Mikey McCleary on working with musicians from five nations for the World Cup anthem
Singer-songwriter, composer, producer and ad jingle maker Mikey McCleary has composed and curated the ICC World Cup anthem Way O Way O, in which he has brought together the band Sanam from India, reggae singer-songwriter Jahmiel (Jamaica), acoustic artiste Catherine Taylor Dawson (UK), hip-hop artiste Simba Diallo (New Zealand) and choir group Khayelitsha United Mambazo (South Africa). The artiste, famed as the Bartender, talks about the process of creating the anthem and upcoming works.
About the concept of Way O Way O for the ICC World Cup
I explored different melodies and lyrics and made sure the words had a sense of moving ahead as well as a celebration of the game. Our main line was We're on our way and while I was playing around with that I changed it to We’re on our Way-O and that gave this simple line a more unique identity. We then decided that this song should be made into a music video and feature artistes from around the globe.
Composing and producing
Before recording the artistes’ parts, I pretty much finished the composition and production along with Achint Thakkar and Parth Parekh from my new studio complex and multi-composer music house. I had all their parts dubbed first with guide voices and then let them do their magic and give it their own vibe right at the end of the process.
Not a cricket buff
I’m not exactly a fan of the sport but I’ve always enjoyed one-day matches and used to play a bit of cricket at school. I support both, New Zealand and India. In our family of four, we have two NZ as well as India T-shirts each. Luckily, we can support the two best teams!
Work in progress
I’m working on the music score for The Sky is Pink, the new Shonali Bose film featuring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Farhan Akhtar. I’m also composing for an original feature film on an OTT platform called Maska. Soon, I’m starting work on season two of Four More Shots Please. And, there’s always a lot of TV advert work going on at my studio.
Scoring for different mediums
I love scoring music for good films. I’m definitely more of a studio musician than a live one. TV ads are great for giving you a variety of genres to work in but nothing beats the buzz of creating a great song.
– As told to Dhaval Roy
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