“To attain such a limelight in such a short time, I feel blessed,” says she. You’ve been damned for eternity, I enounce in my head. In just a period of six months, she’s achieved what we merely fantasize about and probably sell our souls for: Rock Stardom.
She mayn’t have the greatest of voices that we’ve heard of, or even come close to the top five. But Astha has that rare gleaming charm to herself which allures even grown-up men to listen to her pretty yet powerful voice singing of teenage angst and puppy love lost.
“I’m not just a pretty face with a guitar,” she affirms with confidence. “I’m a professional musician.”
At tender 19, Astha doesn’t only sing, write, compose, or produce but also does her own marketing.
“I hate the ugly corporate polemics of the record industry,” she says with an authoritative tone guised under her bubbly smile. “I like to keep the [copy]rights to my [intellectual] creations, and people can’t screw me off my hard work.” She’s definitely an indie musician! With a couple of friends’ support, Astha’s moving from place to place, promoting her first studio album, “Sabai Thikai Huncha” which she calls “My baby that I’m already tired of but still love dearly.”
And her “baby” is definitely worth listening to. Thanks to a startlingly exceptional producing by The Shadows’ Rohit Shakya, it successfully merges electronic metrics with the soulful tenderness of acoustics. It’s a typical feminine rocker album with an array of songs about love, confessions, declarations, and heartbreaks, brilliantly mixed with courtesy of Looza bandmates Sharad Rajkarnikar and Sunit Ratna Kansakar. Nevertheless, her album also proves that it’s actually in live performances that Astha can unveil her limitless prowess.We even get to hear where she got her talents from. Even her mom, Susan Maskey, sings along on a couple of tracks in the album. Susan seems to incite folksy Nepali vocals in Astha when she sings with her. Especially in “Timi Bina”, we can actually imagine Astha singing some typical eastern tunes. And in “Chardai Ujelo,” the harmonics between the two voices collaborating is beautifully recorded, and probably the best song in the anthology.
As an aside, Susan Maskey herself is coming out with an album of her own later in this year.
“She’s my inspiration and I wouldn’t be where I am if she hadn’t supported me,” says Astha. “She’s been more like my best friend.” As a guide, ever since she took up singing as her career, Susan hasn’t only supported her daughter but actually forced her to pursue one of the most unattainable of dreams.
“My dad wanted me to go to school, which I will, but my mom always wanted me to follow my dreams and supported me with everything.” And Astha pays her homage to her Mom’s support through a couple of heart-warming and beautiful songs.
Her powerful and keening voice delivers the platitude of poetics in amazingly refreshing ways. Nevertheless, it isn’t limited to being an angst-ridden album with clever studio tricks and mixing toning down the melancholy with elated beats and rhythms. Though the lyrics are quite sombre, “Sabai Thikai Huncha” comes off as a bubbly album, a mix of Colbie Calliat and Fiona Apple.
“It’s usually when you’re grief-stricken that you write the most beautiful songs,” she explains why most of her songs are about love lost and lessons learnt from them, adding that “melancholy sells.”
Asked if she’s gone through a lot of heartbreaks, she rather asks back, “Why do people always need to know about my private life?” I say, gossip sells! She fakes a laugh and answers, “Well, usually the heartbreaks and things that inspire me aren’t necessarily a result of relationships.”
I ask what other reasons? She replies with another faux smile, “Well, I have another side that people haven’t seen and may not accept me if they see that side. I have my equally introvert side to contradict my jolly side, but I have to hold that in most of the time.”
So do you fake it? I ask her sardonically. With a guileful smile, she replies, “I’m just trying to be more saleable.”She was 13 when she first held a guitar. By 14, she was writing songs; and by 15, she was already recording and performing live in Toronto, Canada, where she has been living since the age of 12. The singer/songwriter/composer/savvy businesswoman has also gone to the school for Independent Music Production where she actually can claim to have miniature degree in pre-production, including technique, recording, budgeting and manufacturing.
By 19, she was a rock star. Does she fear being lost amidst her newfound glitz and glory, I ask. With a subtle smirk, she says, “No, not at all.” This time, in more of a gentlemanly manner, I hint at her newly pierced lips.
“It’s just a phase and it’ll pass. I’m going to be leaving my teen territory pretty soon (June 29), I need to do things I can’t when I’m older. And about the piercing, I like pain! Not that I slit my wrists or anything, but I feel that pain is the best way to vent off my anger.”
Too much talent with alluring charms and a beauty to match her veiled astuteness, no one can be so lucky. Indeed, Astha has had sold her soul to the devil. Then again, perhaps some are born to be stars and some are born just to interview them.
(All photos by Bijay Rai.)
madhukar@myrepublica.com
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