BENGALURU: They say imitation is flattery. For city-based rapper, stand-up comic and poet Harshit Wadhwani, who also goes by his stage name Wolf.Cryman, that rang all the bells of truth after he noticed his first EP (extended play) displaying an influence on the independent rap scene. Presently, travelling between Jaipur and Delhi, he is in the process of recording his second EP, Dil Fenk Ke Marunga 2, scheduled to release in February. “The project primarily focuses on the life cycle of a relationship while
looking at it through an existential lens. The EP will feature a mix of songs and some stories told in a folklore style,” shares Wadhwani.
The writing process of this project was vastly different to his first EP. “I was a lot newer to the songwriting process when I was making my first project. I was mostly having fun with music then. This time, however, I was a lot more conscious of my style and my approach. The writing has been tighter with every song dealing with a specific idea,” says Wadhwani, adding that he also left room for experimentation while making the EP.
A rapper based in Bengaluru, he chose to record the new EP in Jaipur and Delhi. “The kind of music I was making was similar sonically and linguistically to some artistes in the underground rap scene in Delhi. Also, I resonated with some of them there. That reflects in the new EP as I have a lot more song collaborations in it compared to what I had in my first project,” he says, mentioning that a key reason behind the collaborations was also because their fandoms overlapped with one another.
With the initial title for the EP being ‘Pyaar aur Gussa’, Wadhwani wanted to explore emotions of love and anger in this project. “I have had many experiences with love but not many with anger. That is also one of the reasons why I temporarily moved to Delhi. It is a comparatively rougher city, so I felt it would provide enough avenues for me to explore anger and rage,” he says.
His first EP was released to a lot of positive acclaim that Wadhwani says, reaffirmed his belief in his writing. “It was life-affirming. I always wanted to be a writer, but had little to show for it. In the first project, I was trying to understand if people would even be interested in listening to something that I created. So, the positive reception was satisfying. I continue to get messages where people praise me for my work. I mean, on the bigger scale, I probably have the least amount of fame one could have, but whenever someone enjoys something of your creation, it feels good,” he concludes.
Outside of his new EP, Wadhwani is also working on a one-man show titled Swag Ka Vikreta (which is the namesake of one of his popular songs from his first EP), which will be a mixture of standup comedy,
poetry and music.