Akriti Kakar, the singer who has come up with a new single Thomkiya Thomkiya along with Shaan, talks about how she plans to keep the folk music alive, staying relevant in the industry and her future plans.
You have been recreating many Punjabi and Bengali folk songs. Is this your way of enlightening the newer generation towards folk music?
Yes. The idea is to make traditional folk music fun for today’s audience who we know as the ‘fast food generation’ where they want everything to be cool. At the same time, it is a conscious effort to not spoil the originality of the song and very smartly try to tell them at folk music and old songs have a power of its own. I want to redefine old melodies without hampering the originality of it. Also, these days we see a lot of music being composed in an inorganic way with the help of computer so I also wanted to let people know that a completely organic song can also work and give you the same kind of energy. When I perform on stage, nothing is programmed. Every single element is real and live, similarly in this song all the musicians who are playing in the video have actually performed in the actual song as well. I want to enlighten the audience that stupid lyrics don’t make a good song.
How did Thomkiya Thomkiya happen?
I discovered Shubham Moitra (composer) while judging a reality show on Zee Bangla. I loved his approach as he was redefining old melodies while arranging songs for this show. A conversation with him resulted into this song. He sent me a scratch and loved it. I decided to ask Shaan as we were working on Indian Pro Music League. We have know each other for many years and I am way junior to him. When I asked him, he instantly jumped on the idea and I was so happy. It was really overwhelming because I have grown up listening to Tanha Dil and other singles of his from the 90s and while doing this single, I was doing boomerang videos with him. Every time he has met me with so much love and fondness so there is a huge respect for him. While working on this single, he instilled so much faith in me while taking team decisions. He trusted my sensibilities and decisions. Within a week’s time we recorded, shot and released the song so it was really an interesting journey. I am hearing some promising reviews which is really encouraging.
In today’s time where anything and everything can be offensive, how do you make sure that you don’t hamper with the originality of the music?
Personally, I feel I am born in the wrong generation (laughs). I am pretty old school. But I feel old school also needs to cool and that is what I am trying to do. You don’t need to sexify with the song to make it adaptable and acceptable by the people. The sanctity of the original needs to maintained. Like my Punjabi folk song Chitta Kukkad that I recreated for my Youtube channel garnered so many views without any promotions as I don’t believe too much in it. Also, there is no way an independent artist can compete with the number of views that a music label can get. I try to keep the rendition original enough as much as I can. The song has to be an extension of my personality. It cannot be borderline cheesy or cheap because 40 years down the line, when I have grandchildren, I don’t want them to tell me that granny you were doing such ridiculous songs (laughs).
You mentioned that you are being old school, then how difficult does it get in the industry to be relevant?
I was just talking to someone that in the last three years, I didn’t hear my own voice. I was making music and would keep waiting for some sort of nod of approval from people around me. I wanted them to tell me that this is the song with which you can relaunch your independent single with this. Everybody had certain opinions and I don’t know why I gave them the power to tell me what I should do and not hear my heart. So, I shoved these songs in a hard disk and I have been waiting for the right time to come because I have not signed with any label. The scare and the fear rises because my song might be the best one but you aren’t sure what will happen as the only thing that I can do is upload the song on my Youtube channel and hope for it to reach out to people via word of mouth. Knowing that the odds are against me, it is discouraging. But I realised that if I keep doing this then none of my songs will come out of the hard disk and see the light of the day. So I have decided to release my singles without worrying about the numbers and the situation. Thomkiya Thomkiya is the first of many.
Are you working on any other songs?
But in the past year I realised what I didn’t plan also happened. I became a part of two reality shows when the entire world was in a hard spot. It actually kept me keep my head in the right space. So I feel I shouldn’t plan and just go with the flow. I do have the next two songs ready so they are going to come out soon.
How do you look at your journey so far?
I came here to be a singer and all I wanted to do sing. I have been very fortunate to be at the right place, at the right time and amongst the right. When I started it was very hard because there was no social media, there was no platform to put up a video and tag music composers and hope they would notice me. I was just a girl out of school who didn’t even know whether the demo I carried was good enough. I used to sit all night with my father, pick up music directories and mark all the names I wanted to call with a highlighter pen.
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