 We will get another episode of our series Rising Stars which profiles the emerging talent of the music industry and on this episode we have with us a very talented singer straight from the hills, Shubhangi Tiwari with us, we welcome you on our show Shubhangi. Thank you so much Agneshvi, thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for your time, so Shubhangi my first question to you is, tell us about your musical journey so far, how it has been? Well so far so good, it's been great, I was immersed into music as a little child because my mom is a musician, she's the Sitarist, those were like some of the first sounds I heard you know, her playing Sitar, so I guess somehow it got in vibe in vibe with me and no matter what I did music is always stayed with me and so of course like I have done my masters in another subject prior to picking up music full-time and I was also briefly an assistant professor of political science but then I decided to take the plunge and become a full-time musician. Oh wow that's great, that's great so far so good your music journey. Absolutely and some of the music full-time and I moved to Mumbai, my career and it's very rewarding to be in Mumbai because there's so many creative people, very very talented people in such a small space you know so the chances of meeting somebody you can be inspired by and learn from are so much higher because you know the place where I live very very creative people, actors, writers, directors, musicians, singers so it's pretty exciting so I'm sure. In contrast to that only who are your biggest musical influences? Your mother and definitely my mother, her Guruji or yes Pandit Balram Bhattak ji. Oh wow that's great and although basically I started with Indian classical music that's what I heard mostly at home so there were some very great musicians like Pandit Shikumar Sharma ji, Pandit Hari Prasachara Seji who would be at home because my mother also curated their travels to different countries, concerts so they'd be at home, they'd be practicing, they'd be talking music and I'd be hearing that so that was my first sort of immersion into music and after that I would say my parents would play their favorite Bollywood songs and so I would definitely say Latamungeshkarji so anyway sweet voice you know that sort of like tuned everybody's yours for generations and generations of people you know set the benchmark for what great music sounds like so in contrast to that only I would say when did you realize that this was the this was it that I have to sing and how did you discover your passion for singing that this is it this is how I had to do in future right um I think I was pretty young I knew I wanted to sing all the time because it just just brings me so much joy so passion turned into Kailiur basically yes absolutely absolutely and then when I was I would sing a lot at the school level at the college level just because I was in a dhyanamesha music and all those extra critical activities related to music mostly and also theater a bit but mostly music I would always gravitate back oh so when I sort of became an assistant professor of political science and I was teaching and I do enjoy joy teaching I it's very rewarding work um I also teach music now vocal coach and a voice healer kind of music you teach um so there are many aspects to what I do so um like one aspect is vocal production like the mechanics of how to sing properly without damaging your voice uh using your instrument um in the best possible way you know yes so technique we work mostly on technique and the instrument of course then there's another aspect of my work where I heal voices that have been damaged due to improper technique oh wow that was like yes for that I work in tandem with ENT doctors mostly I get patients referred from Gangaram hospital in Delhi so that's another aspect of my work then I also prepare students for exams if they want to give exams you know okay so it could be western music exams so it could be avrsm rock and pop you know these are different boards for example and I always teach Indian classical in the study that's great that's great so are you planning to study further for this music this kind of any specific specialization basically well to be honest learning music is a lifelong thing you know so I could have been a great singer 10 years ago you know but the way I will approach a song the same song I sang maybe 10 years ago I will sing it completely differently now because it's the experience the ear training and you know just uh you're a better performer because you've done it so many more times and you have improved upon your practice you know that has all sort of evolved so it's an ongoing thing definitely and you know I do want to learn more Indian classical because there's so many rugs I can learn and so many bandishes you know you understand bandish it's like a it's a composition it's a musical composition in the khayal style of singing in our Hindustani classical music and I'm also working on writing a book on you know where I'm sort of work again it's the technical part of singing so it's like how to teach voice in the most painless and most effective most optimal way so it'll be sort of like a reference guide sort of a thing for vocal teachers okay so when is this book is launching when the book is that's a very good question I'm working on it and hopefully it should happen by uh the end of this year end of this year oh very excited to look forward so uh what genre of music do you enjoy singing the most your favorite genre in music well um I I really enjoy using my voice so you know when I have been trained in various kinds of music and I've listened to so much music we all have you know we have access to so much music now uh at the snap of our fingers and at the press of the button so I really enjoy exploring what my voice can do so don't be surprised if I tell you that I love singing in this tiny classical music but I also love singing rock music you know I really enjoy how my voice sounds yeah it's just all for the pleasure of it you know I connect to various kinds of music so could you share a memorable moment from your singing career so far a most memorable most unforgettable right um so to be honest uh being a singer being on stage performing for an audience it's a blessing and all of these moments are just just happy core memories you know uh but I would definitely say one thing that really stands out to me um has been my experience with my grandfather so uh my grandfather uh my nanaji my maternal grandfather uh Dr. Madhra the Pandey uh he was a celebrated writer and he was awarded the president's award like twice and in numerous awards and he was still writing and working prolifically um even at the age of 93 he passed away like when he was 94 in 2020 but uh so he had he had this uh desire that I would compose and sing some of his creation some of the songs he had written so um so he was uh he was ill he was fading uh at that time but I came up with this song his song you know uh which he had written and I sort of pleaded for him the audio and just watching him light up and get energetic and just sort of just so much love in emanating from him at that moment I I felt like I'd done something I felt like I actually made a difference you know through my music and made him really happy so I think that's one memory that is going to stay with me forever so nice so nice that's a very emotional moment for any granddaughter and a very proud one also yeah so what is your creative process like when it comes to composing and writing a music a song a new song what are your thoughts and what all you do tell us the process right so um would you see what happens is uh since we're in this in the music industry there's no one particular movie or I write songs so depending on what I'm writing for so it could be for a client so the brief is different the timelines are very different and when I'm working with say uh it could be that I haven't worked with the producer or the writer before you know so we sort of make a team to create that particular song so you know what could do it that way or one could just be writing something and the lyrics come first and become from the depths of your own experience and the brief is uh there is no brief really because it's just expression and so songs are written that way too and sometimes you know you hear a tune that your friend made and you just start humming a tune and then you put words to it and that's another way a song can be born all right and sometimes you're just walking around and you get inspired and you think of a cool beat and you start producing it on your software and then you know it goes from there so any point could be like an insertion into writing of a song it could be a cool beat that you hear it could be a deadline you know so yeah so Shivani these days we don't need any particular record labels and any music companies we we just put our song on jails and it goes it goes viral in few hours few days I mean what what's your take on this oh that we use our playing a major role in the music industry so definitely I mean it's a good time for content creators yeah definitely definitely but I would still say there is a structure yeah which you have to put yourself through for that music to be heard exactly right so you have to still insert your song your music you have to get those numbers and actually your song the metadata you have to enter it you have to put it into distribution websites you know for it to be distributed even on platforms like instagram and or any other platform to be honest you too if it's playing somewhere it's been tagged it's been you know you added the metadata you paid the fees you've taken a membership you know for you for your music to be online so as with everything online you're paying for the services all right and then of course there's the whole marketing aspect of it yeah there's so much content it's just a struggle to be seen the visibility factor is it is real you know so so you're gonna have to put in some sort of strategy and advertisement for your content to show up for them and yeah and to meet the right sort of audience which will pick it up and then share it and then of course things gain momentum and things go viral but definitely there's a structure to it so yes so there's no it's not like oh it's instant or it was unplanned this could be a case definitely but it's it's very minuscule in the logic scheme of things so are there any particular artists or bands you want to collaborate with so many so many but uh right now um what I'm who I can think of is I love an artist called Andhra Bocelli I think he sounds divine and I would love love love to do a duet with him and a song with him just have share that space with Andhra Bocelli and I also really respect and admire the work of Marty Friedman he's a guitar player based on Tokyo and he used to play for a metal band in the eight back in the day so I definitely want to work with him because I love his sensibility in the way he composes and I think we could do something really nice together that's great that's great so you are recently working on your folk songs right yes yes absolutely so I am from the Himalayas so I'm from a Himalayan state called Uttarakhand so I've so I haven't really lived in Uttarakhand of you know because of work because of work yeah we were mostly traveling me and my parents so for their work and I was sort of obviously had to leave my parents so we never really stayed in Uttarakhand but I've always had this desire to connect with the culture of my ancestors and what better way to understand the culture and how people think what they feel what they sound like then through the folk songs of the place so I was very fascinated I you know so interestingly my mother has also done her PhD on folk tunes of Uttarakhand so she has sort of so by definition of just the folk tunes are not written down you know we are sung by communities and it's more of like a traditional sort of like a lot of music is written down right it's notated but like classical music is you know but folk music is mostly passed on from generation to generation so the children will be the parents singing and their children after them and that's how it's passed along so my mother which is done is she's taken the tune the authentic tune whatever she could understand and because again the tune varies the paragraphs vary you know that's the nature of folk music she she took that and she notated it so that people like me I guess you know who haven't lived in that culture so much but want to learn more about it want to sing the music can get an authentic feel for the music through the recorded material you know yeah so so I've taken some of the tunes and you know reimagined it because you know I need to be authentic to my musical influences as well and there's I mean I it's not like I have to be there's no other way I'm going to interpret every tune through my my hearing how I interpret music through the lens of my experience and education so that's I've taken that those folk tunes and worked with producers and so we've come up with a modern sounding take on it so it's in process or is it coming out soon so so I have released about four tracks they were on hooper okay wow okay yes yes so I've also ended up doing some songs in Punjabi and you know Himachali because I do like folk songs in general but most of them are in the Kumawni language as they've already been released and a video has also been released for one of them so I plan to do more of that for sure and I'm also working on my the whole project of that I mentioned earlier my nanogies yeah and these are again I'm these are songs in Sanskrit and the way I'm treating them is that they're going to be popular songs in Sanskrit so usually you'll find that in Sanskrit all the music that we show is from usually religious texts right their mantras and other sacred material but the interesting thing about what I'm trying to do is that all of this is profane it's not sacred so it's written by a you know by a writer who you know who has lived amongst us and just passed away but he has lived you know my nanaji and he's written about uh mundane topics yeah so it's like Sanskrit literature basically and songs proper songs in Sanskrit so I can afford to make them pop songs you know are there any causes or issues that you are passionate about and what and you want to raise awareness through your music any anything you want to circulate a public message from your music or something like that well definitely we'll just be like I care about justice I like things to be fair you know around me in society I care about harmony you know that human beings live in harmony with each other you know beyond the divisions artificially created divisions of religion caste gender you know so any sort of divisions and also live in harmony with each other and live in harmony with the natural world so you could say I'm passionate about the environment you could say I'm passionate about harmony you could say I would like to see more peace in the world and I would like to see a more just world you know where people have access to basic the basics and an access to a good life a respectable life which every human being deserves so definitely I would in the future hope that my music can create more of these values in the world more of this vibration in the world definitely so can you sing one of your favorite songs okay whatever you feel like I'll sing the song I create for my nanaji that way okay so this was called ashadasi pratham divasai it's in Sanskrit and it's by my nanaji Dr. Mathuradat Pandey and do you understand Sanskrit at all oh listen I would so ashadasi pratham divasai it's basically the first day of the rainy season oh ashad that's it we get that in India as well so as you can imagine the forward writer he is talking about the first day of the rains and we all know what that feels like right after the one summer you know everything is just cleansed and renewed with friends all this hope and this and life seems to just and it's coming well so it's on the way it's on the way yes so he's talking about that and then he's also talking about how everybody gets amorous you know in the rainy season so again very very mundane stuff but relatable yeah so I'd like to sing oh Madhno nishitam sharampi dhalte Shanti sa mejane vijyatarsatiya Shauri garshatiya Shauri chana chana Mokta munchati Garjati mandram Kamag jao garshatiya Shauri garshatiya It was very pure bliss to my ears. It was amazing, Shivangi. It was sweet and gorgeous. Thank you so much. Shivangi, my last question to you is what advice do you have for aspiring singers and budding singers who have just come into the industry? Any advice you would like to give them? Well, when one sets out to be an artist, one has to remember there is no template. There is no formula. You have to forge your own road, your own path. And the more you do that, I think the more you can leave a legacy because what you do is coming from an authentic place, a unique place within you. So I would just like to say that be yourself, be unique. And apart from that, the basics, which are persevere, hustle, to an extent. And absolutely, and what else? Basically, this is it. And be yourself. And one very, very important thing, yes, which I'd like to add, is work on your craft. Always keep working on your craft. Very true. Very well said. That is what makes me new and you'll be able to get the best you can to the world. That's great. That's great. So Shivani, thank you so much for your time. And we would like to see you another time with another episode, another series. Thank you so much. See you. I would love to come back again. And thank you so much for having me this time. And I would just like to say to the viewers that if they would like to sort of follow me on my journey, they can join me on Instagram, maybe. So my handle is instagram.com slash Shivani. Just my name. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye.