Musical blend of East and West is what Bartender aka Mikey Mccleary well known for in the Indian music industry. He holds a strong taste in delivering music that does well in adverts. Mccleary has composed music for Vodafone, Cinthol, Titan, Reliance and many more.

Born in Chennai, he had lived and worked in London, and is originally from New Zealand. His career in Indian music industry started about with his collaboration with Lucky Ali for Sunoh and many other albums. Most of his adverts in India had been a hit in terms of music. He has contributed music in films like Shanghai, Shaitan, Kahaani, David and Love Sex Aur Dhokha.

Going by the stage name Bartender, he has two albums-Shaken not stirred (2011) and B seventy which was recently released. With a good taste to music of the western and the love he has for 50’s and 60’s Indian film music, he has re-invented some beautiful music. Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Bartender shares his love for music and his latest Amitabh Bachchan inspired-B seventy.

Excerpts:-

Why do people address you as a Bartender?

That is the artiste name that I have created for myself and as a Mikey Mccleary I do lot of other works like Kiwi adverts and compose music for Bollywood. I have chosen Bartender as my name as a Bartender mixes drinks and I mix music and the feel of my music is like a late night bar feel. That’s why I chose it.

Describe your album B seventy?

The album was made as the tribute for Amitabh Bachchan for his 70th birthday and it is all old songs from his iconic films. I was asked to make the album for his birthday and it was given out as the gift to people who were invited to his birthday party. We had performed the music live on his birthday party. The theme of the album was very much strongly from his iconic film. I asked Amitabh Bachchan which songs he wants me to do and he just told me to surprise him and I had the freedom to reinterpret the song. These are lovely old songs so you have to be true to the song. I wouldn’t call it remixes as I am trying to reinvent the song in a contemporary way by using lot of acoustic instruments and give it a seductive and jazzy feel.

What inspired you to re-invent these old tracks?

I feel in love with all this songs and lot of the older recording maybe the younger generation don’t listen to it anymore. The importance of the song is that it was a beautiful creation. You have to think music as the beautiful woman who was wearing old clothes for a while and now you have dressed her in new contemporary clothes and people can see the beauty of the woman in the new dress.

What was your inspiration to turn into musician?

I don’t think anyone has a inspiration other than they love music. I was in school, I had bought a drum kit, piano and a guitar and mostly I though myself. I listen to radio and try to work out how the music is played and before you know that you are writing your own songs and one of the greatest things that you enjoy doing and then music happen to you.

Which role do you enjoy the most as the songwriter or composer?

A songwriter for me is one who composes and writes lyrics but in Bollywood we have the lyric-writer and composer too different individuals. But in English I do both but obviously in Hindi I don’t write lyrics but compose which is actually my biggest thrill. I love it most. But I enjoy doing background scores and I have done background score for Nuatanki Saala, Shanghai and David. I enjoy doing background score a lot.

How different is the experience composing track for adverts and films?

I enjoy doing both adverts and films. Television adverts is lot more fun at times as we do it in one day. It is lot faster as you complete it in couple of days. When its good advert, it’s really a pleasure and I have done good adverts for Vodafone and Lewis. Advertising has different pressure but I am trying to balance between both. I like combination of both and have learnt a lot doing television ads.

Directors Rohan Sippy, Bejoy Nambiar and Dibakar Banerjee have their own style of music and are musically intelligent. They believe in experimenting with music and same time they know about populous music.