intention, but after producing it, we decided we will dedicate it to the people of Kashmir,” says Varun. The song will also feature in the upcoming film, Mere Pass Baap Hai, which is directed by Faisal Simon, who incidentally has also written the song.
Before Alvida, he had released only one single, Aye Subah, and prior to that, Varun was busy collaborating with different musicians and bands, when he decided to pursue a career in music composing, independently. “In 2001, I started with the Delhi-based band Cyanide, and after that I went completely opposite, and joined Aryans (the group has songs such as Aankhone Mein, Yeh Hawa Kehti Hai Kya). I did many shows with them. After leaving them, I performed with a variety of artists including Farhan Saeed from Jal. But during 2015-2016, I sort of decided to pursue it individually, make my own music and then collaborate with other artists,” he says.
Varun can play a variety of instruments, including guitars, percussion and piano, but he doesn’t want to fall in the trappings that “current music composers” have succumbed to. “Today, everyone wants a hit song, and musicians have to abide by a five-song-everyday kind of clause, where they are forced to create tunes [back to back],” he says.
Explaining it better, the musician says, “It took me two years to create Alvida, because we wanted to keep on experimenting with the sound. So, you will notice that it’s sort of a conversation between Lucky Ali’s vocals and my guitars. That’s the idea... to keep on experimenting with the sound, so that people remember that song for the next 50 years, not for the next two weeks,” he says.