Melody matters

Lesle Lewis does not restrict himself to enjoying any one particular genre of music. “Anything that sounds ‘interesting’ to me, I’m ready to listen to,” he tells us, in a chat about music. He also reveals that he’s composing music almost all of the time — so there’s always a tune “bouncing around” in his head. Lesle tells us about the five songs that best describe his life — the ones that would make it into a “soundtrack” for his journey:

1. Pari Hoon Main — I wanted to create songs in Hindi that had a traditional feel but were also very different from the current music at that time. Pari… was among the first ‘Indian/Hindi’ tracks to be used by the fashion industry for their ramp shows. They generally used international music at that time. I’ve also nicknamed this song “Anthem of Gujarat” as no dandiya festival is complete without it!

2. Yaaron Dosti — It’s a song of friendship and brings together people from different walks of life. It’s so amazing to hear all the college kids sing my song — especially when they sing along with me!

3. Janam Samjha Karo — A pop song I composed which hit the country so hard, Bollywood actually made a movie called Janam Samjha Karo! Made me feel so honoured…

4. Pal — When I recorded this song, it really got to the hearts of most Indians!

5. Krishna — When I wrote this song, little did I think, that a song almost completely in English would mesmerise this country and other people in the world! When we got our Billboard Awards in Las Vegas, I remember all the people around us being completely stunned after the performance and wanting to know where they could buy this album... I’m blessed to have come up with such a song!

— As told to Aarti Bhanushali