Shaan is no newcomer to the music industry. Beginning in the mid 90’s, he has come a long way releasing many Indi pop albums one after another. From a Bengali album for children along with sister Sagrika when he was five years old, to his taking part in Bollywood films, he has done a lot. Louis Banks was one of the composers who gave Shaan the opportunity to sing jingles. His first serial where he sang the title song was Babajee ka Bhaiscop. His first big break was in Q Funk, a remix album that sold like hot cakes all over a remix then was a fad. That was his stepping stone in his music career. And soon by the time he was 11 or 12, he no longer sounded like a kid anymore. One thing just led to another.

It was Magnasound record label who gave Shaan his first big break after he sang as backup singer for StyleBhai's maiden album and Shweta Shetty's second album. Even though on a new internationally known label, Shaan still has his roots buried in Magnasound.

Born as Shantanu, he has taken the stage name Shaan. Shaan studied at the prestigious St. Stanislaus High School in Mumbai. While at school, and in the sixth standard, he was known as Shantan, because of his skin colour that was probably 'suntanned'. Well almost. A year later it came to be known as Shantano and as soon as Shaan I was only in college he got relieved of the name as they now called him Shantanu. After completing two years of junior college in National College in the Science stream, he joined Jaihind College where he switched his career and graduated in Arts as Economics his main subject.

Shaan's new venture is into acting and it’s not taken him long to get into the act. Besides acting in the movie Daman, he has also sung for several Bollywood movies and has also acted in the most recent flick Balwinder Singh Famous Ho Gaya. Shaan is also part of a new project Superbia which is making waves.

Inspite of a tight schedule for Christmas and New Year, we met up with him to know what he has been doing since the past year and what his New Year plans are.

What do you feel about the current scenario of singers flooding the music industry?

A lot of exciting voices, I think they are all coming with something unique with them. I think that trend of versatile singing or versatility as a singer is something that is gone obsolete now, each one has to have some USP, something interesting and different. And if they have that then there is always some work coming their way and most of them are doing pretty well

We have not heard of an album from you since a long time, when can we hear an Indi pop album / non film album from you?

Actually we have come up with an album recently from Saregama called Satrangi. It’s not really my album but I am part of the team that created the project. The team is called Superbia and the voice of the album is a person named Gwen. So it is an interesting album called Satrangi, it’s got 7 songs. The original songs are all your classic hits. It is an interesting concept and there are videos out also of two tracks, one is called Tanha and one is called Satrangi itself

Your sister Sagarika is in India now and we have never heard of any album with you both, have you ever thought of recording an album with her, like a brother - sister duet album? You sang just one song with her Aisa Hota Hai.

No, we did an album called Naujawan, we did quite a few singles also after that, but this is all in the 90’s. With the private album scenario being not as big as it used to be in terms of CD sales and everything now is just uploading videos on YouTube. So we haven’t really been motivated to do something together, but I’m sure when the time is right we will do something

This 31st December you will be at Imagica for a concert. How do you celebrate the New Year if not performing at a concert show?

Mostly with the family and friends, we have a group of about 25 of us. Even if I am at a concert I try to be there on the 30^th and quickly finish with the show and join them on the 1^st. But this year because Adlabs Imagica is close to home and everyone is landing up there with the family and friends, so I have a little party going on for me along with my performance anyway. But of course everyone is welcome, the more people the more fun is going to be there. So I think it is a blessing that Adlabs Imagica has invited me to do this show on 31^st December.

You have two kids; will they join you in the New Year revelry at Imagica?

Of course, if I don’t let them come to Adlabs Imagica, they are going to kill me. We have been there before and had a lot of fun and now we all are looking forward to visiting the park again for the “Grand New Year” celebration.

What do you prefer studio work or live performances? Why in each case.

No, both are great. Studio work has this whole magic of trying to create something from scratch and the creative process is very satisfying. Only time will tell how effective that creative process is or how well that thing has worked or not. But the process is fun. While in a live performance you are there with the fans, performing for them with instant reactions, good or bad. Touch wood lucky for me it has generally been good and I hope it stays that way

You recently starred in a film Balwinder Singh Famous Ho Gaya. What made you try acting?

Just for the laughs honestly and Mika was part of it. We were told it was a quick start to finish kind of a schedule but once I took it up things did not go the way it was supposed to. The film got delayed and dragged due to some issues. It was a great experience anyhow and next time I would want to make sure that things are a little more in control when I sign up a film.

What do you think about actors, pop singers taking up singing in their movies?

I think it is a great idea and it should be encouraged. Today with the kind of technology we have we can have almost anyone sing, if not everyone. It might not sound great but standards have dropped. People are used to the electronic, Vocoder kind of a voice. Why can’t we get the actresses to sing when some of them sound better than the current singers?

What future plans have you got for 2015 - musically?

Musically it’s the new band, Superbia which is the focus of the moment. We are doing music for movies, also planning a non film album, go live. A lot of excitement coming through Superbia. I am also ready with a Ghazal album which is quite different from what I have done so far. The good thing of non film albums is that you can actually explore your own potential to the hilt, when you are composing you can challenge to yourself very different compositions which maybe the composers till date haven’t heard me sing like that. So it’s fun

What do you do to de stress?

I got 2 beautiful bundles of energy, my two boys and the third one, my little dog who is quite a menace. Being at home is always de stressing and now days I have a studio at home so I don’t get a chance to get stressed, otherwise Mumbai traffic is enough to kill anyone

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira