Being a self-taught artiste allows me to experiment with music: Jasleen Royal

Known for hits like Love You Zindagi and Din Shagna Da, singer Jasleen Royal’s journey, as she puts it, has been a long, but fruitful one. Jasleen, who will be performing in Bengaluru today, is also known for playing multiple instruments simultaneously. Ahead of her performance, she spoke to Bangalore Times about her journey, how being self-taught has helped her and more…

From an Indie artiste to playback singing
Prior to her

Bollywood

career, Jasleen had participated in a TV reality show and got noticed as an indie musician. “I started out as an independent musician because I love

music

and kept producing music till someone signed me up. It was only once I got noticed that I began singing in Bollywood. It’s great to work with different actors, directors and producers. Even though I sing for Hindi films, I still continue to work on my own music. Nothing has changed for me,” says Jasleen.

Small things that paved the way
Jasleen says that her journey was long, with several challenges. “I started performing at small shows and saved a lot of money. Then, I reached out to the manager of Parikrama, who began managing my career. I started opening for the band and whatever money I made, I gave it to the manager. Once I had enough money, I released my single — Panchi Ho Javan. The video went viral because people could relate to it,” she says adding, “So, I kept performing at shows and saved money from that and released singles till the time I released Din Shagna Da, which was later featured in the film Phillauri. It was these small things that paved the way for me,” she says.

Social media

plays a big role
Talking about social media, Jasleen says that it has played a big role in her professional life. “It has helped me in a big way, but it’s not like if there was no social media, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything. I cannot take it away from my journey. It has helped me along with the reality shows that I was a part of. People started messaging me on social media, telling me how much they liked my work. Because of social media, I was able to put my single out. But there is a flipside to it as well. Since there are many people who release their music online, there’s a lot of competition,” she adds.

Being a self-taught artiste, there are no set rules
Jasleen says that her ability to play multiple instruments simultaneously comes from her being a self-taught artiste. “I am self-taught musician and my mind wanders to a lot of places. I feel creativity comes from thinking ‘what if?’ Since I don’t have any set rules, I experiment a lot. Playing several instruments at one go is an outcome of all of that,” she says.

Excited to perform in Bengaluru
Ahead of her maiden performance in the city, Jasleen says that she has several memories from the city. “I’ve come to Bengaluru before, during my college days. My extended family lives here and I have lots of good memories from the city. I look forward to performing here. We will be having several songs in different renditions and I hope to have a good time,” she signs off.