Love & 'rap'tures

Meet music producer-songwriter Sahil Badal aka Badal, whose debut single,‘Trip’, has everyone's attention

Like most teenage boys, he was unsure on what he wanted to do in life after completing school. “I was lost and had no idea about what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I wasn’t made for regular jobs and wanted to do something creative. It was then that I decided to create music,” shares singer-rapper-music producer-songwriter Sahil Badal aka Badal, who mostly creates raps about broken relationships and love.

At present, Badal is enjoying positive responses to his debut single, ‘Trip’. “I want to create different genre songs for different audience. And ‘Trip’ is out of my comfort zone as I create more of romantic and party numbers,” he says, adding that the concept was actually decided by song director Meher Gulati.

“The concept of the video was to keep it freestyle and spontaneous. The reason was the things you get from anything being spontaneous is not what you will achieve in a fully choreographed video, so we tried to keep it as spontaneous as possible,” he says.

Badal gives his family, especially his mother and brother, the entire credit for his success. “My family was very supportive of my decision. But initially, they too were worried. We are a middle-class family and there was not much room for taking risks. In fact, my brother helped me put up my first studio,” says Badal, who started his musical journey by writing songs in his school classroom.

The 22-year-old, born in the town of Safidon in Haryana, says his inclination towards music is due to his mother. “A music enthusiast herself, she has been my biggest inspiration. As a kid, I used to listen to her singing songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Mohd Rafi. She was the one who told me to sing their songs and that was how music got into me,” says Badal who later followed Eminem, Bohemia and got attracted to hip-hop and rap music.

After completing school, Badal started learning music production and guitar online. And after becoming an able guitarist and adept at making music, he started covering famous songs on YouTube and gathered a lot of attention there.

Ask him as to how difficult is it to establish yourself as a singer with so much competition around and Badal says, “It is challenging, but if you stay real with your work and create something original instead of following the trend, I think people will start loving and following you. The idea is to stay true to yourself and your work. Thereafter, you automatically get established. And most importantly, never give up. It’s just about that one chance and it’s on you and what you make out of that opportunity,” says Badal, who wants to focus on creating good music that’s close to him and helps him connect with more and more people.

A firm believer in taking life one day at a time, Badal says he always tries to improve his work from what he did previously. “I don’t think seriously about my future. I love what I am doing, and that’s important. I will continue to do so and let’s see where it takes me 10 years down the line,” says the singer who loves watching movies, reading interesting stories and also playing basketball and video games.