Shantanu

A fun chat with Mumbai based DJ & producer Mr Shantanu who creates music under the monikers ‘Smg‘ and ‘kSaya‘ (Pronounced Saya). ‘Smg’ is inspired and influenced by modern electronic music forms whereas ‘kSaya’ focuses on a fusion between Indian classical music and western electronic dance music.

Shantanu started his Smg project in 2017 when his primary motif was being a DJ, as a DJ Smg explored a wide array of genres before deciding to step into the world of music production. After dabbling with numerous genres and styles, Smg decided to make Electro Pop his standout genre and released his first single ‘Walk’ along with Yash Gosavi and
Neil on Guitar and Vocal duties. Crossing 50,000 streams in just months after the release, ‘Walk’ marked a successful debut of the Smg project.

Following the success of ‘Walk’, Smg released his second single ‘One Dance’
alongside Frntflw and Atteev. With a blend of futuristic elements coupled with a radiant stretched back drop, ‘One Dance’ was a big hit crossing 150k streams while receiving acclaims in the anime community for its prominent anime references.

Shantanu’s latest single is titled ‘Blinded by Your Love’ which releases on Friday 30th of July 2021 which will be followed by a gripping music video which comes out on Friday 13th of August that narrates experiences of the person while being on the other side of the relationship.

For the track Shantanu has teamed up with German singer and songwriter, Kaja Riedle and long-time collaborator Yash Gosavi. ‘Blinded by Your Love’ comes from a personal experience which in hindsight turned out to be an incident that changed my perspectives and inhibitions for the good. After my encounter with impulsiveness and bad decisions, I realized that it’s not consuming just me but it is consuming or has consumed people and relationships of all forms.

Watch our podcast episode with Shantanu below

With “kSaya” Shantanu has released a track called ‘Ae Ri Sakhi’ with Pooja Gaitonde & Prasad Gaitonde who is a prominent percussionist and tabla player. The track is influenced by Indian classical textures and modern electronic house music.

Listen to Ae Ri Sakhi below –

He’s been heavily influenced by an obscure CD of an album called ‘Anokha – Soundz of the Asian Underground’ which is a collaborative project of renowned artists such as Talvin Singh, AR Rahman, Osmani Soundz, State of Bengal, etc. This led him into the rabbit hole of discovering more about the Asian Underground Society of fusion Indian music and varied influences. This is the core of his project ‘kSaya’ and he’s already ready to share his new track called ‘Ae Ri Sakki’ which is a fusion of Sufi and Electronic music. As “kSaya” he wishes to introduce the sounds of Asian Underground to a wider audience of a new form of world and fusion music.

Some of his favourite Indian artists are – Talvin Singh, Karsh Kale, Midival Punditz, Bandish Projekt and Amit Trivedi.

Talvin Singh produced the musical score of the documentary ‘Kekee Manzil‘ by filmmakers Behroze Gandhy and Dilesh Korya.

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