I felt I’m failing the composer in me by singing the songs I compose: Amaal
Amaal Mallik prefers to be known as a composersinger, the former being more important. Since his debut as a music composer with Jai Ho (2014), he has decidedly sung less, despite having chartbusters such as Aashiq Surrender Hua (Badrinath Ki Dulhania) and The Goggle Song (Mubarakan, both 2017) to his credit.
“It’s beautiful how a song chooses the singer. When you compose something, while you’re making it and the lyrics are coming through, all those things help in choosing the right singer. There are times composers get too attached to a song and really want to sing it,” he continues, “If my voice is isn’t helping a composition reach or elevate to a level a seasoned singer can, I don’t sing, which is most of the times. My compositions sound very simple, hummable to listeners, but they have a lot of intricacies. In recent times, Armaan (Malik, his brother, singer) and Arijit (Singh, singer) have managed to extract that.”
His latest track as a singer is Parinda from Saina, for which he’s also composed all songs and background score. Mallik, however, isn’t hell bent on singing every song he composes: “Many times, I’ve felt I’m failing the composer in me by singing the song, so I never push. In fact, I wanted Udit Narayan sir to sing Aashiq Surrender Hua. Amaal-ians (as his fans call themselves) want to hear my voice, so I do it as a gift to them from time to time. I’m more excited as a composer.”
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If my voice is damaging the composition, I don’t sing. AMAAL MALLIK,
Composer-singer