Abhijay Sharma, who has won several accolades for his album Obsessed, recently released his new track, Qissa. In an exclusive chat with The Pioneer, he discusses his music and the latest track.
Tejal Sinha
Abhijay Sharma, the name has become an overnight sensation in no time. Being the voice behind the Hindi part of the most viral song of the current times, Obsessed, he has won all the accolades he deserved. In fact, the obsession fever was so high that actors like Vicky Kaushal too had grooved over the track, and we couldn’t stop adoring.
But guess what? Abhijay, who has turned into a sensation now, was also surrounded by Indian classical music all his childhood. Well, if you think he comes from a musical background, Nah!! He shared, “People in my house don’t know how to sing or make music, but my parents have always loved listening to music. And so, I used to hear a lot of classical music ghazals; indirectly, these were influences I had initially.”
However, during his adolescence, he stopped singing for a while and couldn’t sing. He even thought that singing for him had come to an end. Little did he know that it was not necessarily the end. He said, “I had gotten into production and started producing music. I started with EDM, and a few of my works were also ranked as high as #7 in the world in some remix contests. I also started producing hip-hop music with artists like MC Sharul and many different labels, produced Bollywood music, and did some additional production for the Ayushmann Khurana starrer Action Hero. My music production comes from a very contemporary and Western world, but my compositions come from a very Indian world. I bought both of the things together in my music, so there’s also an international factor, and it’s also my type of music.”
The vocalist, who believes that his recent album Obsessed was a momentous opportunity in his career, shared in an exclusive chat with us that his influence in making his music comes from his travels: “I get so many experiences day to day, so from them, I get ideas for making my music. I usually start with an instrumental, making beats first or BG music, and from there I compose. After that, I compose it, send it to my friend Revo, who writes over it and sends it back to me, and then I record it. I also mix and master my own songs and produce the whole thing myself.”
After enrapturing hearts with his vocals in Obsessed, he recently released his new track Qissa, a concept that he began working on in 2022. The rain takes centre stage in this love ballad. The song has lyrics by ReVo Lekhak and vocals, composition, and mix by Abhijay himself. Taking us through the making of Qissa, he shared, “I was just sitting with my friend who was playing this chord on the guitar, and I asked him to record this since I really liked it. Later, another friend of mine played drums for the same I then went back home and worked on the song, composed it, and sent it to my friend ReVo, who had also written the Hindi part of Obsessed. He sent me the lyrics, and I really loved them. In fact, it was also the time of the monsoon, and we were clear that we wanted to make this a song with references to rain for love. After this, we recorded the song in October 2022, and it came out in August 2023 (he giggles).”
Abhijay has been someone who rarely sleeps on his music and releases it in a month or two. However, Qissa took over a year and a half. “Back then, I felt it was not actually the right time, but now I felt like, ‘Let’s just do it’ and I collaborated with IndieA Records,” he shares, recalling, “It was a lot of fun while we were shooting the music video, but at the same time it was very hectic too. I had 3–3 shows and directly went to Dehradun for a 4-day shoot, and then from there, I went to three more shows, so it was like I was out for 10–12 days, but while making the music video, we had a lot more fun on the sets.”
Ending the conversation on a brighter note, in 2023, he is going to come up with an album by October or November that is going to have 8 to 9 songs. Without revealing many details, he also shared that he is also going to work with one of his favourite Indian artists.
