In an era of self-branding, singer Ankur Tewari is an exception. His music is averse to spectacle and he is all in on minimalism, something quite evident on his new album, Akela, which is out on Tiger Baby Records.
On Akela, we find a very different Ankur Tewari sound than we have heard on, say, Gully Boys. “It’s very different from my (regular) audio sound. And it came from a very introspective space. I was very nervous before the album was about to be released. At the same time, what this album did to me was help me walk out of my comfort zone and work on a different soundscape. It has been received very well, in terms of my core group of critics who say it as it is. It’s been overwhelming,” the singer said over a video call as we discussed what went into the making of Akela.
The vulnerable side
Akela has songs that were written before the pandemic and during the pandemic but it definitely found its form during the pandemic, the singer had told us earlier. Essentially, he wrote about his feelings. “In your independent work, you kind of document your life, what you’re going through. The pandemic definitely was a very important time, a traumatic time that we all went through,” he said.
Tewari turned to music to express himself and he feels lucky to have this medium to fall back on. “There was a lot in your gut and your belly that you were feeling uncomfortable about. You had to release it in some way. That’s what you do as an artiste. If you feel strongly about something, you kind of write about it, and I have probably, not in my memory, never felt so vulnerable and a little lonely during the pandemic. I’m just lucky that I have a medium through which I can express myself and I kind of went all in and then I decided to record the album,” he said.
It would be easy to assume that putting out personal thoughts is difficult. It’s not for him; it’s something he has always done on his records.
“I don’t feel uncomfortable about putting myself in the public space. I have put out my feelings, my emotions and my stories. You need incidents, those anecdotes in your songs, and that’s something I’m very comfortable with because putting it out and putting it in the physical form of a waveform, gives you a certain kind of closure with a lot of stories on your mind.”
A song that is close to Tewari’s heart on the new album is Hum (Reprise). It’s a personal song. “It’s a very interesting song because it’s a song that I started writing when I was leaving college, from Bhopal, on a train. I saw my batchmates and the train started moving; I realised that maybe I won’t meet these guys ever again in my life, and that realisation dawned upon me and the first words started coming from there,” he said.
After he had cut his first demos, he decided to put the song on his album, Jannat. “I decided to put the reprise version on my new album. Interestingly, when my new album was released on August 4, I was in Bhopal at an alumni association meet. I met a lot of those guys who were the reason why I started writing songs. It was an interesting experience for me to put it in this manner and if you listen to the recording in the first album and then the recording on this album, you’ll realise the mind space I was in… in 2020-21 than in around 1998.”
The mind space he is now in is full of optimism. “I am in a creative space. I only get uncomfortable when I run out of ideas… I feel constrained. These days, things are flowing well. And I hope they keep going well. I feel that one way to do this is by surrounding yourself with people who make you laugh a lot. I’m surrounded by some very interesting people, who make me feel comfortable and I am laughing a lot.”
‘I’m gonna put Apple BKC on my resume’
Recently, Tewari reached a milestone — of performing at Apple’s first offline retail store in India, called Apple BKC in Mumbai.
“It was very exciting because I’m the first musician to play at Apple BKC (as part of Today at Apple session). I’m gonna put it in my resume. It was really exciting. Apple has been a very interesting collaborator with me throughout. We also mixed this album in Spatial Audio which they helped us achieve, which was like a dream for me… for this album, because it offers a cinematic kind of soundscape. So you really want to put your AirPods in and transport yourself in that surround space.”
Apple’s Spatial Audio is a 360-degree sound format that recreates a surround effect through a pair of speakers, including headphones and even a tiny pair of earbuds.
Playing at Apple BKC has a special place in his heart for another reason. “Playing at Apple BKC was kind of coming a full circle for me. Years ago, I was walking down Regent Street in London, and I went to the Apple Store there. And I saw this performance. I thought such a thing didn’t happen in India and it should happen in India. It felt amazing to play at Apple BKC. We have an actual Apple Store in India, and there are performances that are happening there,” he said.
The Pink Floyd reference
Having the right tool is what matters. For musicians around the world, Apple has been a friend when it comes to providing tools. After all, Apple is a toolmaker. “Frankly, it’s not that difficult or alien. It’s just that you have to surround yourself with the right tools. It can make wonders happen like it did while recording Akela. If I didn’t have my iPhone with me, I would be really handicapped because any idea I was getting, I was recording as a voice note, FaceTiming with my bandmates. Earlier, once you got an idea, you had to call your bandmates and have a jam. Suddenly you were stuck behind walls (during the pandemic). Technology enabled me to break those walls and just use technology in a way that my flow never got hampered.
It’s just like in sports when you get into the flow, you don’t want to stop. “Similarly, songwriting, if you get an idea flowing, then you don’t want to stop,” said Tewari.
When Spatial Audio was first announced by Apple, many wondered how it would work and whether it would be in the hands of a few. Instead, it has given musicians a new tool. “I used to feel that it’s a privilege. And now I realise that anybody can do it. The first time I heard Spatial Audio was a mix of a Rahman album. I felt it was so beautiful and so amazing. He’s a renowned musician and he is up to date with technology. If he can do it maybe one day I can also do it and I now realise it’s not that difficult. When I heard Akela in Spatial Audio, it brought a smile to my face.”
The cinematic element of Spatial Audio lingers in Tewari’s mind. “There are a few musicians who really make music in a cinematic manner. I feel like Rahman lends a very cinematic experience to his music. Roger Waters is coming out with a new album (The Dark Side of the Moon Redux) and I think he has released two songs, Time and Money. It’s how he reimagines some of his classic work. I’m excited to hear that in Spatial Audio because Pink Floyd is something like… they kind of did spatial audio before Spatial Audio existed. While making Hum (Reprise) for this album, Pink Floyd was one of the references on my mind.”
In a way, Tewari belongs to the old school of musicians, who swear by the importance of albums. At the same time, he is open to cutting singles.
Roger Waters
“Albums definitely tell a story. I think there are different mediums; I’m not against any medium. I think the story that you’re trying to tell lends itself to what kind of… whether there is going to be an album or singles. I let the story dictate that. Some of the songs I write, I don’t record it; I play them live. I think every story screams out the medium of how it needs to be expressed. I’m going to make an album once the stories are building the way I want them to. We are also putting out a vinyl for Akela because we think it would be interesting,” he said.
Akela on vinyl? What turntable he is using at home? “I’m using a Denon, a very basic turntable. The one record that has been playing a lot in my house is Searching for Sugar Man (soundtrack). It celebrates Sixto Rodriguez, who passed away recently. It’s just been playing almost every weekend,” rounded off the singer.
You can listen to Ankur Tewari’s Akela in Spatial Audio on Apple Music
