As someone who enjoys listening to music yet I don’t understand the actual production of it I was eager to feature one of the hottest female producers around today. Especially when I once heard Nihal play one of her songs and I was extremely impressed.
Let me introduce you to fellow Nottingham lass Kiran Zamman. Kiran has worked with the likes of Niraj Chag, Des-C and Ash King. She produces music for audio books, sings and writes too. A mutual friend Neelam S said to me that “Kiran has the voice of an Angel”
So without futher delay lets find out from Kiran when she realised she had a passion for music?
I can remember having passion and loving music from as far back as I CAN actually remember. So always I’d like to think and say I have ALWAYS had a passion for music!
Where the journey began
When I was young aged 8-9 I would sit and listen to my dad’s CD’s/tapes. To the likes of The Supremes, Buddy Holly, The flamingos lots of different artists but I listened to a lot of Dolly Parton in particular. I had no idea why I took a shine to her but I would sit and listen to her music for hours with my headphones on, writing out the lyrics and trying to work out how many instruments there were in each song.
“Music enticed me”
It grew from there really I bugged my parents to get me a guitar and keyboard, so I would sit and work the instruments out, I taught myself how to play tunes on them. I would buy music tech magazines and use the samples on there from the CD’s to make music on the sound editor and would look at all the equipment in the magazine and be blown away, there was something about music tech that really enticed me. From there my interest only grew stronger. I then went on to study music technology at university (which I loved). I left university knowing music is what I wanted to do. So I made my choice to give it my all. Production was my ultimate goal, but I started out singing on the Asian scene to showcase my production.
I then formed a band as part of all that which was amazing, but luckily fell into production a lot sooner than I thought I would and the rest is all history. The singing died and I began producing for other artists and building my name/network and perfecting my craft.
Who are your biggest musical inspirations?
Everything and all music inspires me; I love ALL types of music (except maybe death metal). I Admire artists like Prince, Lady Ga Ga, En Vogue, Janelle Monae, Cindy Lauper, Robyn, Adele and Michael Jackson of course. What a legend. The list is endless as there is something about all of them which is so inspiring. I respect artists who have a clear respect for music; you can tell they do music for the love of it, not for fame and glory.
I love producers such as pendulum and Daft Punk, the Tron score was breath taking, I was blown away with how they mish mashed an orchestra with an 80’s layer theme. I also love pop music, so producers like Danja, Timbaland, Labyrinth, Dr Luke, Alex Da Kid are a few of my inspirations production wise.
Movie scores in particular really do something to me, scoring for films is one of my ultimate goals, I’m greedy, I want to be able to make music for everything and anything, I don’t believe anyone should be pigeon holed or just stay static in one area when they are able to do it all.
I believe social networking is a major part of promoting yourself. What do you think are the pro’s and con’s of sites such as Twitter and Facebook?
To be honest I only feel they have mostly pros, I can’t see any cons to social networking sites, although the presentation of it can have a negative effect on an image.
Social networking has become an integral way to connect with other people. This is especially for musicians to keep them up to date with their latest news etc. Having these accounts has now become the norm and if you are NOT on any of these sites then you’ll be a step behind the rest for sure. Music has become so diluted these days and there is so much of it out there that some people WANT to find niche acts. These sites are a great way for these acts to get out there and for the listeners to find them and interact.
A lot of young people have a strong desire to work within the music industry but due to various circumstances are unable to take their passions forward. E.g. Family support, pressure to go down ‘traditional’ career paths, finances, location or peer encouragement. What advice would you give them?
I’d say follow your heart and dreams. Doing an unconventional job like music production never phased me and I believe it’s because I never thought it wasn’t an option. What I do is VERY unconventional for a female Asian girl like myself, but if you are good at something then the results will speak for themselves.
Asians aren’t well known for their support in the arts, but you have the likes of Jay Sean prove that what seems like the impossible is in fact, possible. So your limits are only really as high as you make them. Don’t let people put you down or put you off doing something you love. I’m a woman, I make music, do you really think I was taken seriously for long while? Not really. But it didn’t bother me, because it’s what I wanted, it’s what I knew I’m going to do, now those same people ask me if I have any work for them.
Remaining positive and working hard is key. I genuinely believe that you can achieve anything if you put your heart and soul into it. Don’t give up and perfect your craft!
So tell us, what are you working on at the moment and what are your future plans?
Well, there’s lots going on, I’m currently working closely with an amazing publishing house named Merry Star which is owned by the head of Geffen Records Colin Barlow, so you can imagine the kind of experience and opportunities they have. They have been developing me for a while and really the main goal is to get as many placements with majors this year as I can in order to build my profile.
Other than that I’m the head producer and project director for a music company named Tunelit (www.tunelit.co.uk), Tunelit specialises in music for words (Audio books, poems etc). It’s scoring for words, a niche venture which has and is doing amazingly well. We’ve worked with award winning writers andpoets and it’s just getting bigger by the day. It’s really quite extraordinary.
I’m also doing freelance work with a number of artists and songwriters. I’ve worked with some amazing people including, Brit Writers, Heshima Thompson, Zalon Thompson, Des-C, Ash King, Shayal and Niraj Chag to name a few.
Future plans are to continue to work my ass off and get my music in the charts this year, continue to work with Tunelit and films. I have a big passion for movies and scoring is something I want to largely venture into. I have a few opportunities up my sleeve, so scoring films is another future desire I plan to move into.
I recently produced the official club remix for Niraj Chag’s “Khwaab” which is set to be released in India fairly soon so we’re hoping that will go down well. That’s it really, music, music and more music!
That was the serious stuff…..
Do you read much? What book is on your nightstand?
The Mixing Engineers Handbook boring I know. I’m a complete tech geek. I love learning new things so I read mostly about music tech.
What’s the worst chat up line you have ever had?
I don’t know you know, they are all quite bad don’t you think!!
Who would play you in a movie?
This is such a tough question, I seriously have NO idea! I think others could answer that better!
How do you balance your work and personal life?
It gets muddled sometimes but I generally find my balance. At the moment I live for music and until I’m where I want to be I won’t stop so I work a lot of the time. I don’t sleep some days because my thirst for music completely out weighs anything else.
I cannot wait to see Kirans future work and I truly believe she will and deserves to achieve everything she wants whether it be producing music for artists, herself or films. Do Nottingham proud girl, we need more women representing!
Follow Kiran:
Priya Mulji
priyamulji.com 