A nonchalant musician enjoying his fame, or a proficient decision-maker aptly charting his career – which one do you think Kanungo is? Take your pick as the singer discusses music, collaborations, and mentorship ahead of the release of his album, Industry 2
Arjun Kanungo
As India continues to expose its music to a global audience, independent music artiste Arjun Kanungo makes a pertinent point about the approach towards music-making. “I feel that an actual organic attempt to connect with the global culture is lacking. It’s almost like [we say], ‘Here, this is our music. Take it and do with it what you please.’ Or, ‘Here, this is the music that I made for you. I didn’t make it for me.
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I made it for you, so you should listen to it,’” says the musician, adding that this approach “takes away from the effort of trying to create global music”.
Kanungo is responding to our questions on his decision to pick Japan, and Japanese artistes, for the making of an upcoming collaborative album. He aptly confesses that the East Asian country has held an element of mystique for Indians, but is a place where he has, over the years, set up a “second home” of sorts. “I first went there in 2016, and now visit frequently. My wife loves it, and we’ve got a great bunch of friends there. While I was on holiday, I thought about doing a few collaborations. It has the most enigmatic music industry on the planet, but it’s not easy [to access musicians].” Apart from setting up a credible management team, Kanungo had to navigate language barriers to build professional relationships. “But, after interacting with eight artistes whom we had studio sessions with, we’ve been able to present some great tracks. You have to genuinely invest your time and energy into building real connections with people and places. Because we could forge such a connection naturally, the process of making music was truly collaborative.”
Before this English-Japanese album is unveiled at the end of the year, fans of Kanungo will get a glimpse of the set with his upcoming Hindi Album, Industry 2, which releases in August. Apart from featuring India to Japan, created in association with Japanese music artist Cyber Rui, this album is also touted as the first from India to be shot in Japan. Kanungo makes a bold comparison when he pits Rui’s majestic presence to that of Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj. Appearing earnestly impressed with her skills, he describes the “pretty edgy” rapper as one “who has her own style, and big energy”. Another track with Zaeden also features in this album, and so does Destiny, the first English track that he penned in 2010. However, it is his release with Shirley Setia, Sach bata mujhe, that he speaks of, excitedly. Kanungo remembers Setia as the girl who asked him for a picture back in 2010 when he was a band member, touring with Asha Bhosle.
“Since there were few people who asked me for [selfies] back then, I remembered the ones who did. When Shirley began to [become popular] a few years later, I remembered her. We interacted and were subsequently in touch, as industry colleagues are. This was a track I wrote for her. That was an interesting experiment for me, because it made me gauge two things. One, if I could write in a non-masculine voice, and second, if I could write a song for Shirley, the avatar, not the person. When I thought of her, I felt she is someone who is very trusting,” he says of the making of the song, which was subsequently shot in Japan.
A conversation with the singer, 32, reveals dichotomous personalities. On one hand, Kanungo comes across as a free-spirited lad who only entertains opportunities that make him happy, and enjoys the fame he acquires in the process. He is easily humoured by innocuous situations, like watching his manager “who belongs to America, where people are demanding when it comes to the work culture”, attempt to lead individuals in Japan, “where everything is non-confrontational, and people are very polite”. On the other hand, he confesses to being “academic” in certain ways, digging deep into understanding what drives him as an artiste, and encouraging his marketing team to “not simply look at the cause and effect, but understand the deeper patterns in the data”. He may have turned down song offers, some of which went on to earn millions of views, he may have made choices that could have been detrimental to his career, but, as of this day, “I see that my peers are burnt out, and I am not. It makes me feel like I’ve made some wise decisions”.
His understanding, he confesses, determines how he plans to chart his career. Now a mentor to 20-something aspiring musicians, Kanungo, via his music label, has been using his learnings to create a new breed of musicians, whose success, he says, is as dear to him as his own. “They grasp things a lot faster than I did when I was their age. I wanted to experiment on these younglings, and elevate those around me as well. I [tell them] that the most crucial aspect [that can determine success] is attitude. The second is genuine love for music, and talent can be a distant third. In today’s day and age, it’s not about talent. It’s about authenticity. That is what makes you valuable.”
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