The rains came to a halt and the otherwise busy Jio World Drive came to a calming standstill when Ankur Tewari held his guitar close to his heart. “Hun akela, bilkul akela, shayad akela, akela hun main,” Ankur sang as he introduced fans to his new album, titled Akela. As part of Apple’s live sessions, ‘Today at Apple’, Ankur did not shy away from putting forward his emotional state of mind. I had heard Akela just a few moments before he began the live version so it wasn’t like I was unfamiliar with the lyrics or the vibe around it. But, there was something more soul-stirring about the in-person performance.
I waited for Ankur to lock his eyes with the audience members but two lines into the song, you could see he had surrendered himself to the song and most of us followed his lead. In no time, the melancholy took over and a sense of loneliness most of us once felt during the Covid-induced lockdown crept back in. But this time, the emotions did not ignite a sense of vulnerability. Instead, the performance and the people soaking it all in made me realise that this is what Ankur Tewari aims for, to not let people feel ‘Akela’.
Speaking to after the intimate session, Ankur said he intended that the session made everyone in the room feel a little less ‘akela (alone)’. The musician went on to admit that while singing these songs, he finds himself going back in time and feeling those emotions all over again.
“If you just asked me to quote my lyrics, it’s very difficult for me to just say, the lyrics as they are because they were written with music, and I don’t remember my lyrics fully, but once I start singing them, it comes to me. So, a lot of times, even when I sing live, I have my eyes shut because I’m re-living how (the song) was constructed and who is it about and the incidents of the people and the places these words are about and I kind of play a slideshow of that in my mind and the words automatically start falling into place. I do go back to that very often. Every time I sing it, every time I listen to it, it takes me back to the place of genesis,” he said.
Ask him if he has overcome these feelings over time, Ankur admits he’s gotten better at tackling them. Although Ankur is no stranger to performing to crowds, the singer-composer said that the Today at Apple experience was different. “I love these intimate gatherings, even more than the big stage because there you really feel connected with the audience in a different manner. It’s almost like where you started from, from the, you know, from I started playing in hostel rooms and living rooms so it kind of imitates that vibe,” Ankur said.
Ankur has adopted a different style of music and production style for Akela. The singer revealed that the album features Spatial Audio, available only on Apple Music, which gives an arena style listening experience. “I have recorded and mixed my music for spatial audio earlier as well. But, especially for this album, it was more interesting because it has a cinematic sonic space. It’s almost like doing, for lack of a better word, a 5.1 mix where you, if you shut your eyes, some sound will be coming from the back of your head, some will be coming from the right, some in front of you. It is a specially designed sound, spacially expand the sound instead of just coming from the front. If you put your airpods, and listen to the music with your eyes, shut, it will feel that you are in the center of amphitheatre. You are at the centre of the amphitheatre and the musicians are surrounded,” he explained.
The singer-composer’s new album arrives in a day and age where music lovers have discovered a number of more indie artists. Ask him if he feels an air of competition, Ankur admitted, “Yeah, I think so. And I think competition is always a good thing, because you can strive for becoming better and strive for putting out better work. (The competition) can work against you but it can also work in your favour if you really look at it. And I always feel a healthy competition is always a good thing.”
While Ankur has been busy with the album, he has also had his hands full with two Bollywood films and a series he is directing. Ankur has worked on the music of Zoya Akhtar’s upcoming film, The Archies. Speaking about the highly-anticipated project, Ankur said, “Sonically, it was a very interesting space for us to enter. With the 60s, it’s always like it’s been the music that I grew up on. It was amazing to find beautiful collaborators in this, especially Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, who I was working for for the first time.” He revealed he was in a music school with them.
“The way they approached the music and the way we recorded the music, everything in this album was played live, which is something that doesn’t happen so often in today’s times. Just because it was for the 60s, so we recorded it like it was during the 60s with matching the tone for the guitars to match in the tone for the base, figuring out the right kind of mix, writing songs that have a nostalgic link to it in terms of melody… It was like taking a joy ride to simpler times. And that’s what we feel that we want to put out through the album. (We want to) make you bring a smile on your face and be nostalgic about the simpler times.”
On the other hand, Ankur also has Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, which is different from The Archies. The musician said that the album of the film is closer to his new album, Akela. “It deals with social media, loneliness, and discomfort of filters we put in our lives to make ourselves look better. I would say completely the opposite of The Archies. (Kho Gaye Hum Kahan) is what probably you and I are going through in our lives today, surrounded by different, avatars of ourselves that are out there on social media,” he concluded.
