With the right resources, so many impeccable artists would come to the fore: Shashaa Tirupati

The singer says that in the current pandemic state around the globe, artistes aren’t earning via live gigs which would ordinarily and significantly have funded their indie music endeavours.

Singer Shashaa Tirupati has released multiple singles during the lockdown this year. She says she wanted to utilise her time wisely and so she even shot music videos at home and released them on YouTube. And the singer says that digital streaming platforms are a great place for indie artistes to put out their work and they can “only be as organic as we make them”. “Such platforms are as organic as we individually choose to keep them. There are plenty of options (paid and organic) such as Google AdSense which allow your video to reach more consumers creditably. Personally, I condone “buying” anything fake, views or brand knockoffs in my wardrobe,” she says with a laugh.

Shashaa Tirupati is releasing a new single titled Siyaahii in collaboration with singer Papon.(Photo: Raymond Kam)

 

The singer is soon going to release an independent track titled Siyaahii, in collaboration with singer Papon. She says, “Papon is one of my favourite voices in the Indian music industry. I’d been trying to get through to him for 6 months to approach him for singing on Siyaahii, a song I’d written and composed purely envisioning his voice! When I finally managed to get in touch, I’d emailed him the track and I suppose it was within a day’s time that I received his response, in the affirmative! I grew to have a profound sense of regard for his compassion and sincerity. He’s far senior to me in experience and his body of work, but he treated the song with utmost care and cognizance, ensuring he was in line with the expectations of the songwriter’s vision of the song. He would provide me with options and run by me how I’d like particular lines/ phrases to be sung. And he made every word worth a million. He’s a genuine artist, honest to his art, and a joy to work with.”

Tirupati believes that the independent music scene in India is currently witnessing an inevitable boom. “Everyone’s suddenly hatching from their cocoons and expressing themselves through their songwriting, videos and/or production, including artistes who would earlier have termed themselves as just vocalists or just an instrumentalist,” she says.

 

A lot of musicians nowadays feel that a lot more money is spent on promoting a track rather than actually making it. And Tirupati believes that indie music requires a lot of funding to actually be seen out there. “This says a lot about the kind of support and funding we in our independent music pursuits require, particularly in the current pandemic state around the globe wherein we aren’t earning via live gigs which would ordinarily and significantly have funded our indie music endeavours. With the right resources, so many impeccable artists and so much latent music waiting to be discovered would come to the fore,” says the singer, who is also in the finishing stages of her EP, titled STITCHED, which is due for release this September/ October.

 

“I’ve produced most and written all the songs on the EP, including a collaboration featuring Chinmayi Sripaada. Other collabs in the pipeline/ due for release include Raat with Sid Paul, and various other collabs featuring artists like Vishal Dadlani, Harshdeep Kaur to name a few. I’ve been recording quite a bit for other composers and films from home. Then there are covers, which I prefer rearranging myself, including the recently released Chaudhvin Ka Chand (sung originally by Mohd. Rafi Saahab) and Zindagi Bhar Nahin Bhulegi. I’m also working on a single (tentatively) titled Medieval Minds that I’m writing and will be directing and editing the video of, after Leprechaun Love,”she concludes.