Aditya Tripathi is an Indian singer, rapper, songwriter, and musician; born and raised in the capital, New Delhi. In this interview spotlight, I chat with Aditya about the latest music, challenges, technology and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

I was born on 9th June 2000 in Central Delhi, India also known as the heart of Delhi to a very loving
family. I still live in New Delhi, India, and find it one of the best places to live because of all the resources
you can easily access.

The music I create is a mix of the artists I grew up listening to, influenced by my style of course. Melodic
Rap with a mix of Pop culture describes best the way my songs are influenced. Since I am quite an
emotional person, I try to pour out all my feelings and emotions as I find them as my only escape. I
didn’t start writing or making music until December 2019, which happened after I went through an
overwhelming emotional agony. Making music helped me deal with it in the best way possible,
providing me with positive reinforcement as I dwelled and vented my thoughts out.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

I’ve always loved music, I used to make my parents buy me CDs and cassettes in bulk when I was about
3-5. Singing along to my favorite songs and blasting music as a child, but never understood why I liked it
so much. Now that I look back at it, it is surely why I wanted to make my music at some point.
Even though I used to sing as a kid pre-puberty, I didn’t know I can hit notes, write lyrics, or form
melodies. I found out that I have skills in music mostly when my older sister started taking Classical
Indian Music classes in 2017 and I decided to go with her to give it a try. Although I did it only for 2-3
months, I understood that I have an ear for music.

In my early teenage, I was a huge fan of EDM music, I wanted to learn production and make music like
Skrillex and Alan Walker but never could since I did not know music theory. This changed until last year
when I taught myself how to produce, mix and master my music so I don’t have to rely on anyone else
since I had no budget.

In 2016, I saved up enough from freelance graphic designing to buy a Blue Snowball iCE (the cheapest
considerable condenser microphone one can buy) which came in very handy when I wanted to record
my first song back on December 13th, 2019 called “Aakhri” which wasn’t released until May 2020 after
my college seniors heard it and made me release it to the world since they liked it and could relate to it
so much.

I wrote “Aakhri” after going through one of the worst times in my life. Loving someone for the first
time, giving everything to them, and then having your heart broken in the worst way possible. Yeah, I
understand that those things don’t matter in the long haul but it tore me apart and I was physically sick
for months after that happened. During those months, I wrote “Aakhri” and spilled everything that was
troubling me inside which made me feel much better about the situation and led me down the path of
making music.

Since my first track received such amazing love and support, I took it as my passion and hobby to make
more tracks, not only to vent but also for others to enjoy and relate to because I realized I am not the
only one going through these feelings. This led towards the release of “Shooting Star”, “Mera Kaun” and
“Zakham” in 2020.

How is this release different previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

Mera Kaun:

Mera Kaun is a song about the feeling of being all by yourself, alone in this world, fueled by
work, continuous motion, and changes of life that you can’t understand or catch a moment for
yourself. The world is itself has its challenges, people have their agendas, and all that motivated
me to write this song.

This track is me experimenting and trying to find my voice. Since I haven’t been making music
for long, finding my voice is something I am still working on. Besides that, I wrote this song from
the experiences I had during COVID lockdown around June-July 2020.

The song was released in September 2020 and was featured a few weeks after on National
Radio (93.5 RED FM) in 36 cities along with an on-air interview.

Aakhri:

This was the first song I’ve ever written in my life. I was going through immense anxiety and
sadness as someone I was in love with at that time had broken my heart in ways I can’t describe
in words. I think my voice on the song mixed with the lyrics does a better job than I ever can
while writing this answer.

I am a huge fan of Post Malone and searched for a sad instrumental influenced by his songs to
which I could write some lyrics on 13th December 2019. I finished the song within an hour and
recorded it in the next 30 minutes. The song wasn’t released until May 2020 for which I mixed
and mastered the song properly and leased the beat before release.

Who makes your artworks?

I’ve always been a creative person and to earn some pocket money in my middle teens, I started doing
freelance graphic designing which helped me learn more about it in general.

I have had other people make my artwork before and was never satisfied and thus I’ve been making all
my artworks ever since the first song. I have a perfectionist problem, if I don’t think it’s good then I
won’t do it all. All my artworks go through almost a dozen revisions and complete overhauls, they must
depict exactly the vibe I had while writing the song but through a single picture.

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

There are multiple challenges in the digital music age but it also has its benefits.

The main challenges of being an Indie Musician at the current time are:

Not many ways of getting discovered. You can have the greatest tracks but without a big budget
or connections, it’s near impossible to make it in this space.

Gatekeepers: Although we’re slowly moving more towards supporting independent musicians,
there still exist many gatekeepers in the industry who’d rather support nepotism while shutting doors
for real talent out there on the streets. This upsets me since I know some of the greatest musicians I’ve
ever heard.

Now comes the pros of us being in the digital age:

Back in the days, you were required to have labels to manage, produce, record, mix and release
your music on vinyl in physical markets. Now, if you know marketing or have a decent enough budget,
you can reach all the audience you want without having to invest large amounts in the basics.

Making songs has become one of the easiest things if one has a talent, you write on paper or
your phone’s notes app, record it via the phone or a cheap microphone off the market, lease a beat and
upload the track. It’s much more feasible to make music and reach an audience, even if it is just a hobby.

What was the last song you listened to?

Juice WRLD – Bad Boy ft. Young Thug

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

I would prefer Vinyl for its raw texture and the vibes it exerts, but if I were to be practical,
MP3s or streaming has to be one of the best things to have happened for the music industry.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

I have to be a bit diplomatic here, I think a free and competitive music streaming market benefits all
artists in the end.

Although I’ll share which one I prefer and why:

Spotify: Sure, I love their algorithms and the huge audience that uses their platform every single
day, this makes it very easy for artists to reach new people.

Apple Music: I honestly have close to no experience using Apple Music so I can’t say I don’t like
them but I hated the fact that I couldn’t share my song via Instagram Story via Apple Music on
Android even after paying for a subscription.

Bandcamp: Although I haven’t used Bandcamp, I am aware that they offer fans to support their
favorite artists monetarily which is far better than streaming services that pay quite less for each
stream.

YouTube Music: This was the primary service I used for the longest time, mainly because it was
very affordable and since YouTube already had a great track not only on YT Music but also off
YouTube which I could stream directly.

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

You can find my music on YouTube and Spotify which are my main platforms, although you can search
“Aditya Tripathi” on all major platforms and find me there directly.

I am also quite active on my Twitter, Instagram, and Discord. I love talking to people, learn about them
and their experiences. It makes me feel better when I can make others feel better. Discord is one place
where it feels like I am quite available to all my listeners where they can reach out to me and I’ll surely
respond without hesitation.

Anything else before we sign off?

I have never been featured on an article or a website before. So I’d like to thank IMD Team for
considering me worth this feature.

I have a lot of stories to share, a lot of music to make, and I’ll keep on releasing it, even if I’m unable to
pursue it as a career because I appreciate music so much. It’s not only my hobby but something I find as
a very essential part of my life.

I’ve been through a lot of things in life and I’m sure others have as well, if I can make others feel that
they are not alone and that there’s always hope, I think that completes my goal in life. Materialistic
things don’t make me happy, experiences and friendships on the other hand mean the world to me.
I’ve lost friends, made enemies, and more just because I wanted to make music and express myself, but
even after all that, I wouldn’t trade it away for anything else. It is all worth it in the end.