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On the 8th April 2007, just before his gig in Hamburg
we had the pleasure to interview Desi RnB-Star Raghav.
Hi Raghav, how do you like Hamburg?
I love Hamburg, I love Germany. In fact my father studied in Germany
so I’ve been here a few times. My dad came from India to Aachen
and studied here for four years. So we come often coz he’s got
a lot of friends here. We go to Aachen. So it's my first time in Hamburg
and it was my first time in Berlin a couple of days ago. I’ve
been to Frankfurt before and Aachen but I love Germany.
Could you introduce yourself to our users.
How and where have you been brought up and when did you discover your
interest in music?
Well I was brought up in Canada. I grew up in Calgary. One
of the Calgary flame. And I discovered my love for music at the age
of four. My parents told me that I discovered it earlier but I think
I just discovered it at the age of four.
And how did u come in contact with music?
My parents always played a lot of music. My mom particularly played
a lot of indian music in the car when we all were driving. And we
had one particual tape which got stuck in the deck and one particular
song kept playing over and over again and I kind of remembered it
from hearing it so often. When families came to visit my parents they
asked my parents... you know the indian question. “Oh what can
your son… Tumhara beta kya karta hai?” you know
it’s so much like you know nothing… Raghav is an idiot
he doesn’t know anything. So I ended up singing the song you
know and they were like oh well he's not as dumb as we thought.
How did your career started?
My career started because erm…probably because of a lack of
me to do anything else. So when it was time to go to university. I
decided that I had to do something in music and I studied for a year
in LA. Then I studied in England. I’ve met my current manager
and for three years we wrote much of songs no one liked. And then
eventually someone liked them and the songs has been released. And
hopefully you guys like them.
We have seen you in the videoclip of Stomp
with the Rishi Rich project, how did it came to this collaboration?
Yeah yeah with Jay… Everyone thinks we hate each other they.
And I don’t hate those guys at all. They said “Will you
be in the video so it shows that we don’t hate each other.”
And I said "sure, no problem". They did a good video, they
did a good job on that video and im glad they asked me to be part
of it.
Two years back you and Jay Sean have been
compared nearly on every Desi website… how is your relation
him? Do you see each-other as friends or more competitors?
We are acquaintances. We know each other we see each other. I saw
him in New York a couple of weeks ago and he is doing his own thing
and im doing my own thing. I think the competition it’ll be
natural in a sense because at the time we were the only two people
of asian origin in the charts. But in the way that was so exxagerating
in kind of wrong because you don’t see Usher competing against
Mario. It was kind of told to all asians. You can only have two guys
who are doing it in the chart on that level and they have to compete
with each other. I think it’s a nice healthy competitiveness
where you drive each other to do well and stuff. I wish him all the
success in the world. I hope he wishes me the same.
What is next coming up from you? What’s
the next single and is there an album on its way?
There is a single its called "My kind of girl" and I'm gonna
perform it tonight. The Album is coming at the end of the year for
sure but... how it works in England you have to release a couple of
singles so I got like 17 songs now for the album. So I will do a couple
of tracks tonight.
Will your album be comparable with 'Storyteller'
your last album?
It’ll be comparable because there are some songs which will
be a continuation of some of the songs from the last album. So you’ll
see the link but there is some stuff which is really different. "My
kind of girl" has a little bit of indian flavour to it but there
maybe some songs again totally in Hindi some songs totally in English.
It’ll just be who I am. It has all my friends on it. Iceberg
Slimm is gonna be back on the album. And that’s kinda really
important to me because we’ve been touring about for like last
two years and so that stuff…
Any releases planned for Germany?
Yeah I don’t know last time it was release or not?
Hmm no…
Didn’t released? Ahhh that p... me off. Why didn’t it??
I hope soo… lets hope its not up to me but lets hope so.
Is it true you are not anymore under contract
with A&R/V2?
Im no longer under contract with A&R. We stopped to put out the
album with V2 but its kinda unsure at the moment when and how it’s
gonna happen. So when Im just putting out a single... lets see whats
gonna happen. That’s why this business is quiet frustating obviously
coz you can't handle it… other people handle it for you and
you know theres a whole kind of mechanism in the industry which is
unfortunate but that’s why it's called the music business. But
I prefer just to concentrate on the music side of it.
Have you ever had any embarrassing moments
during a gig ?
Yeah… I fell down on stage once in Pakistan and broke my ankle.
In the first song. I was in Lahore.
Who is on your list for collaborations in
the future? Any names of desi artist or from the western mainstream?
There will be some people doing some stuff. There will be some rappers
working on that stuff in the states and I think theres a long list
of people I’d like to work with.
Any special one you want to work with the
most?
A.R. Rahman is the guy I’d like to work with the most!
What kind of music do you listen to at home?
Everything… I listen everything… from Country, Western
to Hip Hop …Classical Music to Bollywood so kinda Hindi Music
You said Bollywood, so you watch Bollywood
movies, too?
I watch them a lot yeah.
Do you have your favourite stars?
Obviously Amitabh Bachcnan, theres no one better than him. And I got
many favourite actresses. They all my favourite. But Shilpa Shetty
at the moment.
A very important question for your female
fans: Are you dating someone or single?
Im very very single at the moment. Normally im just kinda single but
now I'm very single to the point im almost lonely actually.
What’s your message for all Happyindia.de
users?
Isch liebe disch happyindia users and Dankeschön and Mercedes
Benz... that’s all I know in German
We really appreciate that you have taken
the time to answer our questions. Thank you a lot and we hope you
enjoy your stay in Germany. And good luck for your entire career!
We would also like to thank Sidra & Pakeeza for
the job. And a special Thanks goes to Vijesh G. and the whole Bollywood
Spirit team in Hamburg.
The questions have been asked
by Sidra & Pakeeza Jafri
08th April 2007
Hamburg, Germany
Online since 18th April 2007
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