Interview: Indian singer KK relishes freedom to create

I am one of those guys who have a natural affinity for music. I was born into a musical family: my grandmother was a music teacher and my mum used to perform. I picked up music from an early age and I learned songs and sang them. I loved performing in front of my family and friends and I really enjoyed the applause. I had to get a job so I worked in the hotel industry after college. However, after a few months, I said I needed to pursue music wholeheartedly. So, I moved to Mumbai and started my music career.

I signed for Sony and did my first album in 1999 and my second album in 2008. I think the experience is quite different. The songs you sing in playback are not really yours; they are from the movie. But it was really fun to be part of different movies and sing different genres of music. It helps an artist mature. I used to do a lot of playback but I thought that I could not make too much use of my artistic expression so I wanted to do my own thing. As an artist, I need to create more of my own music.

I am working on some independent music. I don't have an exact target or road map for what genre I want to focus on, but I am a pop-rock kind of guy. As an artist, I think I am very strong melodically. I think my new music will definitely be very current in terms of the sound and the production. In playback singing and your independent albums, you mainly record in a studio.