Juggling many roles with ease

Entrepreneur Tushar Vashisht releases his debut Indie single Kahaani live alongside Lucky Ali

Co-founder and CEO of the health app – HealthifyMe and an ex-member of the American A Cappella group Penn Masala, Tushar Vashisht released his debut single from his much-awaited EP recently. The song was an opening act for a following Lucky Ali show at UB City in Bengaluru. Metrolife spoke to the techie-musician on the Indie scene in India and his upcoming projects:

You wear multiple hats. What do you enjoy more?

Music has always been close to my heart since I was a child. I started learning Hindustani Classical at the age of six, as far as my association with Penn Masala is concerned, I sang on a lot of stages in The US and in India. On my work trips, you can see me singing at some or the other bar across Indonesia, China, etc. Music has always been a part of my soul, both before HealthifyMe and it probably will be a little much later. But I love my day job too because I get to change lives. I can’t decide which one do I enjoy more. But I guess the heart always wants what it doesn’t have and music is something that I haven’t had for a long time, so I guess currently it is music.

Is it difficult to be an Indie musician in India? What are some roadblocks that one faces?

It is what any unorganised provider faces versus an organised provider. Commercial music is organised today. They have their distribution pipelines and their production channels, and an independent artist has to do everything on their own, build their own music and try and market it on their own as well. The good news is that in the digital world everything is far more democratic, that is good products sell. If you have a good product that is digital in nature then you don’t need an intermediary. The future is very bright for independent music, and I’m sure it is to become more and more successful as time goes on.

Who inspired you as a musician?

I have had tremendous influences. My own Guru Baldev Raj Verma from Delhi from whom I learned classical. I have listened to the greats growing up, like Pandit Jasraj, Bhimsen Joshi and the likes, and in the commercial industry I have always been a fan of Hariharan, and recently I love the work of Arijit Singh. And also Indie musicians like Prateek Kuhad.

What genre would you slot yourself into?

The genre is experimental right now, it’s somewhere in between influenced by Indian Sufi and Hindi sounds, but with modern production and instrumentation. ‘Kahaani’ is a very soft rock ballad, simple song, but the other songs that are coming out as a part of the EP, one of them is heavy Sufi and classical, one is certainly more in the rock vibe, or more like a pop-ballad. I have been experimenting as of now and I am trying to find my sound, and I think I’ll be able to find it by the end of seven songs of this EP, which will be released in approximately two to three months from now.

How did you land up with Lucky Ali? And what was it like to perform with him?

Firstly, I have to talk about the stage and the venue, which was fantastic. Open-air, seven-hundred people, the sun-setting, and we performed at the amphitheatre so we were the focal point of the audience, with a 130 degree view. It was a privilege to sing before Lucky Ali. I happened to know Lucky’s guitarist Raghu. Raghu and I co-made this song, we have co-produced, co-created, co-written it. He is Lucky Ali’s bassist. He only presented the piece to Lucky and he really liked it!