After a successful debut tour last year and a global chart-topper Heeriye this year, Jasleen Royal has kicked off her Heeriye India tour, in Bangalore last week, before sweeping across cities such as Bhopal, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Goa among others. The gig will be on December 9 at Kolkata and we catch up with Jasleen to know more about the tour. Excerpts:
How excited are you?
I’m very excited because this is one of the biggest tours for us and after Heeriye released, this is the first India tour we’re doing. The set we worked on is very fresh and new. The sound is new, and so is the experience. We’ve put in a lot of effort and we’re very excited to share it with the audience.
What are your takeaways from concerts?
The audience comes to see you and hear your music, and that is the biggest aspect of it I think. I remember during my last tour, I didn’t know what the audience was expecting. So, one of the listeners messaged me on Twitter after the concert was over that they wanted to listen to some of my niche songs. I was under the impression that people wouldn’t know these songs and that I wouldn’t get a good response performing them at a concert. But the message made me realise that these people have come only to listen to my music, all my songs. The songs I feel that I love and most people have not heard them, there are takers for those too. I felt so nice that day.
Tell us something about the success of Heeriye.
Aditya Sharma, a friend of mine, wrote the lyrics. I sang it, produced it, composed it and acted in it. While I was looking at all the independent songs these last few years and found they stand tall instead of all the film songs, I too decided to do my own. I was like, why not? I decided to make my independent songs so big that I wouldn’t need a film mounting. That’s what Heeriye did. It has recently
been released in Tamil too — Eeriye. I put almost everything on it, every single penny that I had at that point in the song. And it’s been such a success that it’s given me validation, acceptance and love from the audience. This is what I want to do. I can be unafraid now.
Are there similar productions in the pipeline?
Many things, only such things. I’m not enjoying film songs much right now, maybe I will pursue them later but right now this is the path I want to take. I want to be exclusive and make my songs. The risk is mine, but the gain is mine too. And that’s the approach I want to take.
How was working with Arijit Singh and Dulquer Salmaan?
It was amazing. Both are great artistes in their respective fields. Dulquer is a sweetheart. He’s the most tantrum-free artiste I have ever met. The person that he is, a star of his stature, it’s been so refreshing
working with him. He’s a great collaborator, so humble and nice. And for Arijit, I have no words because what he delivers, no one can. His voice just lifts the song. He adds so much emotion. He has craft, skill, and emotion and has this unique quality of adding something to the song. It’s not just that he’s singing a tune. He just makes it 100 times better.
Sometime back you had said that you would not collaborate with music labels anymore. So, are you still sticking to your statement?
I don’t want to, unless they don’t assure you. You know they will not just remove your name, but they will change the beat eventually 10 years down the line and say that there’s a new composer. Unless music labels or films start respecting an artiste’s contribution, I don’t want to do that.
Why are people more inclined towards listening to independent music?
Earlier labels used to take all the calls, and the kind of music is going into the market. Since the distribution and production were by them, they held all the cards. But now, since everything has become digital, artistes can reach out to music-playing platforms and put their songs out. So now the artistes come first. And they drive, like what’s moving in the market, what’s not, what’s being accepted, what’s not. Earlier hip-hop in India was dead, right? Now there’s hip-hop and so many other genres that you know people are accepting and they have been given an option to listen to such things.
During these tours or back-to-back shows, how do you take care of your voice?
By texting and not taking calls. But I’m not a talker, I mostly prefer texting. So, maybe that’s what helps me.