What did you do musically through lockdown ? Did you release new music ?
I released a lot of new songs - Thunderstruck , In A Cloud , Skin and Broken - and I thought a lot about my release strategy , how the backend of music distribution works and what I can do to better my game . I e-met a lot of musicians and industry folk , and we really hit it off . I got the feeling that everyone is in the same boat , working together to improve the indie music scene in India .
Challenges you faced when recording your songs / making new music
I didn ' t produce new songs during the lockdown because I already have a backlog of songs to release . Instead I focused my energies on how best to release these songs . When it comes to writing new music , I felt a bit stressed out because two key sources of income - performance and teaching piano- stopped for me so I had to re-think my game plan . On top of that , I wanted to keep developing my piano skills and so I needed to , above and beyond everything else , also afford my online lessons . So basically , I had lots of things to think about and writing new music unfortunately wasn ' t one of them . It ' ll come , though !
How do you think the music scene can recover from the pandemic hit ?
Generating an income via streaming is really not going to be enough . For an indie artist , streaming can ' t even account for savings ! I think it ' ll have to be performance centric . So maybe the live scene has to be resurrected in some shape or form . That ' s the most reliable way I know , as an artist , to earn . I personally had to take on another job so I wouldn ' t have to do anything I didn ' t want to do with my music .
What can we look forward to from you now ?
I ' ll be releasing a lot of music that runs across a variety of genres . I ' m in a phase of experimentation in the field of pop . I ' ve gone from light / easy to acoustic to epic / dark to tango ; and it ' s not going to stop there .
I want to know where my songs can go and to do that I have to keep growing , exploring and taking risks . In the next stage of songs , I ' m collaborating with a variety of people .
I have a sense of my style as a writer , composer , pianist , and pop artist and I don ' t want to move away from what works for me . I ' d rather build upon it and make it better . Vertical and horizontal experimentation keeps me uncomfortable enough to grow . It ' ll also always keep my audience on their toes !
PS : there are also a few remixes on the way !
Singer-Songwriter
ANISHA AOD
The Score Magazine
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