The singer speaks about her latest song ‘Runak Junak’ and sustainability among other things
Music composer-entrepreneur Kanika Patwari recently released her new song ‘Runak Jhunak’ (Warner Music). Born and brought up in Belgium, Kanika has been visiting India since childhood and feels connected to the country. She says she feels like she has a home in India, Belgium and the United States. “You can find me at one of these places.” On a video call from Mumbai, the 27-year-old singer spoke about her songs, music, stability and more.
Edited excerpt:
In ‘Runak Jhunak’ we see a glimpse of Rajasthani culture with Lok Sangam. How did this idea come to you?
As a musician, it is important that you be honest about who you are when creating your music. Considering that I grew up in a Rajasthani household, I recreated what I heard and saw in my childhood. Since my outward experiences are western, my song became a mix of Rajasthani flavor and Indian with western music.
There are rural and urban women and children in your video. What does it represent?
I wanted to highlight the idea of freedom and liberation. There are beliefs about women who wear heavy jewelery that are native to Rajasthan. I wanted to use the same idea in a different light. I wanted to show modern Rajasthani women in traditional clothes, who are ambitious and independent.
Tell us about your initiative, Music Recycle?
It is a platform for collaboration between music and sustainability. I realized there was a lack of awareness and knowledge about this and came up with Music Recycle.
To talk about sustainability and climate change we created music from sounds from a metal yard in which one man’s trash is another man’s instrument. With plastic surgery we create awareness about single use plastic. We are a small team, mostly active in the US. We have plans for India as well.
Are women discriminated against in the music industry?
There is a difference between the West and India in terms of how the music industry operates. In the West, India has an artist culture in contrast to the film-centric music scene. I hope the idea of artist culture will flourish here too.
The issue of gender is a worldwide problem. While women are often singers or performers, they are rarely involved in the technical part of it. This is changing, but we still have a long way to go. Music production, music therapy, film scoring, video game music are some of the fields dominated by men. In the beginning, it was challenging for me to learn techniques and produce music.
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