Got the Groove

Amber Dias catches up with legendary musical trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy to find out what makes them tick.

- Amber Dias

Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendosna – three power packed performers who have a “wicked” way with music. Put them together and you have an unbeatable trio who, quite frankly, need no introduction...

JUMP START

But before they became icons, they were three musicians trying to find their groove in a very competitive industry. Shankar reveals that the trio started their journey composing jingles in the advertising industry. Ehsaan adds, “We also composed one song for the late Mukul Anand’s film ‘Dus’. Unfortunately, the movie did not get made because of Mukul’s demise but the music did release, and thus, we established our presence in the film industry. ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ then followed and that truly gave us an identity.” Loy concludes that they also had the advantage of not having the intention to do music for films, and that enabled them to be who they wanted to be and create a new sound.

MAKING MUSIC

Whether it’s the title track of ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ or memorable hits from films like ‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘Wake Up Sid’, ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, ‘Rock On’ and many, many more… what happens behind the magic?

Ehsaan reveals that it is a process of jamming, then choosing and eliminating ideas, and turning the good residue into a song...