The blue-eyed boy of electronica, : Ritviz Srivastava talks about his upcoming album DEV, being called a one-hit-wonder and more.
When Ritviz Srivastava aka Ritviz, tells you that a section of his fans doesn’t know about his superhit track Udd Gaye, you ought to take it with a pinch of salt. But he insists it’s the truth. “Jeet appealed to a whole bunch of listeners but there are some who hadn’t even heard of Udd Gaye, and I know those people,” the DJ and music producer laughs. He further explains, “With all of the songs that I have ever put out, or I’m going to in the next six months, the agenda is a new story every time. So, it ends up finding a fresh set of audience.” He’s not complaining because that makes him feel like his music is a spectrum and none of his songs would fall in the same box.
Staying true to himself
With the upcoming music from his new album DEV that Ritviz plans to release, the trend would continue. “The new number, Sargam, which comes out soon, is in Bihari lingo and I’m going to be rapping in it. It’s completely different from what I have done so far,” he tells us. The excitement for him is in seeing the audiences’ reaction to the new side to him. “I’m expanding my palette and learning about new people who are coming into my life,” he smiles. The artiste is constantly trying new things but that’s never pre-planned. In fact, he says there is no process as such to creating songs. He doesn’t decide what he wants to talk about or what the length, BPM or technicalities should be. “It’s all organic. Everything I do needs to be driven and felt. If I’m experiencing a lot of emotions, then I try to channelise it through music,” says he.
The Barso hitmaker attributes the organic nature to the 15-odd years of classical music training and the influence of hip hop and other genres. “By the time I reached my teens and wanted to express myself musically, the flow was already there as it was building inside of me. It’s not a conscious effort to work in that format. If I’m in a zone, I will write a song. The thinking and analysing come later. I try to be as authentic to myself as possible, which is the reason why I don’t worry about the numbers and how the track would do,” the singer claims. “As long as I’m happy with it and the number represents me, I know that it would find the core audience. My music comes from a true place, so, people will connect with it,” he asserts.
An eventful year
The year 2019 was quite eventful for the artiste. He’s been busy with DEV, dropped music videos Sage, Liggi and Chalo Chalein, and had his own music festival called YUV Fest, where he played on the same stage as Amit Trivedi, Dua Lipa and Katy Perry. Though, he points out that every year before this has been equally important. “I had been touring about three years before Udd Gaye released. Then my EP, Yuv, came out in 2016. That was a big moment for me because I was showcasing my sound in different towns and played in 20 cities,” he recalls. He admits that none of the tracks brought the major upscale that Udd Gaye did and the number of listeners amplified overnight. “But that was also a boon and bane situation for me,” says Ritviz, adding, “I didn’t release my next track (Jeet) for seven-eight months. The conversation of being a one-hit-wonder and speculating what the next track was going to be like ensued. And that built an insane amount of pressure on me,” he admits. However, he has now grown to accept that naysayers will always talk, and he tries not to let it affect him. “I just remind myself that I didn’t always have this kind of production and fanbase. So, how was I making music then? I try to be the person I was 10 years ago. It’s basically just me getting inspired by my younger self,” he maintains.
Not a trailblazer
Ritviz Srivastava has been called ‘desi electronica’s new leader’, a tag that is humbled about and hopes to live up to. But he doesn’t see himself as a trailblazer. “I do think if people recognise you for the sound that you portray then you become a genre in your own way,” he states, regretting that there are few musicians who sound like themselves. He believes that a major shift that needs to happen is for people to find their own identity. “If we have artistes who represent their own sound then we will have a lot of fresher content, which people are still dying for,” he says.
Working with his mentor
At the moment, Ritviz Srivastava is also working on some Bollywood projects and his fans can also look forward to collaborations with his mentor Nucleya. The duo has been working on four-odd songs in the past three years. “The process of making music is seamless with him. We are in a similar space artistically and he’s a beautiful person and a great musician too,” he avers. It has taken this long for them to release stuff because they haven’t been happy with how it has turned out. “We couldn’t finish them. It’s the excitement of entering a studio to make a track vs completing the track,” he laughs and promises, “It’s also about being in that creative space. But, this year our collaborative project will hopefully come out.”
Words: Dhaval Roy
Ritviz Srivastava for TMM
The post A New Story Every Time: Ritviz Srivastava aka Ritviz appeared first on TMM.