In conversation witH
Anish Sood
India ' s most popular DJ and music producers Anish Sood talks to us about his new musical name Anyasa , on his upcoming EP Gaya and discover more about this amazing DJ through this conversation .
Tell us about the name Anyasa . It ’ s a beautiful word . How did you come across it ? And why did you feel compelled to make the change from Anish Sood to Anyasa ?
The idea behind changing my artist name was to wipe the slate clean and create a fresh start . I think the new sound and radically different approach to Gaya really deserved a new identity and with a label like Anjunadeep backing the release it felt like the right move to make .
The name itself took a while to get right . I had some basic ideas laid out and they were – It had to sound “ Indian ” and hence Sanskrit was the go-to language . It also needed to sound like an evolution of my name and thus I was looking for words that started with A and of course it had to make sense in the larger scheme of things as well . So I basically bought a bunch of Sanskrit dictionaries , started shortlisting words and eventually lucked out ! Anyasa translates to spontaneous or effortless and I can ’ t think of a better way to describe this evolution .
Could you talk to us about your four-track EP Gaya ?
Gaya was written with the intent of being a conceptual EP . This was right in the middle of the first lockdown when inspiration and motivation were at an all-time low and I was just trying to make music as a creative outlet . There were a lot of small things that came together in hindsight to create Gaya . I looked back at a lot of progressive trance from the early 2000s and that definitely served as a reference point for writing music that was emotive and euphoric . Working with Indian vocals was also a chance discovery but the further I delved into it , I quickly realised that there was something special .
The EP itself is designed to take the listener on a journey through the night . It starts off with ‘ Rasiya ’ which is a mellow take on vocal deep house . The vocal is really the star of the track and the production was built around it for support . From there on the EP gets progressively darker and the tracks have been arranged very carefully to create big moments on dancefloors . I think what I ’ m most proud of with the EP is that even once the energy levels pick up significantly towards the end with ‘ Ranjhna ’ and ‘ Nadiyan ’, they don ’ t lose the emotions from the vocals and that really is the essence of the sound I wanted to make with Anyasa .
We absolutely loved ‘ Rasiya ’, your first single off from the EP . How did you decide to collaborate with Isheeta Chakrvarty ?
I first discovered Isheeta Chakrvaty on a track by Anhad & Tanner which they asked me to remix . I was truly blown away by her voice as well as her ability to write Indian classical melodies with a very fresh and contemporary feel . In many ways reaching out to her was the start of the journey that put me on the path to Gaya and then Anyasa .
The Score Magazine
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