Mikey McCleary is the musician behind revamped classic Indian songs and The Bartender is the name of his band. While those in their 50s will swear by Rafi’s Khoya khoya chand, Tum jo mil gaye ho or Geeeta Dutt’s Jaata kahan hai deewane, those under 30 are likely to disagree and stress that they are sung by Suman Sridhar and Shalmali Kholgade …thanks to Mikey.

Gen Y loves his songs: they listen to them on a loop on hands-free smart phones while commuting, studying or during routine chores. Mikey McCleary explains, “I don’t remix or re-jig them. Keeping the melody intact, I completely redo them. These songs are sacred to old timers, and I love and respect the melody. I just want to popularise them with the new generation.”

And popularise them he certainly has for somehow he has managed to put his finger on the pulse of young people everywhere. His ad jingles (and they are many) for celebrated brands like Levi’s, Coca-Cola, Vodafone, Audi, Titan, Lakme, Reliance etc., have become so popular that Mikey is perhaps the only singer, composer, director, producer, instrumentalist and actor so far who has converted 45-second ad jingles to full-length songs by rewriting the lyrics, recomposing and having singers sing the full songs for his album, TV Dinners.

According to him, his songs are well-liked because of the new feel to the old classics, “I have always been in love with old Hindi film songs. I don’t remix or redo only part of the songs. I retain the melody, rework the orchestra and record the song with a new voice. These new voices have their own power and they interpret the songs in a fresh way which adds a zing to the old melodies.”

As a singer, composer, director, producer, instrumentalist and actor, Mikey McCleary connects with India’s music scene on many levels

He recently won the prestigious Best Composer award at the 9th Asian Film Awards for the film Margarita with a Straw. “MWAS is getting nominated in so many film festivals and winning awards. Getting nominated certainly made me happy but winning the Best Composer award is really a huge bonus,” says the blue-eyed Kiwi.

Incidentally, this is Mikey’s fourth film with Kalki Koechlin. He is giving music to her next film, Waiting, with Naseeruddin Shah. He says he enjoys working for ‘world movies’ or films of a different genre. “I enjoy freedom but if the director has a particular image for a film and expects it, then I love interacting with them even more. For example, in both MWAS and Bombay Velvet, the requirement was a little of jazz and I loved doing that.”

Mikey was born and spent five years in South India. The family then shifted to New Zealand where he studied music from Wellington Conservatorium of Music and at Victoria University of Wellington. His next stop was London and Trident Studio as a music producer. It was from here that his journey back to India started.

“One fine morning singer, songwriter, composer and actor Lucky Ali rang my door bell and announced ‘I am your new brother-in-law’! Till then I didn’t know he had married my sister. He was having some problem with his first album Sunoh and I stepped in, and that is how my Hindi music career took off,” says Mikey.

By 2007, Mikey had settled down in the world of Indian music where besides ad jingles and revamping old songs, he got a breakthrough in Bollywood with films like Shaitan, Shanghai, Love, Sex aur Dhokha, David, Nautanki Saala, Shaadi ke Side Effects etc.

While composing, he admits that sometimes it can be intimidating and quite daunting. For example, while he was working with music maestro A.R. Rahman for two years, he enjoyed the liberty he got in the mixing and mastering of Pray for me Brother.

“But it was daunting. Rahman speaks in a very soft voice but you know you are working for an absolute genius and that experience itself is quite overwhelming,” recalls Mikey who also brought out a special album of revamped songs from Amitabh Bachchan’s films to present it to the superstar on his 70th birthday, besides performing live with his band The Bartender at the celebrations.

His film Bombay Velvet is scheduled for release later this month (May 15). “I have done two songs. Jaata Kahan hai Deewane is a revamped song from the film CID. The second one Mohabbat buri Bimaari is a remix. It has a jazz and vintage vibe and I have used a lot of saxophone, brass and trumpet. These add up to the Broadway feel for the song.”

Talking about the arrival of so many new voices in Bollywood, Mikey says, “There is so much talent out there but the ones I really connect with are Shalmali Kholgade, Anushka Manchanda, Suman Shridhar, Saba Azad and Rachel Varghese. And in the next decade, I think the indie scene will keep growing stronger. It’s already a place that international artists are interested in visiting. In the near future, I think we will see some Indian indie bands starting to make waves internationally.”

Besides music, the next thing on his agenda is to direct a full-length musical. “I have already started writing the story and hope to start it soon,” declares Mikey McCleary.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 3rd, 2015

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