BANGALORE: Mohammed Rafi’s cavernous voice boomed over the radio from the corner of a house in Calgary, Canada. A mother kept swinging as she cleaned the dishes. In the next room, Jamaican-american singer Harry Belafonte entertained her husband on stereo, while their teenage daughter nearly swooned dancing to Boy George’s Karma Chameleon. And somewhere along the hallway, Raghav Mathur found his sound.
A melting pot of genres – hip hop, R&B, Bollywood and even a bit of classical is what Raghav hoarded up as a result of his varied musical influences, and the man could not be more pleased that his Indian culture reflects strongly in the music he is industriously churning out in the Western world.
The Angel Eyes singer, who is currently on a Rayban Vh1 Global Music Xpress whirlwind tour in India, was in his full elements at Hard Rock Café, Bangalore.
Before the show is perhaps not the best time to catch up with an artiste. But the 28-year-old is a man of casual approach.
Unruffled, unassuming and animated, even after a series of interviews, the man seemed only too happy to talk. Music, fans and women, the man had a take on just about everything that keeps him going. Identity, his second studio album after Storyteller (that sold a whopping 1.5 million records) is his thank you gift to the Indian community that supported him so far, he told me, as he willingly added, “I was advised to release it in the US before I did in India. But I wondered why the Indian community that has been with me throughout should deserve it second. That’s why I’ve come to India with it.” “I never thought my album, Storyteller would have such huge sales. You don’t dwell on these things when you write songs,” he told me. And when Raghav writes, he is least anxious whether he strikes the right balance with his hip hop, R&B and Indian potion, but for him, songwriting is like painting on an empty canvas. “I just paint it with different colours,” he pointed out, as he added, “It’s actually storytelling that I do.” And his lyrics are undeniably drawn from his experiences, like his latest, My Kinda Girl, that was written after he met Angelina Jolie and also one of his earlier songs, Bad Bad Bad, that was about a girl he met.
“When I wrote that song, I had met someone who I was crazy about. That song is about her,” he noted.
He looks for inspiration everywhere. For his life and for his music. “My parents have unconditionally supported me. They are happy just to see me happy,” he said. And 10 years down the line, where does he see himself ? “Just a happy man,” he confessed.