Best of both worlds: Sourav Roy

While composing and producing his new single, Cappuccino, Sourav Roy kept in mind that it should be played by every audience group — at a club, gym, or even on a drive. “When you hear the tune, you can’t exactly define its genre,” he points out. Right enough, the ditty sung by R Naaz, written by Kumar and starring Niti Taylor (Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan) with Abhishek Verma (Yeh Hai Mohabbatein), has found favour with millions of listeners, seven million, to be precise. “The best part is, it hasn’t got a negative comment yet!” the music producer and composer beams. Over to him...

THE BACKSTORY

I have been blessed to be born in a family with a rich musical background. My mom is a gold medallist in Ravindra Sangeet and my father is a tabla player. So, there was not a second in the house when I wasn’t surrounded by music. I was trained in Indian classical when I was very young. Then, I did a course in western classical from the Trinity College of London in Kolkata. I was more inclined towards electronic music. I then assisted a composer, did some arrangement work and got into music production. I moved to Mumbai about 10 years ago, found some connections here, and worked with people who trusted my work. 

RELEASES IN THE PAST

I started by assisting Raju Singh, who has done many background scores. London Thumakda (Queen, 2015) for Amit Trivedi was one of the first commercial songs that fetched me the GIMA trophy. Thereon, I started getting songs from Pritam, Vishal-Shekhar and many more. I’ve worked on Kar Gayi Chull (Kapoor & Sons, 2016), Hawayein (Jab Harry Met Sejal, 2017), Zalimaa (Raees, 2017) among many others. I’ve had to find my way but things have fallen into place.

A still from Cappuccino

TURNING COMPOSER

A composer gives a tune and the music producer gets to take a call on what beat to put, instruments and so on. It’s like five creative minds working together. I was also busy with production work until I did the background score for Banjo (2016). I then composed the theme of a leading television network’s Tamil channel. 

ALSO WORKING ON

I have singles and recreations as a composer in the pipeline. The great feedback to Cappuccino has given me a lot of confidence to create more. I’m pitching songs for movies also. But I don’t want to stop being a music producer because I enjoy doing both.