Morning Stars | For singer Hariharan, the body is his instrument - and there's no excuse for missing his morning walk

Hariharan in concert. (Photo by Sanu N via Wikimedia Commons 4.0)

Which professions need practitioners to be super fit? Astronauts, athletes, actors, dancers, surgeons, race-car drivers are obvious guesses. Among the less obvious are... singers. At 68, Padma Shri singer Hariharan says he doesn't skip his 40-minute morning walk without good reason - if he's on tour, or travelling for some other reason, he works out at the hotel gym - because for singers, "the body is the instrument".

One-half of the fusion band Colonial Cousins, champion of the Ghazal and singer of film classics like 'Thamizha Thamizha' (Roja) and 'Uyire Uyire' (Bombay), Hariharan is doing a series of HCL Concerts. He spoke to Moneycontrol over phone from Chennai on a July morning. Excerpts:

Are you a morning person?

Well, it depends on when I sleep in the night.

Often musicians have a strict routine around riyaz, practice. Is that part of your mornings?

There is always time for practice. Since I'm a vocalist, we need to practice every day a little bit depending on workload, because the workload is also singing. So it's like a warm-up, just like you do yoga in the morning, or you go for a walk - I do go for a walk - it's like a warm-up exercise before I go to the studio to start recording - it's a default system. Sometimes I do the vocal exercises at 11 am if I don't have to go to the studio that day.

You also have classical musicians for parents so it must be like a childhood habit to wake up and do these exercises?

My mother is a classical singer. She is 88; she teaches people, she performs even today. While teaching, she gets her vocal exercises in - she doesn't have to sit at a Tanpura and do them separately.

What is your normal wake up time if you haven't gone to bed very late at night?

8 o'clock...

Thereafter, is it the vocal exercises first or the morning walk?

There's an hour's time before either - I wake up, go through the paper, have a coffee, then after some time I sit down to do my vocal exercises. By 11 o'clock I am ready to go to the studio, if I have a recording that day. Otherwise there's office work, correspondence... Sometimes I go to the studio in the evening - I have my own studio. Then if there's a programme in the evening, I go to a concert. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I am most probably travelling to do shows.

How do you like your coffee? And is their breakfast to go with that usually?

I drink filter coffee. Breakfast is after the first coffee - maybe with the second coffee. It can be oats, bread-omelette, dosa, or idli.

Your morning walk - how long is that for usually?

About 40 minutes.

And do you do it every day - whether you're in India or travelling abroad?

Yes. If there's a gym in the hotel, I sometimes go there.

What do you do on the mornings when you don't have anything else planned - an entirely free day?

Then I'm just lazy. Sometimes people watch movies in the evening on OTT. Sometimes I start my day watching OTT.

What do you like watching?

I like thrillers, mysteries (movies).

What sets you up for a good day?

I have got to feel energetic, feel fresh.

Does that mean good sleep?

Absolutely. For a singer, the most important thing is you have to be fit physically because your body is your instrument. So sona (sleep), mood, no cold, no acidity, you have to be okay, you have to be free from all that, you have to be fit and ready to go.

Read more Morning Stars interviews here

Do you turn to any source of news in the morning? Or do you look at your phone first thing?

News? I do. I started reading it after COVID but during the COVID (pandemic), there was no newspaper - which was bliss actually because, apart from certain things, a paper is boring. I go through it - aadat si hoti hai - it's a habit since childhood. I read the newspaper for about 15 minutes over coffee - it's like a wake-up to what's happening in the world.

I fix work for the day the previous day or in the morning. There's usually work pending.

So, what gets you excited to get out of bed?

The coffee. I have a German Shepherd who wakes me up... She's 10; her name is Mishti.

Anything else that we should know about your morning routine that gives us an insight into who Hariharan is? And what he's doing right now?

Right now I am giving an interview (laughs). Sometimes if something is time-scheduled, then I give priority to that.