SHIlPA RAO tells PRAKRITI ROY about her new album, how she got into music and why performing live is so special to her
Shilpa Rao has never failed to wow her listeners with her soulful voice and beautiful songs. However, a lot of her work is done live and is not accessible to a lot of people. It was this that prompted her to come up with her new album, Suno.
“These are the songs I grew up listening and I keep singing them. So, my band and I chose some of these tracks which we recorded just to put them out there for everyone to listen and Times Music helped us out,” says Shilpa. The album has six songs which are from a mix of various genres like sufi and thumri. Shilpa says that it is their tribute to greats like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
The singer tells you that she sings any song that appeals to her and does not believe in restricting herself to any genre. She adds, “The music scene keeps changing every three to six months. So there is always something new to learn.”
Seeing the singer now, one would find it difficult to believe that she trained professionally not just in music but in applied statistics, too. Growing up in Jamshedpur, she didn’t really think of music as her true and only calling. It was only when she was about 13-years old that she started learning music from her father and since then, she has never looked back. Ask her if she was always being told that she had a ‘soulful’ voice and she replies, “As a child, I wasn’t very popular socially. But once I moved to Mumbai and people started hearing my music, they used to say that I’ve got a voice unlike any they’ve heard before.” Although her voice is unique, and because of it, composers often found it difficult to place her in a particular song.
Shilpa is quite a popular name in the live performance circuit and has performed world over. But she refuses to choose a favourite between performing live and recording in the studio. “I love doing both and both spaces are equally challenging,” says the voice behind Khuda Jaane and Ishq Shava.
With the rise of digitally available music and piracy, many feel that music will slowly lose its value and authenticity. But Shilpa has no such qualms. “Technology has its pros and cons. Digital music is easily accessible to a lot of people. However, no matter how much music you have on your phone, it can never be compared with listening to live music at a concert. When I see two lakh people camped around the Glastonbury Festival, how can I feel that wayIJ There are more venues now that have live music and more music festivals all year round,” she tells you.
Having made a few appearances in shows like Unplugged and Coke Studio, Shilpa knows better than a lot of people that this kind of music is still in great demand.
“The songs performed on these shows tell you the behind the scenes story. Recently, I performed Kamli with Pritam on Unplugged. That was how the song was originally conceived but many times the songs change with the script and the director’s vision,” Shilpa tells you.
Shilpa is working on some collaborations which are still under wraps. She also has a few Bollywood songs to look forward to with composers Jeet Ganguli and Pritam.
Recently, she has worked on an international project with Pritam which she hopes can release in India soon.