 So hello everyone, we welcome you on our new show Rise in Stars which profiles the emerging talent in the music industry and today on our first episode we have with us a very versatile and talented singer Alina Rehan Khan. We welcome you on our show Alina. Thank you so much Oji, thank you so much for having me here. So Alina, my first question to you is tell us about your musical journey so far. All right, so my musical journey has been very very interesting because there are a few things which you choose for yourself and there are a few things which happen to you. All right and your career is is not one of the things you always tend to think you know that my career is something that I will choose it is not something which happens to you but it's very ironic because I always see this that I did not choose music and music chose me. It was back in 2018 when I had started uploading covers and my first cover online ever bent viral organically hitting almost 11 million views and you know people from all parts of the world started texting me that we're listening to you sing and you've got a very nice voice this and that and slowly one by one one by one you know a lot of opportunities open and I was studying my bachelor's in architecture so I was meant to be an architect but mid college something like this happened and when yeah it's a big shift and it was very unexpected because I never in I was passionate about singing but I never thought of picking it up as a career it was always just a hobby but then yeah I think God always has his perfect plan and you know he somehow picked me up from there. True true true and it was unexpected but I nevertheless I'm grateful every day I can't thank God enough that I get to do what I get to do and yeah it's been amazing. So who inspired you to become a singer any inspiration particularly? The inspiration would be so I was born and raised in Kuwait all right and but I am a Desi I'm as Desi as it gets at heart all right and I am an Indian so back in Kuwait back home like I would really hear my mom while she would be kitchen you know cooking in the kitchen she'd be singing Lata Ji's songs and Asha Ji's songs so there are so many songs so many Bollywood songs that I've never really heard in real life but I've only heard my mom sing them so yeah and those songs are like very very special for me so I would say that my mom my mom is the one who's inspired me to sing. That's great that's great. So how do you approach writing new music and do you have any specific process for it? So I always feel like the best of content is what comes to you spontaneously and at least for me it happens this way like if you tell me Alina you have to make this song and if I sit with that mindset it does not come to me but I could be in the most random places you know I could be having a shower I could be sitting with friends and a composition just clicks me yeah and I take out my cell phone and I start recording sometimes it's it's very annoying for my friends also yeah they're like what are you doing yeah but then I think that's the thing about creative field you the creativity it can hit you anywhere anytime and yeah so many a times so I work in two patterns many a times I have a beat all right and I try to compose something on it and then turn the composition and write lyrics onto it many a times when I'm sitting idle I get a thought I start writing about it and then I compose it so either way that's great that's great that's a quite draw process and a simple one yeah and also I think because I've not had any formal education in music like I've never gone to school and I've never learned so it's it's very spontaneous and it's very all over it's all jumbled up and it's very very confusing but I think I really enjoyed because it's unique to me I know because I have no formal education like no one else can make this because it's just coming out of my heart and out of my soul so how how do you prepare for a live performance do you have any rituals and routines for it yeah so live performance is something that I'm very very peculiar about because making a song is a very personal process I feel but doing live shows is a very very it's a process more about the others than it is about me obviously when I'm on stage I like to have fun but I also want to ensure that the audience has more fun than I am having so for live shows actually live shows as the more you will practice for a live show behind the stage the more it will look effortless on the stage so I think for my live shows I do a lot of practice I have to put in a lot of practice and my band and I although I'm based out of Chandigarh my band and I meet regularly in Delhi for the practices and to keep keep jamming oh wow that's great so who are your biggest musical influences any influences you have yeah this is such a tough question yeah this is a very very because I think the world has produced such great artists India has produced such such great artists there's some crazy artists from yeah from Pakistan like if I I think I could have peculiar you know like if I see just performance wise it could be maybe Michael Jackson yeah because they're great performers yeah and there are some performance who just captivate like the people who have written crazy stuff maybe Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sam so I mean it's crazy you know yeah like and they're those type of people used to be different genres also true true true true true but currently like in India or in Bollywood because so I because I sing a lot of Bollywood I practice a lot of Bollywood all right but when I'm alone or when I'm when I'm a bathroom singer I like to sing a lot of jazz jazz is my jam I love singing jazz um it coming to artists yeah if you say that one artist that I really look up to in India or his process of working would be A. R. Human oh yeah I yeah like his H. E. Song is a masterpiece and if you learn the process of how he's made a song I think there's so much to learn from it that's very true that's very true so you have come up with your new song right Papi Girl so tell us about yeah all right so again there are so many songs that you write all right and like I feel like there are songs that I've written which are very very emotional and probably I would want to release them so there's a very funny story behind Papi Girl so one day you know I had like a few songs then I was getting no direction because the thing with being an artist is your journey can either go uphill or it can be stagnant you know there are a lot of highs and lows so one day I was just sitting idle all right and I was thinking how do I release this song how do I make a good song so I randomly texted Iqqa and I told him hey bro um I'm an artist and I've made a few songs and I would want you to guide and mentor me on these songs so he was very kind he was very polite he replied back like this is my email Iqqa and please send me the songs I'll listen and I'll tell you what we can do so I sent him five songs and amongst those five songs some of them are very close to me I feel like they are my best written songs okay and and then there was this one song Papi Girl all right and yeah trust me would just be Papi Girl is this song just friends are sitting around and fun fun me mazzak me you make something so it's a song which was made within 20 minutes in a very very rough dummy scratch version and I sent it to him so that was also one thing I sent but I thought this is though I'm just sending the four other songs were main songs he immediately replies back he's like Alina this song Papi Girl that you've sent me is like it's my vibe it was so random because sometimes your own product which you believe leased in it could be the best for someone else because so that's when because now now generations like very peppy songs and very catchy lyrics and very viral songs so yeah correct correct correct so even even the lines in Papi Girl like there's a line where say to whom a kaafi gharelu par club ja ke a chalakta hai peena it is something that everyone relates with related to young yeah because our generation is yeah our generation is very homely also like we will do all our errands we will do all our chores we will be responsible but we like to go out and party and have a good time once in a while so I think it's a few lines in the song yeah which are very real but people connected with it so touch what the song is doing very well that's great all the very best for your song so can sing two lines two lines yeah okay yeah first of all favorite nice I love you baby I'm a party girl wow that's that was amazing I would say and go very viral I hope so it was very well so yeah bro like only 10 days and already you know we've completed like 100,000 streams on Spotify almost one million streams on all the audio streaming platforms two million viewers on YouTube people are making a lot of reels so it's good to see organic response so any your favorite song you like to perform and why specifically why any of your favorite songs you like to perform and so there's this one song I don't know if you've heard I mean I'm sure you must have heard it the mother must have done that obviously everyone yeah everyone knows it and yeah and it's one of the song which I feel it's very spiritual also all right because it is like you're talking to your creator yeah yeah it's a Sufi song yeah it's very spiritual also but on the same it's very powerful all right you need a lot of your vocal energy and energy from all of your chest to sing that song and I feel it has never gone wrong like every time I perform that song in my schedule people dance to it yeah people dance to it people lose their minds and they dance to it so I think I think yeah that's one song I really like performing so any any Sufi songs lined up for you we can have so I have so I have written I have written all kinds of songs like sad songs happy songs party songs Sufi songs but then um yeah but I want to collaborate with more and more of artists because like I told you right I'm not I have not done or learned professionally so like like just on papi girl I got ikka bhai on board and to have him on board was um you know I got a mentor on board yeah there was so much to learn in the process and right now I feel like I'm at a tender age and I want to learn as much as possible so no matter who I'm meeting like even if I'm having this conversation with you I am learning from you to be a patient listener you know so there's so much to learn and I just want to keep learning so how has your music evolved over the years your music um yeah so my music over years again I think earlier um earlier I was very afraid to write my own music I was afraid to write songs because I was always a cover artist so I would listen to Bollywood songs and try to cover them but somehow I believed uh that I cannot write my own songs or I do not have the capacity or capability to put my emotions into a song right but over time that has changed and uh I think that changing has had a very positive impact on me because when you feel like that you know what you are writing people can relate with it yeah I think I think it's nice so I I feel like there is uh I have evolved and my song writing has gained more confidence I'm more confident with my writing that's great that's great so can you describe a particularly memorable performance or recording session which you enjoyed the most um so so a very very very few people know this but um in 2019 uh I went to Bombay all right and I interned with the meath grows for a year wow yeah so um I think that is majorly from where I've learned music because I had no practical knowledge no technical knowledge you know how the studios work how to sit in a studio how the recordist works how the artists come and dub so one year in meath grows I've had the honor to um listen to some of the finest artists dub over there for meath grows like Johnita Gandhi uh Kanika Kapoor all right there's Akhil Sajdeva uh um Kumar Sanuji from old to new life my favorite yeah sorry he's my favorite Akhil Sajdeva oh yeah he's he is very good so you know you have to learn so much just by listening to them and just by being present in the studio technically I had no job I was just there but to have that honor and to have that experience to be able to witness something like this I think in itself is life changing so that I would not uh want to say any one particular artist or particular session but definitely that one year where I interned with the meath brothers that was life changing and I'm ever ever so grateful to them to give me that experience and they're they're like family for me yeah sure but what do you learn from them any any particular a small thing only what have you imbibe from them I think one thing one the first thing which I learned from there that singing is nothing but vocal acting yeah if you can anyone can say like this this is just singing but putting acting into it yeah the moment you put nakhra the moment you put expressions into it it's everything it's everything so one would be that singing is nothing but vocal acting and second would be the patience and the discipline which you require in a studio room to function as an artist a artist or a chair artist make a difference so that that's what I've learned in working with meath brothers that's amazing so uh my next question to you is that how has the music industry changed since you first started and how have you adapted to those changes that's a that's a very very nice question that's a brilliant question and it's a very relevant question in today's time um like I was just telling you back in 2019 I went and I interned with the meath bros because they were doing some of the biggest movies in bollywood back then and till date like touchwood they're doing very good work but I have realized like that was before COVID right since and after COVID I think a lot of new indie artists have come up yeah you don't need yeah you don't need a label right now you don't need a a bollywood play back right now you just need more values and you just need Spotify exactly these are the only two things which you need you need reals and you need Spotify you're good to go viral you know there are kids who are like 16 17 18 who have home studios and they're making music at home and putting it out and they're going viral uh I think bollywood nowadays is only taking famous singles remixing it and then giving it to the public yeah so I think it is the best time for an indie artist to be alive because um um I think it's great because you don't need labels big I don't name any labels but you don't need these big labels who could bully like mafia yeah you have a lot of power in your own hands that's right so you talked about remixes so in your concern that remix is trend is is what you say it's okay with you or they are doing justice justice to the old songs or what um see every everything is okay um till it's done in a limit yeah over doors is of anything is exploitation over doors yeah I think having too much money also for a person that can also be toxic so you know having being too kind can also be toxic so anything in extreme is bad yeah you take a song once in a while you remix it it's nice I think it's uh it's to give it a fresh aspect to a very iconic song is very very nice but once you start doing that to every song and you feel like that nothing original is coming up it can be a little upsetting so any advice for budding singles aspiring singles from you I mean um I think I I myself am still budding you know and yeah and I want to keep this thing in mind like no matter where I get I will always be a budding singer myself because there's no end to learning the learning that's yeah but um yeah but I one very most important thing is because I've also learned it recently so I would love to give it you know out there that you will always have the urge to quit you know there will always be that urge to quit once in a while but the key is not giving up yeah do not give up yeah your success or that one hits song or that that one day which just changes your life is closer than you realize the key is just don't give up that's amazing that was really insightful and what's lined up what are your future goals any new in your music career what next what's next any new song lined up I have a couple of songs lined up actually and uh uh touch for their all collaborations you know because I told you right now I don't want to work I will give out solo tracks also but just like how I got a cow on board for this song I want to keep working with a lot of artists so there are some very good names which I can't just use right now but we'll get in touch soon and you'll know I have a couple of collaborations lined up because the idea is to grow more and more as an artist with the mentorship of these artists so yeah actually I'm also very excited I'm also thrilled you know that these songs are going to be out wow so so happy for you and all the very best for your future so thank you so much for your time it was our pleasure to have you on our show thank you so much it was it was my pleasure to be here and you've been very kind and very very patient with me I want to go on record to say this you've been very kind and very patient with me thank you thank you see you soon