Amit Trivedi: We have a bouquet of emotions, all of which we should embrace

Amit Trivedi

A glimpse of his social media page reveals that Amit Trivedi is becoming pleasantly comfortable with expressing himself on social media. The irony, however, is that questions on juggling entrepreneurship with music composition appear to open a Pandora's box. "I hate it. While creating [music] we have to go into a shell. We disconnect from [everything] around us, and create something in a shell. And then we have to break out of the shell to tell the world, hey, this is what I created in my shell," he says in a comical rant, asserting that today, marketing his music is "as much a job" as creating it.

Ahead of the release of the second edition of his album, Songs of Trance, Trivedi recalls the restiveness he encountered in the absence of a creative outlet, during the pandemic. "I have a working mind, and when [artistes are forced] to suddenly stop working, it becomes difficult to understand what to do with the mind. It is my job to put out music. That's my destiny. In that state of mind, while we were being bombarded with negative news, I encountered a shift. Songs of Trance [part one] was created then," reveals the musician, quick to assert that sorrow isn't an emotion that creators need to brush under the carpet while approaching their work.

He refers to his celebrated singles Raavan and Karle trip when opining, "They have an edgy and dark vibe. It's important to understand that all emotions are good, and are part of life. We cannot keep making happy, and romantic songs, or those that discuss heartbreak. Life has more shades than these, and we experienced them [during the pandemic]. No matter how much you avoid an emotion or speak of positivity, some things are unavoidable. At times, we become negative, and it is okay to embrace it. I did that, and that's how Songs of Trance was born. If Ram exists, so does Raavan. And that's fine. That's how balance works. It's a song that I love because I was tripping on it. I love how it has been written."

When the six-track album released in 2020, its reception brought Trivedi a sense of contentment. What he failed to decipher, however, was that in a world where an artiste can never deliver as much content as will continue to be in demand, he too would soon be coerced into releasing another edition. "When people began to ask me for the second version, I was like, I need to work on this also now?" he laughs.

"What I present in this edition is my version of trance. Purists may disagree and refuse to believe it belongs to this genre, but this is how I felt while creating it," he says of part two that releases tomorrow. "This one also has six numbers. I am sure I have evolved [with this album]. The sounds that I've created for this one are the kind I haven't explored before. When I think of three tracks - Bairi birha, Jhoome nain, and Jhumme raat - I can't place any of my past works that would resemble them. This is a new territory that I have embarked into."