AIR APPARENT, the Indian-American DJ has been making waves within the electronic scene as of late. With an authentic and unique sound, the DJ and producer is just getting his work recognized within the industry. His single from last year, “Your Love,” already accumulated over 60,000 plays on Soundcloud! This shows the true talent he already possesses.
From working as a radio station DJ in college to producing his latest single “Asking You”, AIR APPARENT is more than ready to break out in 2019. Be sure to check out our exclusive interview below and for more information surrounding AIR APPARENT and music releases follow along on his Instagram!
Exclusive Interview With AIR APPARENT
(This interview was edited for clarity)
RMR: How excited have you been to release “Asking You?”
AIR APPARENT: Very! It’s a bit of a creative risk for me because it follows a dancier tempo than what I’ve typically done in the past, but I’m very happy to share it with the world in time for the summer.
RMR: When making a track like “Asking You” or any others, what does your creative process usually look like?
AA: Inspiration to start. It could be me getting a coffee somewhere neat, or walking down a street I’ve never been. Or it could be a story a friend told me. For whatever reason, I’m soundtracking my day constantly and sometimes there isn’t a specific song I have in mind.
Once I have some sort of spark or idea, I try to express it somehow. Could be a vocal melody in my voice memos, or a snippet on the keyboard, or a drum beat.
Afterwards I try to make it into an actual song. I typically have some lyrical ideas or sketches, then I work with other artists on the melody and polishing the delivery of the message. When we’re all happy with it, we move on to recording the vocals and mixing them into the final product.
Listen To AIR APPARENT – Asking You
RMR: How did you learn how to make music and what inspired it in the first place?
AA: It just felt like I had to. I grew up surrounding myself with music from the very beginning. Did piano lessons for a bit, played viola, sang classical Indian music, and then did college radio much later.
When I moved to to SF a friend and I were hanging out and he showed me how to use Ableton. After that, I couldn’t stay away. I just started playing around with it and making total garbage. It evolved a lot from there.
I’m inspired by stuff I read, other artists I really like (all kinds), and then my friends and family. I’m also trying to travel a bit more, and that’s been an easy way to find inspiration (i.e. my last song “Tokyo”).
RMR: At what point did you decide on a genre and sound? What was it like coming up with that?
AA: My sound is inspired by the concept of “dreams”. I’ve always been really into surrealism in movies, and like the trope of dream sequences (probably happens twice as often in Bollywood).
Anyway, I love the idea of how dreams bounce between feeling surreal and hyperreal, all due to some electrical signals. So I shoot for music that feels dreamlike, in the space between reality and something entirely made up in your head. Genre-wise, I listen to R&B, electronic, pop, and hip-hop, so I like to produce music that sits at the seams of all of those genres.
RMR: What type of message or feeling do you typically try to portray for listeners? If there is one, can you tell us about it?
AA: In a literal sense, “Asking You” is about getting someone you care about to open up. But you can also interpret it as a song to yourself. When you’re busy going through the motions of your life, it’s often easy to ignore the voice inside and lose touch with who you are.
More importantly than the individual song, I really want to help bring more of an Asian identity into popular music. Nearly every culture has rich musical traditions but somehow Asians still constitute a tiny minority among musical artists in America. In addition, among many of my Asian peers, we’ve found that creative careers like making music are often perceived in the culture as career choices that are non viable at best and lazy at worst.
I hope that by creating great music, I can help raise awareness of other identities and experiences in the music industry and also encourage others to showcase their art.
RMR: What can we expect from you in the near future?
AA: Expect to hear some new singles throughout the summer, and stay tuned for a new album!
