http://www.aspisdrift.com/2008/09/clinton-cerejo-mehnat-behind-music.html
Clinton Cerejo pops up a lot on CDs where he's very visibly credited as a playback singer. But much happens between the first glimmer of a tune from a composer to the final cut that goes on a CD. And its in this area that Clinton has been steadily making a name for himself in the music biz. Clinton's worked on musical arrangements<http://musiced.about.com/od/famousmusicians1/p/arrangers.htm>, vocal arrangements <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_a_vocal_arranger_do>, background scores<http://passionforcinema.com/background-scores-in-hindi-movies/>and produced music <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_producer>. He has a unique style which multiple composers have tapped over the years to fuel their hits. Most recently Sajid-Wajid <http://sajidwajid.com/>, fast becoming hot shots in Bollywood music, had him work on the vocal arrangements for Partner<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAihL6tTrE0>. And we all remember those don't we? *First off, I'd like to ask you which projects you've worked on lately and in what capacity. Clinton: *One film that's not so recent but which I'm quite proud to have been a part of is Vishal Bhardwaj<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishal_Bharadwaj>'s "Omkara <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENDdJm1f6N8>", in which I programmed and produced along with Hitesh Sonik <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1249155/>(fabulous musician and great friend! ) all the songs in the film as well as the background score. Recently I've scored the soon to be released "Maharathi<http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/cast/13692/index.html>" along with another music director Mr. Rajat Dholakia<http://www.sudeepaudio.com/profiles.php?aid=164>who is like a musical mentor to me. I also work on a regular basis with quite a few other music directors like, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy<http://www.shankarehsaanloy.com/>, Lalit Pandit<http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/features/2007/03/02/2327/index.html>, Adnan Sami <http://www.adnansamionline.com/>, Pritam<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DQYKluYmos>, and AR Rahman <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp6wUe9gMrw>. *You once explained the role of a vocal and music arranger to me that was a revelation. Could you please educate our readers about that too? Clinton: *Well a music arranger is a much broader term. As an arranger it's my job to take a song through it's various stages of creation. A music director comes to me with just the melody...played on a guitar, piano, harmonium, whatever... Thereafter we sit together and ideate on things like the groove<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_%28popular_music%29>, tempo <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo>, vibe <http://definr.com/vibes>, genre <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_genre>, etc. After which I begin programming the track. Once I have an arrangement that's very close to the zone the director wants the song to be in, we over dub any live instruments we feel may enhance the arrangement and then the tracks go to the mix engineer for mixing. As a vocal arranger I get called in to specifically enhance an already finished track by adding interesting vocal harmonies or counter melodies. It's much more specific to vocals and it's more about enhancing a track that's already been conceptualized by somebody else rather than conceptualizing it yourself. *Aspi <http://aspisdrift.com/>: How do you get projects? Is it through networking? People just know you in Mumbai? Or do you have a resume and an agent that help you get work?* *Clinton: *I have been fortunate enough to say that I've never had to make a demo of my work and pass it on to people in the initial years. It was always word of mouth and one project that led to another. In fact I started working with Mr. Rahman quite by accident. Over ten years ago I had vocally arranged a song, which was being mixed at 4D studio 'A'. Rahman happened to be working in studio 'B' and the studio door was open and he heard the harmonies and came in asking who had arranged it. Even though I wasn't present at the time of mixing, I happened to meet him a month later and I reminded Mr. Rahman that I was the guy who had done the vocal arrangement that he had heard at 4D. That was pretty much it. A week later I was on a flight to Chennai to work with him. In our industry one thing usually leads to another. *Your first break was in a Marathi film called **Mukta*<http://www.dhingana.com/mukta/movie/songs/marathi/album/2710> *. Then you started working with AR Rahman on **Taal*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taal_%28film%29> *. How did that break come about? Clinton: *You're right about that. Mukta was not only my first song but the first time I actually saw the inside of a studio. I was in college with Siddharth Haldipur (Sid from Band of Boys<http://www.umusicindia.com/artistprofile.php?artistid=90>). We were great pals and I would go over to his house and play piano and sing - we'd jam basically. His dad, Mr. Amar Haldipur <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1045488/>, famous arranger and violinist, heard me and quite liked my voice. He called me over to his house one afternoon and introduced me to Mr. Anand Modak<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0595193/>, the music director. That's how I did the song. It was an English song for a Marathi film, picturised on a black American. With Mr. Rahman actually I didn't do any work on Taal. I started just after that on some of his famous Tamil films, like Mudhalvan<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudhalvan>, Alaipaiuthey <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuV4xPzerRs>, Kandukondain Kandukondain <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtwXtwJByYk>, as well as Hindi films like Takshak <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO_PZhwgUZ4>, One Two ka Four<http://www.musicplug.in/multiple_song_flashplayer.php?songid=4677&br=high&id=956&page=>, and later Lagaan <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsuA6oJ_Yk8>... *What type of work did you do for AR Rahman? Clinton: *Vocal arrangements mostly...and a little bit of lead vocals especially for his Tamil projects. *Aspi <http://aspisdrift.com/>: Any arrangements in your recent work that you think really stand out?* *Clinton: *I've recently arranged a song for Mr. Rahman for his new film " Robot"<http://www.tamiltubevid.com/2008/01/tamil-movie-robot-rajni-shankar-ar.html>- a cool song, which features some cool Afro style backing vocals. I just sang with Kunal an acapella <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_cappella>song for the Hindi version of Rahman's Tamil hit film " Boys <http://www.oosai.com/tamilsongs/boys_songs.cfm>". -- regards, Vithur ARR -- The Sweet Cube always
