March 23, 2023 at PDT
Aaja Nindiya - EP
There’s an easy-going, almost meditative quality to much of singer-songwriter Ankur Tewari’s work. This makes the artist ideally placed to create an EP of lullabies, which he delivers on Aaja Nindiya. It’s the first of four collections of children’s music he is releasing for Tiger Baby Records, the label launched by film-makers Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar’s production house Tiger Baby Films.
For some years now, Tewari—who is also a co-founder of Tiger Baby Records—has wanted to write and release more original Indian songs for kids. “It’s a category [for which] people are not making much fresh music,” he tells Apple Music, “especially in India where we have such a deep-rooted culture of loris [lullabies] and stories.”
The composer previously put out the children’s album Sony Music Kids Bachcha Party, Vol. 2 in 2018. In addition, he counts his tunes “HMMMM” from 2016’s Side A and “Tujhe Jaane Bina” from 2010’s Jannat as lullabies. And he is adamant that Aaja Nindiya isn’t just for kids. “In today’s time,” he says, “when stress levels are so high, even older people are having trouble sleeping, so it can help to have a few lullabies around to calm you down.”
Tewari’s collaborators on the project include singer Aria Nanji, who provides backing vocals (“She has harmony inside her bloodstream,” says the composer) and musician Sid Shirodkar, who produced the entire set. Shirodkar and Tewari decided to employ a relatively unusual line-up of instruments such as the tumbi and celesta—but they did it in such a way that they “give you a sense of peace” rather than dominate the songs. For instance, Tewari says: “The tumbi is used as if it’s a piano. It’s not being plucked. It’s being tapped.” Below, he takes us through the making of each of the EP’s six tracks.
Ahista Ahista
“The idea [behind this song] was to see how we could explore that [feeling] when sometimes you’re falling asleep but you still want to [stay awake and] listen. It happens to me a lot at some parties when people are talking and I am really sleepy but I still want to be there. It’s trying to capture that feeling where you’re slowly drifting into sleep.”
Aa Le Chalun
“[With this song, I want] to take you into a dream world, [like] Narnia or some other place. It’s about creating a fake story, which I used [to do] when I put my nephews and nieces to sleep. I would hum some melodies and make up lyrics. Later, they would come and [say], ‘Okay, sing me that underwater song’ and I would not remember what I had made up. I wanted to build this fictional world where there [are] fish in the sky and birds underwater. Graphic designer Frame/Frame, aka Nikhil Kaul, used the imagery from this [track] for the artwork, which is inspired by [the Indian folk and tribal art form of] Gond painting.”
Aaja Nindiya
“My father used to sing the Kishore Kumar song ‘Aa Chal Ke Tujhe’ to me [when I was a child]. I wanted to create something like that [here] with the idea of calling out to sleep. Because when caregivers and parents are trying to make their child fall asleep, they’re also falling asleep. And there’s a sense of frustration, of [something like:] ‘Come on now, sleep. Why are you playing hide and seek with [your] eyes?’”
Nayi Sehar
“I wrote [this] for a friend who passed away very young and very suddenly. I had met her only a few times [but] we had a really interesting [connection]. Her brother reached out to me [and said] that she spoke about me and my songs and how they used to bring her peace. Somehow the [thought] just came to me that I should write something for her as a farewell song. I wanted to write an optimistic song, a kind of a lullaby, but at the same time [something] about waking up. When I was compiling this [EP], I thought that I should [include it] because it [would be] for a celebration of Sehar, [like] a beautiful new morning.”
Aati Hai Neend
“It’s a love song. [It’s about] how you get used to falling asleep in a certain way, [on a certain] side of your bed, and if you are with your partner, then how you sleep with them. [And if] you’re not in the same place [as them], you’re not [able to fall] asleep. When I have trouble sleeping, [one of the tricks I use] is to imagine the room where I fall asleep the best, with the right temperature, bed and environment.”
Khone Do
“I wanted to write a song like ‘Because’ by The Beatles. I love that song. I feel it’s underrated. When I was writing scripts or non-musical work, [I’d play] ‘Because’ [on a] loop. It always brought me a lot of calm. I wrote the lyrics [for ‘Khone Do’] in like seven minutes or something. Exactly how the song says, I was trying to get lost in the mood. I was humming this melody and [did not try] to fix whatever was coming [to my mind]. Some songs fall into place like that. You don’t question yourself too much and you just let it flow.”
6 Tracks
