<p>Tanya Shanker has known she wanted to be a singer ever since she was six years old, when she stood on stage in front of 500 classmates, singing ‘Cowboy take me away’ by the Dixie Chicks.</p>.<p>Now 19, the big-voiced rock singer says she still gets the same feeling every time she takes the stage. “The fear melts away and I get lost in the music,” she says.</p>.<p>Tanya is a former child prodigy. At 12 years old, her first single, ‘Thank you mum’, went viral, gaining over 20,000 views in the first week of its release.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Having a big hit so young opened doors for her career, she says. She has been featured in Rolling Stone multiple times, interviewed by the BBC, and has performed at the Hornbill Festival, one of India’s biggest rock festivals.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, early success has been a double-edged sword. Tanya says that it’s been a struggle to reconstruct her identity as an adult musician. “I’ve had to shed the prodigy label,” she says. “It’s been painful yet freeing.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">Her most recent EP, ‘Cyberfantasy’, has a “retro-futurist” feel, she says. “It’s futuristic, but it’s also drawing sounds from 2000s pop like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera,” she explains.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The EP explores what it means to be a citizen of the online world and how the Internet has so vastly changed the dating landscape. “People just create online personas now,” Tanya says. “You don’t know what is real anymore.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">The subject matter of her songs is deeply personal, but she is confident her listeners will find them relatable too.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tanya feels a great responsibility to represent her age group and their lives. “Young people are often treated disrespectfully by older people. Their problems, joys, and fears are normally belittled,” she says.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Bengaluru-based artiste notes that her music appeals to a niche audience in India, as she writes and performs exclusively in English. Most of her listeners are based in the USA, and Europe.</p>.<p class="bodytext">She is currently working on a new album, set for release by the end of the year. She’s excited about the project. The new songs, she says, “capture my feelings” particularly well.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But she warns listeners not to expect her upcoming album to sound the same as ‘Cyberfantasy’, because her sound is constantly evolving. The versatile singer seems to move effortlessly between pop, R&B, trap, synthwave, and other genres.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“My roots will always be in rock though,” she says, adding, “I have a kinship with it.”</p>
<p>Tanya Shanker has known she wanted to be a singer ever since she was six years old, when she stood on stage in front of 500 classmates, singing ‘Cowboy take me away’ by the Dixie Chicks.</p>.<p>Now 19, the big-voiced rock singer says she still gets the same feeling every time she takes the stage. “The fear melts away and I get lost in the music,” she says.</p>.<p>Tanya is a former child prodigy. At 12 years old, her first single, ‘Thank you mum’, went viral, gaining over 20,000 views in the first week of its release.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Having a big hit so young opened doors for her career, she says. She has been featured in Rolling Stone multiple times, interviewed by the BBC, and has performed at the Hornbill Festival, one of India’s biggest rock festivals.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, early success has been a double-edged sword. Tanya says that it’s been a struggle to reconstruct her identity as an adult musician. “I’ve had to shed the prodigy label,” she says. “It’s been painful yet freeing.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">Her most recent EP, ‘Cyberfantasy’, has a “retro-futurist” feel, she says. “It’s futuristic, but it’s also drawing sounds from 2000s pop like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera,” she explains.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The EP explores what it means to be a citizen of the online world and how the Internet has so vastly changed the dating landscape. “People just create online personas now,” Tanya says. “You don’t know what is real anymore.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">The subject matter of her songs is deeply personal, but she is confident her listeners will find them relatable too.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Tanya feels a great responsibility to represent her age group and their lives. “Young people are often treated disrespectfully by older people. Their problems, joys, and fears are normally belittled,” she says.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Bengaluru-based artiste notes that her music appeals to a niche audience in India, as she writes and performs exclusively in English. Most of her listeners are based in the USA, and Europe.</p>.<p class="bodytext">She is currently working on a new album, set for release by the end of the year. She’s excited about the project. The new songs, she says, “capture my feelings” particularly well.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But she warns listeners not to expect her upcoming album to sound the same as ‘Cyberfantasy’, because her sound is constantly evolving. The versatile singer seems to move effortlessly between pop, R&B, trap, synthwave, and other genres.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“My roots will always be in rock though,” she says, adding, “I have a kinship with it.”</p>