Music composer, producer, and viral sensation Yashraj Mukhate, known for his hilarious groovy tracks like Pawri Hori Hai, Tuada Kutta Tommy, Boring Day, and Lappu Sa Sachin Hai, among the rest, gets candid with The Pioneer about his music, his recent viral song Rasmalai, and more.
Tejal Sinha
His quirky and hilarious remixes will let you tickle your funny bones. Well, having an illustrious career throughout, he’s been one of the most viral content creators. Are you still not able to guess who we talking about, okay let’s give you another hint- Rasode Main Kaun Tha! Bingo!
Yes, it’s Yashraj Mukhate. But let us just tell you one thing, he is more than just a creator who creates hilarious remixes. A music producer, composer, and lyricist, he is creating a huge name for himself in the music industry through his original tracks too. Talking of his originals, his recent musical creation, Rasmalai, is already making waves. And why not? The song is his tribute to his favourite dessert, in fact, a dessert we can just not say a ‘No’ to. But if you think, that this track marks his debut of his own originals, this is his 5th or 6th original song. Yashraj, who got his breakthrough with the Rasode Main Kaun Tha remix shares, “I had already released around four songs, not exactly under this label because at that time I didn’t have this perfect logo. When the video went viral, my initial instinct was to come out with a single. But I knew the audiences that I have gained were expecting something else and wanted to watch the funny videos that I make. It took me 3 years to change that huge audience into a community that will like me for the music I make and not just for the memes.”
Music has always been there with him ever since his childhood. He’s grown up watching his dad’s love for listening and singing music and playing the keyboard. And then he goes on to reveal how the 2009 film Dev-D’s track Nayan Tarse by Amit Trivedi has been the triggering point in life. So much so that he used the trumpet that was shown in the intro of the song in the logo of his YM Originals. With having no formal training in music production, the internet had played a major-major role for him decoding all of it himself. “ I remember initially when I started making music, I used to listen to songs, make covers, and try to match the song that I have made and the original song. But it took me years and years of practice and understanding the little things that go into making just one music to sound right on a radio and streaming platform. Initially, the only goal was to make an audio track, which is noiseless because I used to use analog instruments and equipment, there used to be a lot of noise that used to come with it. Then I realised there were three process involved; music production, recording, and sending the mix to a mix engineer, who specifically mixes the song in a specific studio, just to fit all the instruments equally so that the song sounds equal in all the measures. I learnt all this process by watching people and them talking about it in the interviews. It’s been a very long process and I have made really bad tracks, which I don’t release (we giggle).”
Now as we go ahead and discuss of his recent Rasmalai, it is a delightful video of Yashraj savoring the sweet treat. The clip showcases an animated version of Mukhate reveling in the delectable flavour and texture of Rasmalai before being interrupted by a phone call, and he shares the song is his love letter to his favourite dessert. Recalling the moment he thought of it, he shares, “I had a spicy lunch somewhere, and then someone offered me this bowl of a very gold and soft Rasmalai. The moment that I had the first bite, it suddenly just did something in my brain, and I felt like this was the feeling that I would want to capture in a song. When I composed this song, I knew that the hook had to be Rasmalai because I didn’t want to make a song on love, heartbreak or the usual stuff that people usually try to do in an independent song. I thought this would be an interesting song to be about Rasmalai and also I felt that the songs that i make under my label, has to be close to what i feel,” shares the Best Musician on Youtube 2022 winner. Well, that’s how his fascination for food and dessert turned into a song, and he’s for sure enjoying the response for the same.
One can just ignore the crazy animation in the song, and we indulge on the animation process where he shares, “There was this track called Boring Day that I made with Shehnaaz Gill and as soon as I put it out, there was this guy called Ketan Pal (Instagram handle: midnight.kettle), he sent me an animation of me dancing and made a little animated character of me dancing on that track, and i really loved that. When I was making Rasmalai, I wanted to take feedback from my friends and making them listen to my song and one common thing that they said to me was this made them feel like we are in the Rasmalai world, and feel like you’re floating and you’re jumping in the Rasmalai. I thought of it and realised that if I shot this, it is going to be a high-production-value video and I definitely didn’t want to do that. Even if I do it, I won’t be able to achieve all these things if I shoot this physically, so I thought of Ketan Pal and I called him, gave him this idea and he gave me some really wonderful ideas that you get to see in the video. He has really made these small details very beautifully, and that is where the experience of watching the entire video has also enhanced.”
Initially, when he started making these dialogue mashups, the only goal he says was to make music production, and the primary goal was not to make it funny. “I wanted to make a content piece to showcase my music production skills, and this dialogue or meme thing would make it easy for me to engage with people. The moment they saw these videos they would stop and see it and eventually would enjoy the track also. If you remove the dialogues from the tracks, if you listen to it, they are completely different. For example, if you listen to the track called Biggini Shoot, if you remove the lyrics, it turns into a sad song, but the interesting thing is that people liked it only. So the contrast I think is very interesting,” he shares adding, “I would love to be a part of the industry, and I’ve been talking to few directors. Filmmaking is a long process. If I start speaking to them today, they’ll finalise the script, and then the music works would begin.
I’ve been talking to some directors, and that is something I don’t enjoy that much as content creators, we are used to immediate feedback, so this process I don’t enjoy that much but I do really be a part of film, and be a part of very good film and I would really enjoy when people recognise the music that I give in that film.”
Now as we head towards the end of the interview on a brighter note, Yashraj, who believes that his songs do have a combination of some of his inspiration from the industry, has two more projects under his label, which will be out in September and October, respectively.
