You also created a fun game around the track on Instagram . Could you elaborate on that for us ?
Although Qareeb ’ s lyrics describe the rush of falling in love with a partner , The visual narrative offers a slightly different perspective . The stop motion animation music video for Qareeb by Arsh Grewal narrates the story of a girl who grows and learns to love herself and highlights the message that the most important relationship is the one that you have with yourself . Filled with symbolism , the flower and the red flag are two key elements in the music video . In the beginning , the girl throws a flower in the air and a guy appears . Then she throws a red flag in the air and her clothes change denoting that she is changing herself for the guy . Towards the end , she finally throws all the red flags she has collected , makes a cape out of it , flies out and rejoices in her own company . The game filter was a shower thought inspired by the red flags . The character from the music video skateboards and all you have to do is blink to jump all the red flags to get a score ( If only it was that easy , am I right ?) Yash Pradhan who worked with us on all the merch designed the game and the response was incredible !
You have evolved and grown as an artist and a songwriter over the years . How did the lockdown / pandemic situation help you in polishing your art ?
As challenging as the lockdown has been for all of us , as musicians we were all forced to check in with ourselves , our intentions and the things that bring us joy . From running from rehearsals to airports to stages to being restricted to the four walls of our bedroom has been overwhelming . It ’ s like everything we knew about being a musician changed overnight for more than a year . However , I am so proud to see the independent music scene boom during this time . It ’ s been so inspiring to discover so much new and promising talent out there ! Personally , I shifted from Mumbai to Delhi when the pandemic first hit , lived in the mountains ( Bhowali ) with my family for 4 months which is where I released
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Qareeb and am now back here in Delhi living with my parents and brother . One way I ’ ve stayed motivated and inspired is by making a bedroom my dream room and home studio and a place where I love spending all my time . It ’ s been so nice creating without any pressure and I realise I am privileged to be able to say that . Instead of running a race and trying to do a hundred things at the same time , I ’ m suddenly focusing on a handful of tasks that really matter and give me joy and I ’ m just trying to make the best of that situation . It ’ s definitely helped me understand my intention and purpose as an artist better than ever before .
Tell us a bit about your recent release " Duur ".
Duur is a song about the struggles of a surface level existence and detachment from the world both inside and out . A long distance collaboration with Mumbai based producer and composer , Kabeer Kathpalia a . k . a OAFF , the song brings diverse perspectives to collide with Urdu poet & singer-songwriter , Sameer Rahat on lyrics and Karun Kannampilly from the indie / alternative rock band , Koniac Net on Drums . A little backstory , the chorus is as old as 2017 and was shelved somewhere in the vast plethora of voice memos I didn ’ t know what to do about . I would often find myself humming the melody and feel completely blocked when it came to ideas for the verse . On a rainy day at our house in the hills and with some help from my parents , I finally arrived at a rough song idea . I met Sameer Rahat , a composer , producer and poet at a house concert in Pune . During the road trip back to Bombay , we spoke about our music and connected for hours and he was kind enough to jump on board and write the lyrics of the song with me . I am so grateful to have delved into co-writing my own music for the first time with a genius like him .
One day , I sent a raw acoustic guitar and vocal demo to Kabeer and he sent me a produced version that I instantly fell in love with . I have always admired the way he approaches production and composition with tastefulness in his own music and it was a great experience doing this one with him . I also got to work with my bandmate ,
Karun Kannampilly who recorded drums from his home studio and added so much life to the song .
I also got to work with Arsh Grewal again on the music video which has already hit 100K views on Youtube . It ’ s inspiring to see how seamlessly Arsh has transitioned from stop motion animation in Qareeb to reel life in Duur . Using Double exposure to talk about duality and distance felt like a perfect metaphor to express the theme of the song in a thoughtful way , both in the artwork and the music video . We got incredibly lucky to be able to shoot this right before the second wave with a small team of 4-5 people . Duur is my search for emotional depth and vulnerability .
Talk to us about your songwriting process .
My songwriting process varies from song to song . Qareeb took 30 minutes while Duur on the other hand took years of trial and error , discarding voice memos , taking breaks from the song and finally collaboration . I tend to write the hook of the song first and sometimes to check if it ’ s worth exploring , I don ’ t record my ideas to see if I remember them naturally the next day . If the hook of the song is strong enough and I feel attached to it , I decorate and develop the song around that . I like to lean on my instruments as a tool for songwriting and come up with the harmony , riff first and write vocal melodies and lyrical hook over that which later becomes the essence and central message of the song . The more I write , the better and more critical I get about my work work which is a blessing because you ’ re more aware but also a curse because it takes longer to reach a point of satisfaction .
You did a series called " Green room sessions " during the pandemic time . What was the idea behind it ? Did it help you achieve what you wanted to ?
The Green Room Sessions is a series of homegrown music videos of the most initial baby versions of my songs symbolic of my bedroom being my rehearsal space before I get to go out into the real world and perform all my original music . From a love song