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Many of you remember Amar from her appearance on "Bombay," a track from Timbaland's 2007 album, Shock Value, and some are true fans of the British-Asian artist who got her start as a young artist with the hindi version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You."  But regardless of when you became aware of the talented singer, one thing is for certain:  Once you hear her, its nearly impossible to forget her.  After falling in love with the Asian underground scene, Amar released her debut album Outside (2000), and though the album was well received by fans, it would be 10 years before they would see her sophomore release.

We were able to catch up with Amar to discuss what she has been up to since the release of her first album, her musical influences, and what fans can expect to her from her new album, Show It Off (which hit stores on February 15th).

EK:  So for future fans:  Who is Amar and What do you represent?

Amar:  I am a Brit-Asian Recording artiste and I would like to think that I represent the empowered female and the futuristic Indian dream! Like many others, I was brought up in up in a western environment by Indian/Eastern parents, so am equally at ease within the ‘West’ side of my life and the ‘East’ side of my life.

EK:  It's been 10 years since your last album release.  Why the break?

Amar:  I was a ‘child artiste’, and released my first record while I was still at school. I needed to go away, complete my studies, grow up and become an adult during that time, experience life a little. Most importantly I was not with the right team back then. Finding the right home for your music is extremely important in this business and I didn’t want to be releasing records with the wrong team. I met my current management Sunset Entertainment, and I was ready to go again.

EK:  Do you think that stepping away helped you?

Amar:  Yes definitely. I have now grown into a woman. My experiences can only add to my writing experience, and I am much clearer now on how I want to be represented and what kind of sound is the ‘Amar’ sound. I just feel more at ease, I know what to expect from the industry now, and as a person I feel a lot more relaxed about where my career is headed.

EK:  How would you describe your sound now?  How does it differ from the past

Amar:  My current sound represents my current life phase. It’s Indo Urban Pop. It’s UP, its gutsy, its fun, its sexy and often dark and haunting. My album, Show It Off, is very diverse. My input to my previous album is clearly very childlike, very experimental, full of teenage angst. ‘Show It Off’ is much more sure of itself.

It also features a lot of other artistes, the best of the East and the West if you like..Sonu Niigaam, Shankar Ehsaan & Loy, my father Mangal Dingh, DOE, Jim Beanz and Apache Indian.

EK:  How did your father influence your decision to get into the music business?

Amar:  Absolutely, one of my earliest memories as a child is sitting next to him cross legged whilst he was exercised his voice and showed me how to do the same thing. Being around music, gigs, rehearsals (all the things involved with being an artiste) definitely meant that the music business was a ‘normal’ or obvious career path for me to choose. Having said that I was always very shy… and often thought I would end up being a doctor or something like that (amazing considering how I cannot look at a drop of blood)

EK:  What role does he play in your work?

Amar:  He’s a little bit like the icing on my cake. He hadn’t massively been involved in my work thus far, except as a spectator and that first record when he took me into the recording studio with him. I had always wanted to create a name for myself, because it’s so easy for people to assume that any success that you have is a given when you have parents in the business.

This is why it makes it even more special when we come together now. On this album, we are on a very special duet called Deewana, and he also has been massively involved in the ‘indian’ side of the music. Charlie Hype, a brilliantly talented producer (from UK now living in the US) who produced part of this album, and my Dad spent a lot of time together in India organizing, writing, and arranging the Indian instrumentation on the album.

EK:  How was your experience working with Timbaland and now Jim Beanz?

Amar:  Growing up, an artiste always has a producer in their mind that they would like to work with. Mine was Timbaland. So getting that call from my manager at Sunset saying that he wanted me on his album was one of the most surreal experiences of my life! He is a loaded talent, incredibly fast and incredibly brimming with musical ideas and a joy for music.
He records very late into the night. I remember going to his studio in the twilight hours, talking about Indian music for a while, going through his RD Burman collection and then going on to record Bombay which featured on his Shock Value album.

Since then, I have worked on many other projects with him…in fact one of the tracks from ‘Show It Off’ was meant to go onto Shock Value 2 but the album ended up taking a different course in style so it no longer fit…hopefully it will be on the re-release though ….

I met Tim through Jim Beanz, who is his ‘right-hand man’ if you like. Jim’s been busy writing and producing on a lot of big albums recently Shock Value 2 - in fact his track for Tim and Katy Perry has charted at Number 3 in the UK this week!! Jim opened my eyes to myself. He just knew what would work with me, my voice, my sound, everything. That is the sign of a great producer. We recorded a number of demos together that Tim heard, that led to the whole ‘Bombay’ meeting, and some of those first demos are now on my album ‘Show It Off’ as completed pieces. I am lucky to have such powerful producers as Jim and Charlie producing me now, they are the future of music.

EK:  What can we expect to hear from Show It Off?

Amar:  Futuristic and diverse music. This is an album that’s going to have something for everyone whether that is because of the diversity of the styles or the collaborators adding their spice to the album. It’s hard to explain, you just have to hear it.

EK:  Have you picked a single for the album yet?

Amar:  Not yet….though Bombay Billionaire featuring Sonu Niigaam is going down a storm right now on the airwaves!

EK:  Do you have a favorite song on the album?

Amar:  I don’t have a favourite. They all represent a different part of me…so I don’t have any favourites… *sorry*

EK:  What can fans expect in the future?

Amar:  My favourite side of the business is live performances so looking forward to getting involved in that. First stop however is the album release. It’s now on iTunes and will be in the usual stores Feb 15th!

I’d like to thank my fans for all of their support – YOU MAKE ME – so thank you!  Make sure to follow me on www.twitter.com/amarmusiconline OR www.facebook.com/amarmusiconline OR www.myspace.com/amarmusiconline