Independent music is on its way back in India: Shibani Kashyap
Interviewed by: Sejal Ranka
Shibani Kashyap eats, drinks and sleep music. Melody runs through her veins. Request her to sing a song and she immediately starts humming a few lines from her latest hit- Ajeeb Dastaan hai Yeh. Sejal Ranka from Bollywoodwallah caught up with this talented vocalist for an exclusive chat. Excerpts from the interview.
The song “Ajeeb dastaan hai yeh” produced by Mika Singh has been a great hit. How was your experience working with Mika Singh for the song?
Mika is one of my oldest best friends. We started our carreers together. We have grown up together in Delhi. He is a super inspiration for me and a wonderful friend. Mika is one of the most helpful artist the you can come across in the industry. He is always on toes to support and collaborate with his friends. I recently launched my album “WANNA BE FREE”, I asked him to help launch it for me and to be the chief guest. He just dropped everything and said yes I’ll be there. So he’s that amazing a person. Also when he was thinking of his album “OLD IS GOLD”, he said Shibani, I cant think of anybody but you to be part of it. I said great and had this song ” Ajeeb dastaan hai yeh” which I had just finished creating – its a jazz version of the old song which fits in perfectly well. He said, I’ll shoot it and we’ll produced it and put it on the platform and that’s how this happened.
From singing popular single’s to making a cameo in the films and daily soap operas, what new and different side can your fans expect from you?
I have made cameo appearances and I don’t ever intend to be an actor as I’m very happy being a musician. Musically, pretty much I keep reinventing myself. I have anchored few shows long back, have also been a judge of the reality show called “Bathroom Singer”, made a cameo apperance in a tv show called “veer ki ardas veera” as music mentor. Apart from this now I am planning to do a show on the internet like a video blog or like an instagram videos where I”ll do music with travel. Travel is something which really really excites me, so travelling with music would be a great thing. My fans can expect different music from different places and how I will jam with different music and musicians. It is what I am looking forward to.
What are your views on today’s pop culture music? Do you like it?
I think independent music is on its way back. It has really completely disapperead from the scene, there were artist who used to create pop music which disappeared. The pop music scene from which I came from back in the 90’s and late 90’swas really glorious and flourishing at that point of time. But somewhere in the middle of 2000’s it disappered and bollywood took over compltely. Even now its really difficult to compete when you are releasing a single as compared to a bollywood song . But now, as we speak where we are standing right now I think ,there is so many different platforms like youtube, savvn, gaana.com , artist out loudwhich gives artist a chance to express their independent music. So its just right time for the music lover to dapple with it and to just dive deeply into it.
What are you currently working on?
At the moment, there is an upcoming bollywood movie that I have sung for, the film will be out really soon. So I am excited for the bollywood chapter reopening for me. Also i will be singing and collaborating with mika singh again for his album “OLD IS GOLD”.
Starting from the scratch to making a name for yourself today, who has been your inspiration throughout your journey?
Different musicians, but from the west it’s been STING THOMAS SUMNER. Sting is one of the few complete musician that I have always admired, followed and loved. He is singer, performer, song-writer, guitarist, composer and he likes to reinvent himself and his music. I have loved him so much.
How would you describe your journey so far?
It’s been great. It’s been like different chapters have unraveled for me. And I think the best is it’s like a book. You just read your own book and let the chapters unfold on its own.