‘I’ve learned to keep my eyes and ears open to new things’

Amartya Smaran

DJ-turned-singer Sahil Sharma aka Zaeden is on a roll with all his releases doing extremely well on popular streaming services.The music producer started off his career pretty young and worked his way up to reach the top spot. Zaeden has been a constant at the Tomorrowland Festival and has grown immensely popular in the indie music scene with multiple collaborations with various successful artists. Upon its release, his 2021 album Genesis 1:1 opened to a great start. With his level of consistency, it looks like the millions of views on the singer’s YouTube channel(Zaeden) aren’t going to slow down soon.

Lagda Na has a special place in Zaeden’s heart as it is his first Punjabi song. Throwing oneself into uncharted waters is a trait that’s unique to the Lagda Na singer and every time he did that in his career, he’s always succeeded.

“Working on a Punjabi song was always in the pipeline for me, the main aim for me was building towards the right track to transition from the Dreamy Bedroom Pop vibe that Genesis 1:1 is to the Urban Punjabi, R&B vibe of Lagda Na. Working with Stunnah on this track was a breeze, he understood the idea so well and it shows how the track has a very groovy, smooth flow, packed with excellent lyrics written by Prince The Artist Singh and me. The team on this really glued all the elements together,” told the singer.

Explaining to us why it took him so long to come up with an original Punjabi song, the Genesis 1:1 creator commented, “It’s always been an experimental process for me when it comes to music, more than experimental I feel like it goes through a rigorous personal quality check process and when it makes it through that I eventually get more ears to catch reactions to it. It’s the same with making new Punjabi music, I’ve been listening to a lot of it and making a lot of tracks, so hopefully, the Punjabi music gap will start filling up very soon.”

Not being able to find the right kind of motivation and inspiration is a nightmare for any artist. It is difficult to make do with such situations where everything looks dull. Now, how does Zaeden find artistic inspiration and who are his idols? “I have grown up listening to a lot of music by Kishore Kumar. Thanks to my dad who is a singer himself and a huge fan of Kishore Kumar. I was and still am a big fan of desi music coming out of the UK – Jay Sean, Raghav, Juggy D, Rishi Rich, I’ve heard a lot of that music while growing up.

As a singer, these artists have hugely influenced me and have played a big part in my musical choices. I think it’s a mix of my industry friends and some personal favourite artists but my source of inspiration is never the same. I’ve learned to keep my eyes and ears open to new stuff, so it’s a mix of a lot of elements and experiences,” said the music producer.

From aspiring to be an artist to witnessing huge crowds at his concerts, Zaeden has experienced it all, but the best is yet to come.He is all set to share the stage along with well-renowned artist Post Malone on December 10 at the Zomato Feeding India Concert. Sharing how excited he is about the event, the young music sensation expressed, “It just makes me feel blessed honestly. While starting off, I had no idea that I would reach where I am today. I was just a normal boy making music in his bedroom, fascinated by the journey of all the musicians whose music I heard back then.

Getting to perform and travel around the world is something I always dreamed of which fuels my energy to keep creating more music and working hard toward fulfilling my personal goals. I’m extremely excited about getting the opportunity to open for one of the biggest international artists in the world! The artist lineup looks insane. Partnering with Feeding India is also super special as it supports a really important cause of eradicating malnutrition and hunger in India. This opportunity to perform at the concert not only feeds my aspirational soul but also feeds my soul on a human level and I’m really looking forward to this experience.”

People are often a little too glad about a few decisions that they’ve taken over others. Our guest says switching from a DJ to a full-time singer was one of the best choices he’s made as an artist, “When I decided to switch from a DJ to become a singer, everyone around me had a lot of apprehensions with regards to my career. But now that I look back, I’m proud of the fact that I took the risk of switching from DJing and producing music to singing and writing music. The decision was a tough one to make as I was at the prime of my DJing career, but I believed in myself and the music I was making, and I feel very proud today that I listened to my inner voice instead of getting influenced by others’ opinions,” opined the singer.

In conclusion, letting us in on his upcoming projects, Zaeden says, “Currently I’m working on a bunch of new music, experimenting with new sounds, and exploring some exciting collaborations with several artists I’ve dreamed of working with. Hopefully, they will all be out soon and you’ll be the first ones to hear it! As for my next album, I don’t have a date yet but I’m definitely working toward it.”