Today we’d like to introduce you to Hrishi – we’ve been following Hrishi’s journey for some time now and couldn’t be more excited to share this story with you.
Hi Hrishi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Growing up, I felt like I was living two different lives, especially when it came to music. In one, I was singing pop music, musical theater, and obsessing over shows like The Voice. In the other, I was singing Bollywood songs, Carnatic music and obsessing over Super Singer on Vijay TV. I had almost accepted that the worlds just didn’t exist together until I really started pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter. My focus as an artist has been fusing these two identities that I kept separate for so long, and it’s been incredible to see how excited people have been to see this merge happen.
I started learning Carnatic music (traditional South Indian music) when I was around 6 years old, mostly because my parents made me. They immigrated here post-university and for them, having me connect with Indian culture was really important. I ended up quitting carnatic music though when I started middle school and my parents decided I was old enough to decide whether I wanted to keep going.
Two years later, I found myself curious about it again, and of my own accord this time. I wanted to learn how to sing Indian film songs better and a lot of them were classically based, so I figured if I learned classical music it would help.
The search for a carnatic music teacher led me to find my guru Shri R. Suryaprakash, who quickly became one of my favorite musical artists. He guided me into the world of Indian classical music, and I couldn’t believe how much beauty there was to discover and explore within that system. I remember pulling all-nighters in high school because a certain raga like “Thodi” was stuck in my head and I couldn’t go to sleep without bingeing Youtube recordings and practicing.
In college, I started writing songs for the first time. I’d tried before but it had never really clicked. As my friends started to build my confidence about my songs, I started to reach out to more successful writers and musicians in the industry to learn more about it. That whole period became a time of exploring myself as an artist and singer and falling in love with the craft of creating my own songs.
The carnatic remixes happened kind of randomly right after I graduated from college. An idea popped into my head to sing swaras over the drop of the song “Astronaut in the Ocean.” Funny enough, I didn’t expect much would happen because growing up I associated Carnatic music with being too weird or complicated for people to enjoy without being familiar with it. But I gave it a shot and posted that first remix and overnight it had like 50k views, hundreds of comments, and my account was going viral.
From there I started to grow a fanbase that made me realize the power of mixing traditional Indian music with western flavors, and since then, it hasn’t really stopped. I revisited my songs and tried to push more boundaries than I had before in terms of bringing the east to the west. I went on my first tour and got to meet fans around the country – all kind of stemming from this idea of mixing carnatic music and pop. I’ve started an underground release of my first official carnatic/pop album and I’ve gotten so much support and wonderful notes and reviews from people all over the world (it’s available at “www.hrishisongs.com/unreleased” if anyone wants to check it out). Everything that’s happening feels so surreal, but looking back, I can see that this dream has been 15 years in the making. I just never imagined that I’d actually get to live it.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think the biggest struggle for me has been coming to terms with the duality that exists in my life as an Indian American person that has always juggled two different cultures. It was a slow journey of bringing those two together and pursuing a career as an artist in the first place. The initial impostor syndrome was intense, wondering if what I was doing mattered, especially in the periods before I had music out and was developed as an artist.
I’m super lucky though to have my parents supporting me at every step of the way – my dad is a singer, he’s been singing his entire life. My mom is a very intentional and specific listener and both of them have guided me and have given me the space to explore my art while also keeping reality nearby.
All in all, it’s been a wonderful journey. Initially, I was going to take a year after college to try and work on music before looking at different careers or grad school. The first remixes went viral just a few months afterward and my entire life took a wild and wonderful turn and I really couldn’t be more blessed.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
If I had to sum up a mission statement, it would be to show young Indian American kids that all sides of their identity and culture are worthy of attention, recognition, and being considered “cool.” I spent a long time studying Indian classical music and Indian film music and western songwriting and the western music business, and I’m really privileged to be in a position where I have the context to try to merge those worlds together. The dream is to make Bollywood X Top 40 cross-over a thing, kind of like how Latin music and K-pop have crossed into traditional pop spaces.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I think it’s safe to say that everything I am musically is to be credited to my guru, Shri R. Suryaprakash. I was very lucky to be able to study under one of my favorite carnatic musicians right from the very start of my journey. There have been so many concerts I’ve listened to, hundreds of hours of class, and more importantly so many conversations about life, music, and art which have all shaped how I perceive any kind of music or singing. I was also really lucky to be mentored by Grammy-winning and nominated songwriters like Autumn Rowe and Al Sherrod Lambert – they taught me what it means to really craft a song and make someone feel something by using the toolkit that contemporary lyricists are able to pull from. My producer, Matthew Boda and I have been working on creating my original music as an artist for about five years now and he is probably one of the most particular, detail-oriented musicians that I’ve met and had the pleasure of working with. It took a long time to find the sound we wanted to create for the first record, but I’m very proud of it and am honored to have gone through the process with him.
Countless other people have helped me along the way in shaping my music, shaping me as an artist and human, and in showing me how to navigate this complex but very small industry. It’s been an incredible journey so far and it’s still just the beginning — I can’t wait to see where things go from here.
Contact Info:
- Website: hrishisongs.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/hrishisongs
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvy6oFeUiHf1_3E6XabMa8g
Image Credits
Photographers: Eric LaRokk, Toby Preyer, Dametreus “Meech” Ward, Franz Mahr, Bowen Moreno, Veronica Adler Stylist: Ambika “B” Sanjana Production: Hrishi Balaji, Veronica Adler, Sahil Rohira
