There is something about Hyderabad that keeps Anish Sood coming back. The music producer and songwriter, who now performs globally under the name Anyasa, speaks about the city with the ease of someone returning home rather than just arriving for another gig.
Anish talks about how he feels a genuine connection every time he performs in Hyderabad. “I come to Hyderabad fairly often, about two or three times a year, and it is definitely amongst my top five favourite cities in India to play at. There are some incredible venues here and the crowd is always super energetic,” he shares.
When asked about his favourite memory, he smiles and admits that it is not just the music that excites him. “It is the Haleem season, and I love it. The food in Hyderabad is the biggest attraction for me, and that is what brings me back,” he says.
His music today is a seamless blend of melodic house, techno, and Indian classical influences, but the journey to that space took time. He explains that the idea had been lingering in his mind for years. “The whole idea was always sort of in the back of my head in the early days of my career, and I was always thinking about it. In India, when you end up putting Hindi vocals on something, it can often very easily get labelled Bollywood. So during the lockdown, when everything was shut, and nobody was touring, no gigs were happening, I decided to give it a shot and do original classical vocals composed for the music, not sampled from a movie or library, and that became the idea behind the Anyasa concept. After that, it really seemed to resonate and connect deeply with people around the world, and I felt it was finally a representative sound that sounded Indian while also feeling fairly international,” he narrates.
Describing his music simply, he emphasises, “I would probably describe my music as a blend of melodic house and techno, somewhere between the two.”
His creative process is instinctive. “I have these flashes of ideas with melody hooks, sounds, or vocal ideas, and they can come to me anytime, whether I’m out cycling, in the shower or literally anywhere. The first thing I do is grab my phone and put that down as a voice note, and then develop that idea in the studio. Alternatively, it can be a musical piece or a vocal that somebody sends me, and I build a track around that,” he reveals.
Interestingly, music was not always the obvious career path. Having studied mechanical engineering and worked in his family business, he made the full-time switch only in his late twenties. “I felt like I was in a place where I could financially support myself independently,” he says, and that confidence changed everything.
Looking ahead, he is excited about what lies next. He is currently working on his first full-length Anyasa album. “I’ve only been doing EPs and singles, like three or four tracks, but this one is going to be a full 9-12 track album. I’m currently in the writing process, hoping to finish by the middle of this year and release it early next year. Alongside that, we’re building a new live show with singers and instrumentalists, like an eight- to ten-piece classical orchestra. These are the two things we’re working on this year,” he notes.
Much like his music, it builds, pauses, and rises again. And perhaps that is exactly what keeps audiences listening, and cities like Hyderabad waiting for his return.