Mumbai-based artiste Hriday Gattani absorbs Indian classical music through live performance tapes. Mentored by AR Rahman and touring alongside the virtuoso, he integrates the East and West in his discography while also refining his craft and collaborating with icons like Amit Trivedi, Vishal-Shekhar, Salim-Sulaiman, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan, Neeti Mohan and more. Commanding renowned stages worldwide like O2 and Hollywood Bowl, Hriday redefines soundscapes with 2023 hits including Darmiyaan, Bawre, and Saaya. His playback singing, noted in films such as Mani Ratnam’s Kaatru Veliyidai (2017) and Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded By The Light (2019), marks his distinct musical imprint. With his recent track, Darmiyaan, the artiste wanted to convey his love for nature and open-mindedness. He says music is part of his everyday routine — he plays guitar, sings, and explores old and new tunes, being both a singer and composer, to be self-reliant in the industry.
What aspects of love and romance did you aim to convey through Darmiyaan?
This track speaks about love for nature, love for everything around you, love for experiences, love for absorption, love for being open-minded, and love for being inspired by your surroundings. Darmiyaan is actually about your mind flowing aimlessly when you see things happening — even as little as raindrops.
You’ve lent your voice to diverse cinematic projects like Dil Bechara, Blinded By The Light, and Kaatru Veliyidai. How do you instil your emotions in different film genres?
I think it’s always very exciting. A song just released from the film Ayalaan which is a story of an alien who is demolishing the earth and is complaining about all the crazy things that happen on it — like traffic and also problems related to math. It was so much fun to put myself in that situation, to be honest, and also to be dealing with different narratives. In these situations or when I sang Main Tumhara or For You, My Love from Blinded by the Light and for all the other songs, I’ve been able to go into my probable reserves of memories and have been able to consume them. It’s always been very exciting, especially when a song like Mai Tumhara comes to me and I get the opportunity to sing it. I’ve relived some of my failed romances or romances that I had to let go of.
How do you connect with your crooning and music?
It’s a part and parcel of my life now. I make it a point to be at work every day. I go to my studio and I just dabble with the guitar, doodle on it, and sing a little bit here and there. I try and sing something that already exists and is all on my mind. It is always really fun to also be on both sides of the world which means being a singer, a playback singer who wants to explore singing possibilities while also a musician and a composer or songwriter who awaits new music and imbibe the same. It’s important to learn to at least do some basic tasks even if it’s just as simple as recording yourself or playing an instrument.
Darmiyaan is streaming on all platforms.