At just 18 years, singer-songwriter Shriya (Rao), has already released 5 singles, and has more than 50 live performances to her credit at prestigious venues across Mumbai.

Shriya’s music blends contemporary R&B/soul and pop, and is inspired by the music of Daniel Caesar, Summer Walker, Erykah Badu, Mac Miller and Tate McRae. When Shriya isn’t producing original music or performing live, she has lent her voice to doing TV commercials for leading brands such as Nykaa Fashion, Tang, and Lenskart.

Some time ago, Sony Music India’s sub label, DayOne, released two of her songs Ride For Me and On My Mind. Both tracks were viewed over 180,000 times on YouTube, with On My Mind alone crossing 50,000 streams on Spotify.

VERUS FERREIRA spoke with the Mumbai-based artist to learn about her musical journey.

How did music get to be a part of your life?
I have been singing as far back as I can remember. Disney movies and my dad singing to me as a toddler were definitely my biggest inspirations. My family was super supportive and started my formal vocal training when I was 9-10 years old. From then on, there was no looking back.

Do you recall your first-ever performance and the first track you ever sang? Were you nervous?
I did sing at many school assemblies, but my first performance on stage outside of school was at an event at the Royal Western Turf Club for my vocal teacher Stephen Fernandes. I still remember that I sang a super intricate jazz song by Nikki Yanoufsky called Something New. Interestingly, my first ever studio recording was also with my teacher of Something New when I was 12 years old.

Did you take up any vocal training to polish your singing skills?
Yes, I trained extensively with Stephen Fernandes (Sobo House of Music), and also did the Pro-junior course at the True School of Music. Then when I was 16 years old, I started training with Stacie Dunlop, a Toronto-based vocal technique coach.

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Actor-singer-songwriter, Kavya Trehan, better known as Kavya, is a multi-hyphenate star who pursues everything that inspires her. The talented Delhiite gets a kick out of playing singer, songwriter, model and actor. Kavya creates an unprecedented sound that is a mix of R&B, indie pop and electronic music, experimental, lo fi.

After releasing an EP with her band Mosko, Kavya started working on her solo project and released two singles Golden and Underscore. Anyone who has seen her perform can say that her artistic expressions go way beyond singing. Her lyrics are based on real-life events and deep emotions accompanied by a handful of fun and imagination. A case in point would be her music video for Underscore.

Kavya debuted at Lollapalooza India, and for the third time at Vh1 Supersonic this year. Post her performance, VERUS FERREIRA spoke to Kavya on her music, new album, collaborations, love for acting and much more.

Can you share with us something about yourself?
I think and I truly believe in the fact that you grow into the name that you have. We’re so lucky in India to have these names that mean something. So Kavya means poetry. So I write poetry and my music is electronic, it’s emotional. Its core is in singer-songwriter, acoustic. But it has a lot of synthesis, live looping and I think it’s more about experiencing my music versus what I can say. I’m so bad at describing my music!

Tell us about your musical background and how you started singing.
Unfortunately, I don’t come from a long lineage of a musical family, but I have a very gifted mother and singer. So I guess when I was very young, like when I was 14, I started singing. My lullabies were ABBA and George Michael and my sister would sing songs to me. I went to a school that really encouraged extracurricular and the beauty of being creative. And so there was no looking back when I said yes on my first open mic. I just started playing. I allowed the collaborators to teach me things from production of how to behave in a studio. And I’m just a self-taught musician. I don’t want to stop.

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SONY DADC (CD + DVD), Rs 699

Beyoncé’s sixth studio album and her second visual album features 12 new songs and a short film Lemonade that has music videos of her songs. The lyrics, contributed by many guest writers, make bold lyrical statements in the audio version as well as in the accompanying DVD. The album booklet has colour and black and white photographs from the music videos and a few personal photographs. This conceptual project has lyrics that dwell on the black community, and in particular black feminism, besides also focusing on every woman’s journey of self knowledge and healing.

The R&B sound laced with a bit of soul is well orchestrated, lyrically and musically. The album opens on a slow tone with Pray You Catch Me. “I can taste the dishonesty, it’s all over your breath…” sings Beyoncé as she deals with an unfaithful lover. Hit of the year, Hold Up, a reggae-tinged number, sees Beyoncé as a woman possessed, marking the territory around her lover, the music video would reveal more about what she does on a street with her baseball bat. With a heavy bass beat, the effect is hallucinogenic, with a deep baseline. The melodic Jack White collaboration, Don’t Hurt Yourself, is pop-laced with a few foul lyrics spoken in a moment of rage. Sorry gets up-tempo and then suddenly drops back and jumps back to keep the flow of the song. It could become one of the better club anthems on the party circuit. Daddy Lessons has a brass edge to it, with Beyoncé talking about how her father brought her up, helping her fight for justice for the men in her life. The acoustic guitar playing country style is neat and plucky, shadowing her roots from her homeland. The pitch slows down slightly on Love Drought and the fantastic piano-laced Sandcastles, both of which are fine ballads, with Sandcastles in particular bringing out Beyonce’s rich vocal capability. It has a raw feeling to it, very emotional and personal.

After an 80 second break on Forward, we get Freedom, featuring Kendrick Lamar, which speaks of a cry for liberation. Bey goes ballistic on this piece with a shout for freedom.

Lemonade closes with Formation, a funky piece that has kinky lyrics, a heavy baseline and an unforgettable beat. It is very infectious and surely a tune that might never get out of your head.

At her most benevolent and most unadulterated, the album presents Bey at her most skilled and orchestral mode creating a mix of crazy anthems which all goes to make a great album.

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SONY DADC, Rs 499

Simon Cowell’s The X Factor has produced some good artists down the years, from solo acts to boy and girl groups. One of the more popular bands is Fifth Harmony, an American all-girl group spinning some notable songs and some which we might not want to really talk about.

Dinah Jane Hansen, Ally Hernandez, Normani Kordei, Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui, bring out sugary pop-R&B songs, dance pieces and a few mushy tunes on this album. The girls have that extra oomph and personality to take them far.

Fifth Harmony speaks of matters close to the heart and boy-girl relationships of the adult kind. On the opening track, the very catchy That’s My Girl, they sing: “Destiny said you got to get up and get it / Get mad independent, don’t you ever forget it”, to some funky bass and electronic drum roll. We also have the Rihanna chorus coming in to help out the girls when they yell out “Work, work, work, work” on their track Work From Home. If it worked for RiRi, it’s working for these five damsels.

Trying out some EDM might work in their favour when you listen to The Life. You get a look into the girls’ private lives when they open up on Write On Me, co-produced by Kygo, with its trippy house sound. They chant: “Everything is grey until you draw me / touching on my body like you know me.” It appears that all the five feel the same way, and show off their physical attributes in a few images on the CD inlay. I Lied is like an answer to Michael Bolton’s Said I Loved You But I Lied. Expect a bit of reggae on All In My Head (Flex) that features Fetty Rap, a Beyonce call and answer piece.

Not That Kinda Girl is a bouncy, retro electro piece that brings R&B diva Missy Elliot to the fore, shooting off her talent in front of the girls. Squeeze, a mid-tempo balladic piece is a top favourite; its finger-snapping bang on. The catchy chorus with an equally catchy beat will make you sing along. “Put your arms around me baby, and squeeze, only you know how to save me, put your arms around me baby and squeeze.”

Bonus track, Dope, spacey and electro styled, can be given a miss for its crude lyrics. No Way ends the album and is impressive, speaking of how the girls grapple with a complicated relationship despite many talking about them.

The five powerhouse vocals are unbeatable. It’s a sweet 40 minutes to spend with one of the top girl bands around. Includes lyrics.

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UNIVERSAL MUSIC, Rs 395

Many would not have heard of Abel Tesfaye a.k.a. The Weeknd’s debut effort Kiss Land that plunked badly on its release in 2013. Taking a point to the mistakes on it, The Weeknd brings out an album that you would enjoy. This pop/R&B filled album sees The Weeknd bringing many of his mates to join him hoping the collaboration might make a difference. It does to a certain extent.

Losers features U.K. singer-songwriter and producer Labyrinth on a catchy melody. You have some squishy drums, handclaps and a bit of jazzy influence thrown in. On Tell Your Friends, The Weeknd says that he’s still the same old guy in the face of all the fame, though some things have changed, we hope so musically. He sings: “My cousin said I made it big and it’s unusual / She tried to take a selfie at my Grandma’s funeral”; we didn’t expect him to go overboard like this. The Hills, with its catchy chorus and eerie screams, is a favourite here. The Weeknd talks to his lover about what he has done in the evening before he met her.

Skipping Acquainted an average track which has The Hills sample, we go for a track The Weeknd performed at the VMAs… Can’t Feel My Face which incidentally was his first number one hit. Co-written by Max Martin, (and if you didn’t know, The Weeknd has written the lyrics to all his songs here), he plays wicked and talks about the favourite things he enjoys in life. The beat is highly addictive, danceable funk bass, with vocals only the Canadian singer can produce. Mind you this song has a flippy edge to the style of Michael Jackson songs. The heady and very infectious In The Night has a disco feel to it and draws you onto the dance floor.

Shameless is partly an acoustic piece, opening into a brilliant electric guitar solo midway. It’s The Weeknd’s moment on instrumentation. Earned It, the theme song for 50 Shades of Grey, sees the 25-year-old on a slow mix, nothing that would get him any brownie points even though the lyrics are a bit nasty. Ed Sheeran’s collaboration on Dark Times fails, while the Lana Del Rey duet on the soul-searching Prisoner, adds nothing much except her vocals to a pretty low grade drum-heavy piece.

Enjoying the album would need a second audition, but his catchy hooks, lascivious lyrics and strong vocals… that’s The Weeknd packaged for you.

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SONY DADC, Rs 499

There have been many reports on the reason why Zayn Malik left One Direction in early 2015. Some were outright silly, while some said he was not comfortable being in the group where he claims his personality had taken a beating, to one source claiming the singer did not like the sound the band was producing.

Mind Of Mine is Zayn’s attempt to prove himself as an artist and show his true colours by bringing in a low-key, smoky R&B sound, a far cry from the pop-rock 1D sound that fans have known for so many years.

The area where Zayn moves off is not only in changing the genre of his sound, but also getting bold in his lyrics, something 1D never really dared try.

The toppers on this 18 track album include Pillowtalk that speaks of a place to sleep that can be also used for a quarrel. “It’s a paradise / And it’s a war zone,” sings Zayn. While It’s You speaks of a young and old Zayn. You could also go for the slightly upbeat Befour, or even She and Drunk, the former that talks a bit of the split with his former band 1D.

1D fans will now get a chance to actually hear Zayn’s voice on his solo effort and cherish how crisp, husky, and versatile it truly is. The interlude Flower is sung in Urdu, his father’s native language. The Brit-Pakistani 24-year-old sings: “Jab tak is mohabbat ke phool na khilay / Tab tak is dill ko sukoon na miley” (Until the flower of this love has blossomed/This heart won’t be at peace), against a folk-influenced guitar played in the background.

On the duet with Kehlani on Wrong, Zayn brings a great vocal pitch countering his female vocalist. The mid-tempo, slow jam is brilliant. With four bonus tracks added to the playlist, Zayn gives more to his fans, quenching their thirst for just this One Directioner.

Zayn has taken the path Justin Timberlake of N’SYNC once took. Timberlake knew what he wanted to do with his career and headlined into it with his heart. We see Zayn doing the same and hopefully it does work out in the end. Zayn excels and manages to make his fans happy on his debut effort.

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