Ashwin Shriyan and Nishith Hegde have known each other since 2010. The two were a part of their respective metal bands then. The former as a bassist-producer-composer and the latter, primarily a guitarist. And, they have been working together on and off until last year when they started Nash Productions that primarily makes ad jingles. The musicians from Mangalore never released a single. One wonders why it took a decade and a pandemic to release their first, ‘Ye Pal’, which will be out on major audio streaming platforms in the first week of June.

Ashwin clarfies, “We were actually done with composing a year ago. We planned to make a bunch of songs, approach a director and get into film music. We had some ad work, which stalled the release. When we saw a lot of independent musicians releasing their tracks, we got inspired and decided we’ll release this one.”

He got the idea for ‘Ye Pal’ after watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) wherein the protagonist Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), who is used to a monotonous life, sets out on an extraordinary adventure. The song, too, is kind of a dream-realising act for Ashwin and Nishith.

Nishith, who has sung the song, says, “I immediately liked the idea of the song when Ashwin told me about it. We have always been working on others’ ideas or creative inputs. For the first time, we were doing something that was our own.” Ashwin’s friend Shardul Yadav wrote the lyrics and another friend, Prasanna Suresh, programmed the song.

“It was easier for us to work on a song than to make jingles,” says Nishith. “Song-writing is something that comes naturally to us. With jingles, the message is more important. You are supposed to convey a certain emotion within a short time. A song on the other hand gives you more freedom.”

Ashwin and Nishith have worked on jingles for brands including Mastercard, Cadbury India, Renault and Van Huesen. The duo, apart from composing jingles, have worked with several Hindi film musicians including Amit Mishra, Siddharth Mahadevan, Akasa Singh, Jonita Gandhi and Nikita Gandhi.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Music / by Praveen Sudevan / May 26th, 2020