Music has the power to transport you to new worlds. Close your eyes, and a sweet melody or the simple strum of a guitar is all it takes for you to find yourself at another point in time and space. Old Bollywood classics by the likes of Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle take me back to childhood car rides with my parents, One Direction brings me to my middle school bedroom, and grand, sweeping film scores by Hans Zimmer have the power to take me across the universe.
On her latest single, 'Khali Wali', Shreea Kaul uses cultural influences from across the globe to build a cinematic new world of her own. The singer-songwriter has been at the forefront of the rising South Asian and pop-R&B fusion landscape since the release of her 2020 LP, ‘Seven Deadly Sins'. With 'Khali Wali', Kaul takes her innovative, multicultural creative approach to the next level, incorporating elements of Flamenco and Arabic music into her signature desi-pop sound.
In 'Khali Wali' Kaul sings in three different languages, lamenting over her ex-lover in verses that switch between Hindi and English before flipping into a repetition of the song’s titular Arabic phrase, meaning 'let it be', for the chorus. Her melodious voice, the song’s dark, pulsating beat, and the sensual saxophone that weaves in and out of the track all come together in a rich blend of genres from around the globe. By playing with a diverse set of melodic and rhythmic influences, Kaul draws on familiar sounds to craft a sonic experience reflective of her own unique artistic background.
As an Indian-American, Kaul is passionate about honouring her cultural heritage through her work. She told us, “It’s essential for me to integrate my roots in my music because not enough people are doing it tastefully.” Indian classical and Bollywood music offer artists a wealth of gorgeous melodies and instrumentation styles to draw inspiration from. For Kaul, these influences “serve as mediums for [her] to express sentiments that simply don’t have the same depth in English or ‘Western’ sounds.” Just as certain phrases can’t be accurately translated from one language to another, the feelings Kaul hopes to articulate through her music depend on her multicultural sound.
The singer’s exploration of Flamenco and Arabic music, which aren’t native to her, is born out of a true love for music from around the world. She’s a student of world music, telling us she has binge-listened to artists from “every corner of the world.” Kaul’s approach as both a creator and a listener, comes from a belief that, “mainstream music will be a global experience in a few years and artists from different cultural and sonic landscapes will collaborate to create really innovative moments in global music culture.” We can already see this trend through the worldwide explosion of regional genres like Latin pop, K-pop, and Afrobeats, with Kaul spearheading a South Asian pop movement on the brink of taking off. As she continues to make waves through her unique fusion sound, Kaul cites other artists in the South Asian pop space, like Rehma, Akshara, Chitra, and Avara, as her biggest inspirations.
“My biggest inspirations are the friends I've made in this space. Artists like- Rehma, Akshara, Chitra, and Avara make me want to push myself to create more groundbreaking music.”Shreea Kaul for Homegrown
'Khali Wali' is just a piece of the larger puzzle Kaul is currently working on: her upcoming album, 'Cruel Intentions'. She told us, “The most exciting part of Cruel Intentions is how all-encompassing it is.” As an artist who continually pushes artistic boundaries, Kaul approached this album not just as an accumulation of her latest songs, but, as she described, “a concept project structured like the plot of a film.” The narrative forms what Kaul calls, “a very vulnerable project which makes it scary, but cathartic at the same time.” Like 'Khali Wali', the album is a further exploration of global musical influences, solidifying Shreea Kaul’s place as one of South Asian’s music’s most exciting innovators right now.
Follow Shreea Kaul here.
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