Sravya Kothalanka is known for following her passion to the ‘t’ as an artist. She has faced multiple challenges and has come up courageous enough to follow her dreams over and over again. CE gets in touch with Shravya who is busy painting, awaits the release of one of her original albums and is busy performing live shows in the city.
“Painting was my first love and I have always been an artist very naturally,” says multi-talented Sravya when asked about her artworks. Talking about her journey in music and her album she says, “I have dreamt about making my own album since I was a kid. About 18 months ago, I got signed up by a label called Kamani which is based in the UK.
They are the ones behind the Asian Hip Hop Festival. I have been working on my album for about 13 months now. It is a 13-song album with a very versatile lineup — it has hip-hop, reggae, afro, and all my other favourites. I have been writing them for a couple of years now and have curated them into an album with a lot of thought.I can’t wait for the album to be out, hopefully, you’ll get to hear from it in three months. There is a lot of production work pending due to which the album’s release will take some time.”
Sravya did not find it easy to work on her original music. She says, “Original music doesn’t sell much here as compared to other metropolitan cities. I feel Hyderabad is a very conservative and narrow-minded place when it comes to music. It has been difficult to navigate professionally through this whole scene. I had to wade through several roadblocks we have to find time, spots, slots and corners where we fit and compensate with what the city wants.”
Elaborating about the challenges she faced while working on her album, Sravya shares, “In the beginning, I had an identity crisis. I found it tough to understand what kind of musical community I fit into, with respect to the city. I love Telugu songs as well as hip-hop, reggae and dance. I have been working alone all my life and everything that I do I curate by myself. Hyderabad doesn’t demand originality. I am not complaining, but this has been my real experience.”
The artiste’s originals in the album, she says, will be full of emotions, unspoken feelings and thoughts. “It is a very socio-economic conscious album, it’s fun and a lot of things that I have been meaning to tell people but couldn’t convey through words, you have me sing them through this album.”
On being asked about her inspiration behind putting this album together she says, “People take me as a spiritually woke person, but very few people know what I am actually going through. I want people to feel good about themselves while they listen to my music. I also want to see brown representation worldwide. We need more and more brown representations like Beyonce and Rihanna. I want to bring in change. I hope my album can help achieve that.”
While she eagerly awaits the release of her album, Sravya says she will continue to work on her other project, which includes another single.