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`SuperHeavy` came in a dark phase: Rahman

AR Rahman was going through a "dark" phase when the offer to jam with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger came his way and the rest is history.

New Delhi: AR Rahman was going through a "dark" phase when the offer to jam with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger came his way and the rest is history.
The Oscar-Grammy winner is excited about his teaming up with Jagger, English singer Joss Stone, musician Dave Stewart and Jamaican reggae artist Damian Marley for "SuperHeavy". The band`s 16-song album has two of his contributions -- `Satyameva Jayate` and `Mahiya` -- both with strong Indian influences. "Some things in life are not planned, so I was doing a lot of movies in 2008. At the end of that there were a lot of dark things that happened in my life. I lost my sound engineer and we had those floods in Chennai and we had so many negative things. I was going through a lot of stress in my work," Rahman told reporters. "At that point of time I got this call from Dave saying `AR would you be interested in collaborating with me and Mick?` I was like anything to get out of here at this point," he says about the band which was formed sometime during 2009, before his Oscar feat for "Slumdog Millionaire". It was completely a new experience for the 45-year-old musician, who last played in a band in high school. "I don`t know what I was doing; they called me so I would set all my keyboards because I was playing in a band ages ago in high school band and stuff. It`s almost like a whole, full circle coming in a very different way," he says. With his version of `Vande Mataram` gaining an iconic status, the Chennai-born musician says it was a dream to weave the ethos of Indian culture, best represented in `Satyameva Jayate`, into a song. Rahman, however, did not have the lyrics ready when they started recording the song. "Dave said AR we want your voice in this album and want this to be a great Indian song too. A long dream for me was to take one of the morals of Indian culture, which is `Satyameva Jayate` and make it as a song and I said this is historic if Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Damien Marley, Dave Stewart and me come together for a song like this is iconic in a way. "It was to act spontaneously at that point and we started doing the song and I didn`t have any other lyrics than `Satyameva Jayate`. I knew that was the song but nothing else and then later we filled in the lyrics and we had the choir to make it more epic in a way. I hope people like it. There is `Mahiya` which is a romantic song," he says. `SuperHeavy`, according to him, is a musical team with each member having a distinct style. "If you look at the five of us, we have all been driving our own thing and have our own following. So we brought very different influences to the table. I really hope that the Indian audience enjoys the album." Rahman, who once said he likes to compose music in the silence of the night, had some magical moments with his co-band members. "The time we had was great, full of excitement, enjoyment, innovativeness. So different from how it generally works for me. "We had jamming sessions where Mick would be playing something, Joss would be singing, Dave will join in, Damian will add to it and a melody would just evolve from all the interaction. And those were some magical moments for me, a long lasting memory." Rahman, who recently composed music for Ranbir Kapoor starrer `Rockstar` and Rajinikanth`s `Ranaa`, says he will continue making music in India. "It`s because of the constant support of my Indian fans that I am here and I will continue making music in Indian languages for them." PTI