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When your critic compliments you for the same thing he complained about earlier, you feel happy. And while some of us might have enjoyed that experience, for musician Shaurya Malhotra, it became the pivot for his future.
“I started my journey in high school where I was part of a band,” says Shaurya over the phone from Delhi. “We sang our first song in a school assembly and a guy came up to my guitarist and said, “You should fire the singer – he’s so bad”. I was in Class 8 at the time and that comment hurt me a lot.”
“I listened to a lot of metal music at the time, like Lamb of God, Metallica and Pantera, and being inspired by metal singers, I tried to emulate them.”
Shaurya Malhotra | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Shaurya says that when he started singing metal, “the same person who said I should be fired from my job was surprised and praised my singing.”
Shaurya says this was the inspiration he needed. “I formed a progressive heavy metal band called Trigger in college and we did quite well. We performed at many places across the country and eventually won Blitzkrieg 2013, IIT Delhi’s cultural festival.”
His journey in music began as a first-year law student at Symbiosis, Noida. “Today, Trigger is in the process of writing a full-length album to be released next year.” This is a befitting reply to all the critics Shaurya has faced along the way.
“I have always considered myself a singer first and then a composer,” says Shaurya, who learnt to play the guitar in his first year of college.
Shaurya Malhotra is still breathing | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“After five years of study, I started practising in 2015, specialising in energy and mining law. Just before the pandemic struck, I started feeling disconnected from my career as a musician – my passion had taken a backseat since I started working. Hence, I quit practising in 2020 and started my solo career as a singer songwriter,” says the Noida-based musician.
“Indie folk music has always been one of my favourite genres, and I had a dream to make more melodic music than the usual music I was making as a metal singer,” says Shaurya.
“I started that project in 2020 and released my first song ‘For Lost Memories’ in 2022. It took me a long time to release my first song because I had to convince myself that I could do it. It didn’t help that the world was going through a tough time too.”
He says ‘For Lost Memories’ was about the final farewell to their relationship. Shaurya has released four more songs since 2022 along with ‘Still Breathing’., Fifth, coming outthis April. “I released my first Hindi song ‘Kahin Door’ in June, which is a soft acoustic song about love.”
Shaurya says his inspiration for indie folk acoustic stems from the work of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake and Nora Marling, who is “an incredible songwriter”.
Shaurya Malhotra | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“I started writing songs when I was in my third year of college but didn’t release them as streaming platforms hadn’t come to India then. Releasing music was a very different game back then.”
“When I made this move in 2020, I told myself that while I might not be the richest man in the world or the best musician, I would be able to write the kind of songs I always wanted to write. I saw myself five years down the road and I didn’t like seeing myself as a lawyer. I think moving on completely has been a little bit beneficial.”
“My inspiration comes from a lot of artists whose work I love, and my idea is to find a platform for the things I want to say – to share my story and my life experiences.”
“I want to make music that changes someone’s life, just like many artists have changed my life. One of the songs that comes to mind is ‘Between the Bars’ by Elliott Smith. It’s a song that means a lot in my life; it saved me in a way,” recalls Shaurya. “If I can write something like that, even one song, in my entire life as a singer-songwriter, I’ll consider that a success.”
After 2020, Shaurya started assisting a lot of musicians on contractual disputes, “I used to say I’m a lawyer who’s also a musician, but now I say I’m a musician who’s also a lawyer.”
Shaurya said that an album is likely to be released in November, which will include about four more new songs. He said that he will continue to release his Hindi songs as singles.
Still Breathing is available on all streaming platforms
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