You might have seen Divyam Sodhi on your Instagram reels. Poised against his red wall, armed with an incredible voice and amazing technical control on his vocals – he has been amassing thousands of views and a steady audience who enjoy his covers – primarily old-school Indian music. Recently, things have been gearing up for him – with the fresh release of his new album Haal-e-Dil (in collaboration with Khwaab) and completed a four-city tour.
In person, Sodhi is kind, collected, and composed. In a small, crowded cafe in Bandra, he told us a little about his origins in music, his influences, and his new release.
1.When did you start formally training for music?
I belong to a family of musicians, and I am the third generation to do so. My dadu, and baba are both into music. I was seven when I started singing, but I think because I was a kid – formal training used to bore me a lot. I used to go, did not pay any mind to it, bide my time and then come back. That became a thing, and even today, I do not like training formally. However, there is one person – my guru, who lives very close to my hometown in Karnal. I have changed at least 10 places to formally learn, including different places, but in the end I found him so close to my hometown. I started formally learning at 10, I think – and I found my guru in my 12th standard.
2.What made you realize that music is what you wanted to do for yourself, and not anything else?
I sucked at everything else. I was kind of a zero at academics – below average actually. I failed in every subject besides English. So, I did not have any option. I just had to do music. I loved doing it, though. It wasn’t like I was not invested in it. It was very easy for me to be dedicated to it.
3.When and why did you start posting your music on social media?
I think I started Instagram in 2015-16. I have a cousin, Karan, who I grew up with. He told me that some people were starting to put out covers, and that I should do it too. I was a very introverted person, and I was not used to putting myself out there. He told me to put it out several times, and after a while I put out two videos and then I did not stop. I realized that people were liking them. Before that I was doing whatever – I was singing at school competitions, and even in college I used to perform, and that was a completely different universe. In college, I didn’t really study, I used to be in the music department most of the time. I was there only for the youth fest, for the rest of the time I was not even there. I was in Kurukshetra University, and I sang nonstop for three years. I think that built a lot of music into me, and that has been very useful for me in the long run.
4.Since you mentioned that you come from a family of musicians, what was their reaction/feedback to your social media presence?
My family has always been supportive. I was eight or nine when I was on television for the first time. Do you remember the regional channel MH One? There used to be a show on it called Awaaz Punjab Di. When Awaaz Punjab Di started for kids, I was the youngest person on it. I was eight and a half years old, while the others on it were fourteen or fifteen. When I was on TV at that time, my parents got serious about it. They realized that if I was on television at the age of nine, then maybe at twenty he would be doing something significant. I also think that they saw that I was not really excelling at my studies. My dad had seen me fail multiple times, but he never really said anything. He probably knew from very early on.
My family does devotional music and orchestras. My direction has become different from theirs, but it is still music.
5. Speaking of being on competitive music shows, you were a participant on ARRived, how did that come about?
I got a random call one day, and they told me about the show happening. I was not interested, initially. I had tried in reality shows so much that I got tired of it. However, they told me that A.R. Rahman is judging the show. Then I got excited about it, and I sent in my videos and got called for auditions and I kept clearing them. Finally, I was there.
It was fun to meet him. The main reason to go there would be to meet him. I don’t know how I would have felt about the show if he wasn’t there. He never comes out anyway, in public, so it was a good opportunity. Otherwise, in reality shows, you just have fun there. You should never take your rejection seriously. There are a lot of things factoring in there, and it is not your singing.
6.How did you know that this is the kind of music that you wanted to do ?
My family used to play cassettes at home when I was little. The cassettes we had were of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or of Ghulam Ali. I grew up listening to them, and I immersed myself in them along the way. I think my sound has remained similar to that to this day. The songs that do well are of that energy. I think I was organically turned towards ghazals and Indian music.
7. In a similar vein, who would you recognize as your influences, besides your family?
First of all, the family influence will obviously be there. The second source of influence would be listening to these artists. I didn’t really understand their music, I was too young. However, people around me praised them a lot. I just knew that they were good. Also, besides this, there was no other music going into my ears. I had no other means to listen to music, the two cassettes lying around kept playing. I got introduced to Mehdi Hasan quite late in life, along with Jagjit Singh and a lot of Pakistani singers like Noor Jahan, Farida Khanum etc. At some point, I was also introduced to English music. I came to listen to a lot of John Mayer, and I think it is an important phase to have in being a musician.
8. When you started Instagram, did you know that you would be doing this for so long?
Definitely. I knew that this would go on. But, it was necessary to do something of your own. You can’t just be famous from doing covers, from singing someone else’s songs. It is a great way to bring people in, though. Once you do, you can make them listen to your music. I think it does work, I feel that Instagram is an extremely important tool, at least in the day and age we are living in. If you think that you can just bring people in with your music, it will not happen.
9.Since your primary platform is Instagram, have you ever felt the pressure to make a specific style of content – considering it is driven by reels usually brought down to a small timespan?
Never, actually. I always thought of making some songs that people would be able to sing, though. We released this song called Piya, and you can sing Piya. You cannot sing Bohot Bechain, though. So, you should have these very difficult songs for yourselves, and then have these songs for people – and they will gradually listen to both kinds of music.
10.You have been establishing yourself as a recognizable name in the Delhi music scene. Do you think that the independent music scene in the city is good?
I feel like everyone will answer this question differently. I think I would say that there is a scene because I am in it. It is also because I have released music and I have a following, and no matter how much you deny it, all of those things matter.
If you ask a person who is just starting out, they will say something very different. However, I will say that there is a scene, it just takes you a little bit of time to get into it and connect with the people in it.
11. You have also worked with the Anirudh Varma Collective. How has that been?
Really nice, he is the sweetest person ever. We made Mausam together, and I performed at some places, like The Piano Man and Depot 48. The band is so big, so it feels like the studio versions of the songs – and the practice sessions are even better. I will keep making music with him, as well. After Mausam, I think for his next album, there will be one more song coming, but we are yet to make it.
12. Getting to your own music, what is your favorite part in the creative process of making music?
I think the studio sessions, when we record the instruments, when the sitar, tabla, and other instruments play – that day is the best. When you see other people play your music, and present the endless possibilities when it comes to your music – that is really motivating.
I don’t write to make songs, I just write. If they get made into a song, that is great, if it does not, I don’t really mind. If it comes organically from within, then that is good – otherwise, I source it from my friends.
13. Khwaab and you have been longtime collaborators, how did you two start working together? Also, how has it been going so far?
I think Khwaab (Nishant Nagar) and I met in lockdown. We have a mutual friend, Varun, who commented on my video tagging Nishant. I do not remember who texted who first, but then we made Bohot Bechain. See, Instagram works so well.
Really good, I think the fact that we are collaborating for this long is testament to that. We are more friends than producer-singer-collaborators. We are very immature when we are not doing music, and I think that is how music gets made— when two people are comfortable with each other. It is a thing that will keep happening now, there is no turning back from it. It is a duo, at this point.
14. Tell me a little about the new album that you have both worked on.
I think exactly a year back, I was in Bombay, at Khwaab’s place. We sat down to make some songs. We just sat, we had no idea if we were about to make an album. We had some writings from our friends, and we turned those writings into songs. We had 3-4 songs at that time. Gradually we made 7 songs, and we decided to compile them into an album — releasing them as singles, and eventually putting them together. It’s titled Haal-e-Dil.
The whole album, somehow, is about love, all 7 songs. It is about different stages of love in all kinds of relationships and how your heart feels. I have written two songs in it, the other songs have been written by Likhari, he is a lyricist from Delhi. Some of them have been written by Aaghaz, and he is from Noida.
15. Have you thought of diversifying genres in your music?
I think we did that with this album, we put out some pop songs : like Tum Jo. Choti Si Kahaani is another pop number, you can hear drums playing on it. Tere Sang is R&B, so I think we are already doing it. However, we know what we are the best at doing. But there will always be songs in every project, which will be different from what we usually do. One needs to keep doing that, what if something works out and you want to explore that? If we keep doing the same thing, I think we will also saturate ourselves at some point.
16. What would you say are some problems you have encountered as an independent artist?
I think it has been okay for me. I don’t think I have faced too many problems. This is also because I started my journey with Khwaab, who was there in the scene way before I was. I had someone to guide me, and I learnt so much from him by sticking with him. He has also been extremely kind and patient with me and told me about everything. I never went through the stage of being alone and not knowing anything. I released a song right after I came in.
Raghav (Meattle) and the whole team at first.wav which is made entirely up of artists have been very helpful. They are people who genuinely want to help you. I never want to get away from these people.
Haal-e-Dil is out for streaming on all platforms.
