Shreya Bajpai, an independent singer/songwriter has grown up learning and exploring music all by herself at a very early age. She has acquired training in Hindustani and Western Contemporary music for voice and can also play a few instruments to support her performance, composition, and songwriting. Most of her music is derived from personal experiences and observations which sometimes acts as a sense of release. Along with her unique stories and experiences, she mostly makes music in genres like reggae, pop, rock, soul, RnB, jazz and blues.
Recently, Aditya Hulo was spotlighted on TuneCore’s ‘Next,’ a flagship artist spotlight property by the global music distribution and artist development platform, TuneCore. Built for India, ‘Next’ spotlights independent artists from across the region who are at an inflection point in culture.
In conversation with us, she talks to us about his journey so far.
1) Tell us a bit about your project. How did you begin your journey as a singer/songwriter?
I honestly feel music has been universe’s gift in my life. Growing up every encounter or learning I received around music was never something well planned or manufactured for me, it was always very organic. I never even thought about making it a career. I just enjoyed learning more and more about it more like one door lead to other and I just kept following. My job was to recognise this gift, accept it with gratitude and polish it which is exactly what i did. I do not come from a family of musicians or creatives, anything that I am doing today comes from a very strong source. The journey with songwriting was again something that I never planned, it just happened during the lockdown. I had learnt music theory, western contemporary and Hindustani classical music to a certain degree by then and was really intrigued to turn my random humming into full fledged songs, so I just dug a bit deeper into it and started writing. People around me loved it and encouraged me to keep doing it. Its been 5+ years since I have been writing music and have a lot of stuff in the pipeline for this year.
2) Which bands/artists were your first love? Who is your biggest influence?
I have grown up listening to so much bollywood , reggae, classical, soul, jazz, rock, RnB and Pop music. Its almost so difficult to names a few but if I have to literally narrow it down then I’d say they’re Tash Sultana and Sia for their musicianship and vocal abilities and overall artistic aura which has immensely inspired me as a musician. From the Indian music scene it’s always been Jatin Lalit’s music in older bollywood romantic movies starring Shahrukh Khan in them. Those songs were my very first experience with Indian music and cinema together creating an everlasting impact on me.
3) Tell us a bit about your latest single ‘DARK.’
Dark was actually created out of a fun jam session with Klone who’s also a co writer and featuring artist on it. It started with humming, lyrics got added up later and the entire energy felt like the feeling of longing for someone very dear. I remember also composing the drum section for the song which was then programmed in the same time signature which I felt was really important to bring out the required emotion. The state of mind for Dark is very unsettling, has two distinct point of views/characters who are telling their individual story around “longing”. The track is released as a single, produced by my dear friend and an amazing music producer Bhanu, is actually a part of my 10 songs debut album “soliloquy” which I had been releasing in single format to be able to focus and promote each song better this year.
4) What is your music-making and recording process like?
Most of the times melodies occur to me at odd times and places. I need to always be ready to record them on my phone and then develop them further when I have access to my instruments and solitude. Sometimes they can also occur to me while I am practicing or warming up or just casually strumming my guitar or keys. Lyrics usually need brainstorming and connecting the dots by trying to investigate about the subject and the emotional context. I strongly feel it gets better with time, the flow, being able to tap into the energy and extract just the right amount of everything needed for the song/project to sound good. Once I am done with the composition and lyrics I lay it down and send it across to my friends or producers with the context and references regarding the sonic treatment. Once I have a satisfactory backing track I go ahead and record the vocals in a studio and send them the stems and usually like to give full creative freedom for them to try whatever they feel is gonna be best for the project. It is only when we get on the same page for the creative direction of the song we freeze it for mixing and mastering.
5) Why do you make music? What drives you as a musician and what are your songs about?
I think music is the only language I know and understand the best. A lot of my music comes from personal experiences as well as observations. Everything I have seen, heard and experienced is what influences my craft but above all I know it’s very divine in nature and I consider it to be my responsibility to be able to act upon these little messages and present it to my listeners. My songs are so far not limited to singular feeling or emotions, they talk about love, longing,heartbreak,motivation,grief and so many other things and I think that a lot of it is yet to come out for people to experience.I hope to be able to help them through my music in some or the other way, it could be a smile, a release or a feeling of motivation. Nothing is too small, I hope to keep creating more smaller shifts in people’s lives which one day might lead to a bigger movement and a bigger impact.
6) Which Indian bands or artists do you admire? And why?
When I look back and analyse there are an array of artists and composers from India I loved listening to starting from AR Rahman, Jatin-Lalit, Pritam, Shankar- Ehsaan -Loy, Vishal Shekhar, Salim-Sulaiman, Amit Trivedi, Himesh Reshammiya, KK , Sunidhi Chauhan, Shilpa Rao, Jagjit Singh , Shreya Ghoshal, Sona Mohapatra, Alka Yagnik, Arijit Singh, Lucky Ali, Sonu nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Udit Narayan, Adnan Sami, Mohit Chauhan, Benny Dayal and so many I’m sure I’m missing. Their music is what I heard growing up and understood love as an emotion. The nostalgia, the energy and the melodies are forever etched in my heart and influence my sound till date.
7) What’s your take on the independent music scene in India?
The Indian indie music scene is pretty much in it’s budding stage on the grounds of financial Freedom for an artist by just pursuing independent music. A lot of great artists have come out of it for sure and I feel we are the first few from this generation to mark the beginning of this wave of creativity. Pick any time in history, it’s often the very first few who struggle the most to make a space for themselves while starting something new or to bring a change thereby making it easier for the future generations, I guess that’s us in the context of the independent music scene in India. Having said that I also believe that you never know, in all creative fields the patterns and how people come up is ever changing so I might be proven wrong by someone about this but it’s important to understand that the passion and smart work required to get there is something that’s been stable and always will be, come what may.
