MUKESH AMARAN
ALBUM ARTicle
AKSHAY
AGRAWAL
Hello, a little bit about yourself and your background in arts and music?
I am Akshay Agrawal and I am a Wonder Junkie!
Amidst the engineering trauma, I became a self-taught
designer! I started off doing UI/UX designs for projects,
posters, illustrations and branding for college events like
TEDx, pushing me out of my comfort zone every time.
Also, the love for art, philosophy, and music has
always intrigued me to imagine the meaning
behind them, thus giving me opportunities
to render my imaginative fantasies!
At this point in your career, what role did music have
to play in you getting to where you are?
Visual representation of music has always been
part of my life directly and indirectly! My other
passion, dance has always taught me how the
music makes you feel, learning the right intention
always helps you to deliver the right message.
I wanted to convey the same story in the art using similar
metaphors. Darkness and Bright Sky representing integral
part of life, Sun and Moon to describe beauty in both
situations, Stars and Birds to represent opportunities
and freedom, Dead and Blooming Flowers in the heart
to represent one’s own grief and desires, and absence of
stars in front of eyes to show that how a person becomes
blind to opportunities and happiness because of self-
doubts! Bringing all this together to convey the meaning
and exporting the last iteration at 4 am surprised me with
output, thus ironically clearing my own self-doubts!
Tell us a little bit about the process that is
involved in making a piece by Akshay .
Music is an integral part of my work-life, as every
project nudges me to hunt for the right playlist to
set the mood. Music and Pop culture have always
fascinated me, I always wanted to part of it and
visual arts has helped me make my way into it. I always believe in investing the major time in
researching and understanding the concept. Curiosity
helps in boosting creativity. Without the research,
anything remains meaningless. Once the idea is
there, It just takes playing with tools to portray it.
Tell us about your collaboration with Kenji Distobot from
conception to creation and the end product. Tell us about your art style and the concepts behind your artworks.
Kenji is a good friend of mine and we have previously
worked together on other projects. When he pitched me
the concept, it was quite experimental than his other
projects and he allowed me the liberty to experiment
myself. The song Khoj is about a person’s introspection
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of his own split nature. How he views the world in a
negative way and motivates himself to look for the
positive side. It was an attempt to spread awareness
about self-care and mental health. The lyrics are very
metaphorical and relatable to my own life on goings.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
Good storytelling always gets sold. I try implementing
this with vector arts, typography, and minimal
approach. Photography makes one relate to reality, and
illustrations let them imagine, and I always aim for that.