‘Working with Rahman was enlightening’

Singer Shashwat Singh walks us through his musical journey and shares his experience working with the legendary musician

The melodious number from the film Mohenjo Daro, Sarsariya is topping the charts and the voice behind the romantic number, Shashwat Singh is on a musical high. The singer, who made inroads into playback singing with the song Wat Wat Wat from Imtiaz Ali’s Tamasha is loving his tryst with Bollywood and wishes to work with top-notch composers. He was in the city recently for Asia’s largest music festival, Bollywood Music Project voice hunt.

A philosophical Shashwat believes his opportunities to work with established industry names came about because they had to. “I want to work with everyone who makes good music, like Vishal Bhardwaj, Amit Trivedi, Shankar Ehsan Loy and many more. They all have a spiritual side to their music, and that’s what every artist strives to achieve,” he says.

He considers himself lucky for having got an opportunity to work with AR Rahman, who was the music composer for the film. It left him awestruck and overwhelmed. Beyond singing for the world-famous composer, it was also a learning experience, he says. “Since it’s an era-based movie, my inhibitions were dealing with the notes and expressions. But all this became easy because Rahman sir was around. Working with him was an enlightenment, you learn so much. Everything that he does is so magnificent, the way he infuses soul into a song,” he shares.

Shashwat believes that each song has its own destiny, but he always expects the best. He came to Chennai from Allahabad with hopes of a career in singing. He had no formal training, and took up a six-month course in Western Classical Piano, becoming part of NAFS, Rahman’s band. “As a kid I wanted to join the army. My mother was a singer, so the atmosphere at home was always musical. Eventually, the army didn’t work out for me. But I am glad I took up music,” he adds.

His journey in the industry was not an easy one, and he had his fair share of ups and downs. “The song from the film Tamasha was surely the turning point. But five years ago, I got my first break with a Tamil film. Unfortunately, before the film could be completed, the actress passed away, and the project got canned. After that, getting back on track took a lot of time,” he explains. He also continues to work on his independent songs. He has earlier sung songs like Bas Tanha, Bavala, and Jaane Kaise. His last song was a collaboration with Shankar Tucker. He is now busy working on his YouTube channel and has some collaborations in the pipeline.
zainab.kantawala@goldensparrow.com

Originally published on The Golden Sparrow