I don’t have victim mentality: Ash King on indie music
Mumbai, May 19 (IANS) Instead of complaining about how Bollywood music is overshadowing the independent music scenario in India, singer Ash King, whose latest single “Mann ki dor” is receiving a positive response, believes in making quality work that would inspire music producers to promote it.
The singer, who started his career in Bollywood with the song “Dil gira dafatan”, has also sung “Suno Aisha”, “Te amo”, “Aunty ji”, “Meherbaan” and “Baarish”.
He told IANS: “I do not have the victim mentality… No point of doing that. I would rather make music that would be so good that people show their interest to reach out to the public platform with it. I do not think someone would not release the song because it is not a Bollywood song.
“It is about showing an effort to the right person. If the song is good, people would show interest to take the risk of releasing the song. I think singers should work hard enough to make music that inspires people to promote good music,” he added.
While a Hindi film song gets much more mileage than an independent song in terms of marketing, promotion and exposure in mainstream media, Ash has a different opinion.
Citing the reference of some music labels, he said: “Whether it is T-Series, Zee Music, Sony, Times Music…everybody has a section to release singles. I see no reason to complain about paid media. There is a system where you pay to get your song played and that is how the music business works. We must not forget the business part.”
As the singer is focusing on some independent songs nowadays, asked if it is his conscious choice, he said: “look I love singing. So whether it is a Bollywood song or an independent song, that does not bother me. What bothers is if the song is released. Sometimes I sing a song and that does not get released… That is very disappointing.
“However, the difference really is about being proactive. When it comes to a Bollywood song, one has to wait for a call from the music director to sing a song. Whereas in independent music, one can be proactive, make his own song and approach people to release for it.”
Written by Naveen Tyagi and composed by Sundeep Goswami, Ash performed “Mann ki dor” live at the Hungama Spotlight here earlier this week.