Rohan Solomun wears many hats — singer-songwriter, composer, vocal coach and audio engineer. The Delhi/New York-based artiste recently released the music video for his single We Demand Change, which puts emphasis on bringing about a social change. In the July-end release, Rohan has used an alternative guitar tuning, gunshot and stomp samples with a dark theme, giving the song a simple yet hard-hitting vibe. The single has also made it to the top 30 category on World Indie Music Charts and Euro Music Charts. A chat with the artiste.

What change are you looking at when you sing We Demand Change?

The change I’m referring to involves our internal system. If everyone collectively makes even one positive change within themselves that will help society and our surroundings, it will be a huge step forward. Some big changes I’d love to see is doing away with wars, attaining world peace, and stopping racism and discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation. I would love to see more acceptance. Just imagine the drop in rates of depression and suicide we’ll be able to achieve if the world stopped being judgmental and simply embraced acceptance.

Where is this thought stemming from?

I would say that it is a cumulative effect of a series of events that we hear on the news. Being a non-white person living in the US, I have personally been subject to a few incidents of racism. It felt horrible. I felt unsafe. All these feelings of frustration were pent up inside me and I needed an outlet to express them.

Rohan Solomun likes keeping his music and videos simple

You’ve kind of played around with melodies with a very prominent beat. How did you plan the production of the song?

There were certain lines and melodies that were in my head and I knew that they had to be in this song. Everything else can be built around those sentences. So I picked up the guitar, changed the tuning to DADGAD (alternative guitar tuning) and figured out chords that would complement those melodies and lyrics that were in my head. The gunshots and stomps took a lot of trial and error to eventually turn out the way that they have. I needed something strong and something that would make a statement and set the tone. I chopped and pasted them together into a beat that seemed to work really well. The beat sets a dark theme to the song, the vocals and guitars form a powerful melody that sit on top of the beat and deliver the message. But I needed something more. Something to throw light and hope to this song and that was the symphony orchestra, which Harshit Verma and I composed.

The video was made using phones and shot at your place. How did you pull it off?

It actually took a day of test shots and an additional three days to film it because I wanted to maintain some continuity (in way of sunlight). Also, there was something about the smoothness of the early morning sun that just delivered perfectly. I just put my phone on a tripod and asked a boy (Dharminder) who works at my home to help me. Once I had all the footage accumulated, I sent it to my friend Chilean Jacob in the US for editing. The overall concept of the video was developed by my strategist Malvika Nanda. She understands the song very well and has heard pretty much every rough bounce in the song’s production, so she understood the song and suggested that I stood in front of a wall and eventually having lyrics spread out on the wall.

Your music and video have always been quite simplistic. Do you consider it a part of your signature?

I’ve never thought of it that way. I approach every video individually and just go about doing whatever feels right for the song and the message. Given the fact the last four videos I’ve put out have been during a worldwide pandemic, I think we've achieved our target pretty nicely considering the constraints. Two out of the four videos have been filmed using phone cameras. The videos for Keep Holding On and We Demand Change have been filmed on phone cameras but Victoria’s Secret and Without A Trace were filmed on a 5D camera and have some drone shots as well. I love being involved in my videos and my music.

Picture: Yeshu Yuvraj

Meet the man

Artiste: Rohan Solomon

Genre: Pop-rock

Stack next to: Daughtry, Hanson, Foo Fighters (inset)

Stream now: Keep Holding On, Victoria'’ Secret, Without a Trace, Dream Girl