Vishal Mishra: It was a new experience for me to make a song over the internet

For singer-composer Vishal Mishra ‘Woh Chaand Kahan Se Laogi’ is an emotion. He explains, “It's an emotion that everybody can relate to and resonate with. You cannot express this feeling because it is about those emotions that need closure, about the hurt that you have never really expressed, and about the vulnerabilities when somebody leaves you stranded.”
Keeping all this in mind, Vishal made this track.“I thought why not give language to all that. The moon, ‘chaand’ is the only constant that watches all the good and bad as you grow and so that's why we have kept it as a synonym. I was sitting on the terrace, in Chandigarh, watching the moon and that is when I came up with the song.”
This fact that this was the first time Vishal worked virtually and that made this track special. “It was created digitally during the pandemic. My musicians were in Bombay and I was in Chandigarh at that point of time and it was a new experience for me to make a song over the internet.”
So what do you keep in mind when you compose soulful, earthy melodies? “It's about what I feel at that point of time, it's about the soul. So when I made a ‘Kaise Hua’ ('Kabir Singh') it was about the time you feel butterflies in your stomach when you fall in love for the first time. And that's how I sang it and I produced the instrumentation and the orchestration of the song. Everything was as per the vision of the song. I feel that music has to be perfect and soulful so that it directly resonates with the vision that I have while I am making the song. I’d used rock guitars, electric pianos, drums to make it sound it as contemporary and as fresh at it can be,” he explains.
Talking about his creative process, he adds, “However, when I did a ‘Saand Ki Aankh’, I used organic instruments because that story was as earthy as it gets. And then when I make an independent song it's about what I feel about the tunes. I try to keep it soulful and organic. I feel that's why we connect with folk music, because folk is like that.”
Staying at home for the last so many months due to the pandemic, Vishal feels he is blessed. “I am blessed that I am a musician, singer, songwriter so I have got the opportunity to create music during this time. Being in a closed environment, and living with so many rules and regulations is very new for people. I have made a lot of music during the lockdown. I hope we get the Vaccines soon and then I can make music more freely but till that time, I hope I can keep healing people through my music that I make,” he says.
Vishal adds, “This pandemic inspired me to create songs. I read a lot, did paintings and explored instruments and I feel that during the pandemic I have come closer to my family and friends. I value relations more and I think these constraints make you a little more emotional and hence the tunes. I hope people connect to it.”