Ananya Ashok
She has been strongly influenced by the likes of her father , Louis Banks , Karl Peters , Michael Stanton to Tyris Washington and has performed alongside them as well . She has performed far and wide at numerous venues and festivals around India and internationally . From the the Royalty of Nepal and the Presidential Entourage of President Bill Clinton , she has even graced the stage at a prestigious awards function for the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce courting Jazz luminaries from the USA and having the Prime Minister as the chief guest amongst her audience .
As for her origins , they are deeply rooted in various harmonics that stem from a selection as vast as it ’ s different from each other . Lush musical layerings of the kind found in Electronica , to Jazz & Blues , on to Sufi , Retro , the Opera , and Hip Hop , Psychedelic , top that all with dance music ; she takes the strings off world music and infuses in with her own . Shefali ’ s high energy stage persona is paving a powerful path as the Jazz & Blues and up tempo Rock vocalist . She is in all truth , a rising phoenix with many musical surprises up her sleeves . Score talks to Shefali about her art , life , and how she keeps it real .
Growing up , you must have been surrounded by your father , Joe Alvarez ' s music . Was there a point in your childhood where you thought , ' Yup , this is what I want to do for the rest of my life '?
I always knew I wanted to sing ... I think maybe from the age of four . When I started singing , I just knew that this was it ! Especially with my dad ’ s influence , there was music in my life from the very beginning . I think
I ' m blessed because the ability to sing is such a great way of self expression . Sometimes words and talking don ' t make sense but singing or humming does !
Describe your journey . From training to playback singing .
Trained in Semi-Classical Western Music for about 9 years with Mrs . Celia Lobo . She taught me pitch , breath control , how to use power and the ability to use your voice as an instrument which all assisted in my process of finding my own sound . Quite an intense ride began with playing club gigs around 16 or 17 with a great band of young musicians . Doing funk rock jazz to singing at the jazz Yatra and corporate gigs with dad and also part of an all girl band ! Don ' t know what I was doing there though ( laughs ). Bollywood just happened suddenly and it kinda changed my head space . It ' s great to be a part of this amazing industry . Also , it ' s lovely to stand out looking in sometimes . I love what I do now . I have great management that keeps me pretty busy and with performing at colleges ( which is by the far the best audiences ever ) to corporate gigs and weddings . Bollywood is India and I love being a part of it .
Who were your musical influences growing up ? Who do you listen to these days ?
Growing up , I listened to a lot of jazz music and the likes of Mariah Carey , Whitney Houston , George Benson , Earth Wind and Fire , Aretha franklin , Herbie Hancock , Stevie Wonder , Erikah Badu , and Lenny Kravitz . I still listen to this but a lot has changed . I love Coldplay , the XX , and Electronic Music . I think any music has the ability to make my mind stop thinking and just be . Music is the speech of angels is what I ' ve learnt .
What has been the most memorable project that you ' ve done to date ?
Performing with my dad and uncle Louiz ( Louiz Banks ) have always been my favourite memories . I can ' t pick just one project . Also preforming with Gino Banks and Sheldon D ' silva . Growing up with these boys has been my learning curve . With my Bollywood band , it has been quite an expericne of learning on the job
You ' ve worked with several prolific music composers , including the legendary Pritam . Who would you love to collaborate with next ?
I would love to at some point work with A . R . Rahman . It would be quite amazing to sing for him and I think he ' s fabulous . Maybe Shankar Eshaan Loy if the opportunity ever arises !
What are your upcoming projects that you can share with your fans ?
I ' ve sung for Amit Trivedi and Sachin Jigar recently . Both super interesting and different projects . Can ' t say much about it but it ’ s out soon and well , they ' re both legendary .
The music business gets hectic at times . How do you manage to keep things real ?
I live in a forest in Madhya Pradesh called Satpura where my husband runs a forest lodge called Reni Pani jungle lodge and I cook for him everyday and lead a very simple village sort of life . I think Aly kind of keeps me real and grounded and we ’ re also in the process of becoming parents now . I think that is super real !
Do you talk to your dad about your projects / ask advice about future ones with your dad ? What ' s the best advice he ' s given you till date ?
I ' ve always talked to dad about everything from work to music to personal and his best advice to me has always been to follow your heart and sing from your heart and your belly and everything that needs to happen will happen in time . That ' s kinda stuck with me and it ' s bloody true .
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