Making a niche in the music industry for herself, Natania Lalwani has captivated audience yet again with her tracks Gulzar and Thank You God. In an exclusive chat with The Pioneer, she discusses anything and everything around her music and inspirations.
SHIKHA DUGGAL
Joining Desi Trill and receiving guidance from Jay Z’s Roc Nation, Natania has carved out a successful career for herself by contributing to high-caliber productions like 4 More Shots Please, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, Joy Ride, Wedding Season, Industry Promo and Only Murders in the Building, which starred Selena Gomez.
A special interview with Natania Lalwani, currently one of the most in-demand and endearing singers. Her singing style, voice and genuine demeanour captivates the audience at numerous musical venues. Her latest track Gulzar is currently trending and meanwhile, her composed Thank You God had went viral.
She starts off with gusto, saying, “When I was growing up, my mom used to listen to music a lot. I’ve always liked music, thanks to artists like Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Whitney Houston, Simon & Garfunkel and others. I believe that my passion for Bollywood Shiamak dancing, together with other factors, ultimately shaped my style.”
Her most recent body of work includes songwriting credits on Do It Like That for The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, and her debut worldwide single Gulzar, a brand anthem for Naomi Osaka. “I think I had a level of delusion (which I still have, haha), and I didn’t really overthink it. I just knew I wanted to go pursue music,” the singer-songwriter adds in additional information. “Convincing my parents that sending me across the world was what I really wanted to accomplish was the difficult part at the time. In the end, I took advantage of every musical opportunity available at the time, including joining a choir to prove to them how serious I was!”
She presently juggles numerous balls, so anyone looking for an answer to issues about abundance of talent should turn to her. The pop singer has been relentlessly pushing her boundaries by accepting new tasks, all while utilising her skills in the entertainment industry. “I constantly create based on feeling and emotion in both realms, trying not to overthink things. I enjoy writing pop music and adding Indian portions to help convey the narrative and heighten the emotion,” a Sindhi native adds.
Mumbai Magic, a new song by Desi Trill, takes the city by storm and wraps itself around millions of stories. The song is a joyous celebration of bustle, tradition and hope. The three musicians on the label, Shalmali Kholgade, Subhi and Natania Lalwani, envision a Mumbai in which time-honoured customs coexist with the energy of a contemporary city. The song pays tribute to how the city can inspire and energise people, serving as both a home and a muse, from the colonial gateway of India to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. Conversely, we hear Natania, who was a member of The Stop Gaps Choral Ensemble, regarded as one of India’s most esteemed choirs, go on to say, “I wrote the Gulzar song in response to a conversation I had with someone in which I chose to be extremely vulnerable and express my feelings. He had asked for my patience as he talked about his feelings, so that evening I went into the studio and stated, ‘He said I have to be patient!’ Gulzar was then born. ” She wants to remind people to go boldly and show their hearts by showing them who they really are. That produces only lovely things and life is too short to do anything else. Gulzar originated from a deeply intimate event and was a highly personal song. Furthermore, every song that she is releasing as an artist is inspired by a true event or circumstance. Sharing her music with the public and using it as a vehicle for self-expression feels really freeing.
She participated in the Boston Summer Program at the Berklee School of Music in 2010. After that, she relocated to Los Angeles and enrolled at Hollywood, California’s Musician’s Institute. “There is no set recipe for collaborations; they all happen so differently. I’m lucky to have a fantastic support system around me that helps me get into situations that result in amazing partnerships like these. It constantly serves as a reminder that teamwork is essential to success in all endeavours and I genuinely like assisting other artists in sharing their tales.”
Buzz was generated when Natania’s single Mess Me Up was released on Lowly Palace and Chill Nation. After that, she dropped the single Yellow Lights, which became the first cover of the official Spotify playlist No Borders and was included on other Spotify and Saavn playlists. More than 1.5 million streams have been received. It made its debut on Rolling Stone and was played on Radio One throughout India. Natania has collaborated with Not Famous on Kissing Mouths, Deep Chills on Feelings and Muscle Memory since their releases. Additionally, from this, we also learned that, “Normally, I just compose music without considering a particular brand or brief. I’m much more creative when it comes to the lyrical content of those studio sessions, so I always try to think outside the box and attempt something new. It’s similar to letting go and seeing what emerges when you step into the creative sandbox. Thankfully, thus far, brands have appeared to relate to those records of mine.”
Her music is entirely focused on her personal experiences, but when she creates for other musicians, she almost acts as a best friend or therapist, helping them go deeply into their tales. It’s really a privilege for her to be able to do that! She genuinely thinks that India is about to have its moment. “It’s time to go worldwide because India has incredible talent! There seems to have been a change in the way that people want to hear new sounds and this is the ideal moment and place for Indian music to gain popularity,” Four More Shots fame shared.
“I remember when I didn’t have a team at all and I was sending hundreds of emails a day to try and collaborate with artists and I was so disappointed that no one was responding to me,” she says, describing a particularly difficult period in her career. “It taught me to try the window if the door won’t open and to accept rejections with a grain of salt! As an artist, I believe that persistence is a crucial attribute, as is having a strong enough self-belief to keep continuing.”
In this interview, the Thug Ranjha fame looks ahead and declares, “I want to do anything and everything! As an artist, my main objective is to express my narrative from the bottom of my heart through music and establish a connection with listeners. I also want to discover methods to work with India to create music that contributes to global cultural moments. Oh, and I’d like to receive a Grammy. Working with Naomi Osaka was undoubtedly an eye-opening experience! Beats absolutely adored the record we previously owned and this song was incredibly inspiring. Shuffle the deck, I’m the queen of the pack is the opening line and it truly reflects an icon like Naomi, so I’m glad it suited and we got to work together to create a time for her to shine.”
To be honest, “Only Murders in the Building with Selena Gomez was a really fun project to work on. They liked a song I already had and they thought it was a perfect fit for the scene when Selena Gomez was in an art gallery. I was thrilled that it worked so perfectly there! I was particularly excited about working on Four More Shots because Mikey Mccleary had asked me to co-write the theme song, something I had been yearning to do for a long time. After that, I worked with him to compose the music for the entire production and we had to immerse ourselves in the characters’ lives and minds. After seeing the episodes, we would modify the songs to reflect the experiences of the characters. It was a lot of joy for me to select a few of the vocalists to perform the songs.”
