Amaal Mallik: Many times, I felt I am failing the composer in me by singing the song I compose, so I never push

He prefers to be known as a composer-singer, the former being more important to Amaal Mallik. Over a span of seven years since he debuted as a music composer with Jai Ho (2014), he has decidedly sung less. Aashiq Surrender Hua (Badrinath Ki Dulhania), The Goggle Song (Mubarakan) are a few tracks he lent his voice to, and both became chartbusters.

Ask him what does a song have to have in order to make him croon, and Mallik says, “In the time that I’ve been composing, I’ve learnt one thing — 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 for it. There are times when composers may get too attached to a song, and they really want to sing it.”

Speaking for himself, however, the 29-year-old adds, “If my voice is damaging the composition, and isn’t helping it to 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 the listeners, but in a studio, they have a lot of intricacies, which in recent times Armaan (Malik, singer and his brother) and Arijit (Singh) have managed to extract.”

His latest track as a singer is Parinda for the film Saina, for which he has also composed all songs and background score. Mallik is candid enough to admit that he knows it when his voice doesn’t suit a song, which is why he isn’t hell bent on singing every song he composes.

He says, “Many times, I’ve felt I’m failing the composer in me by singing the song, so I never push. All the songs I’ve sung till now, other people said they’d like me to sing. Aashiq Surrender Hua, in fact, I wanted Udit Narayan sir to sing. I’m more excited as a composer. All 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 want to be known as a composer, it gives me more joy to be called composer-singer for sure.”