HYDERABAD: After the triumphant ‘Dastakein’ tour, singer-songwriter Anuv Jain is geared up for a nationwide series of performances ‘Guldasta,’ curated by Paytm Insider. The Hyderabad-leg of the tour will be on December 16 at Odeum By Prism. ‘Guldasta’ meaning ‘bouquet’ in English, beautifully encapsulates the essence of this musical expedition, promising a blossoming delight for fans nationwide. Renowned for his signature phrase “Just a boy with a guitar,” his songs have soared in popularity across social media platforms. This tour holds a special place as Anuv is thrilled to unveil the more poignant narratives and his iconic guitar sounds in his music. Hailing from Punjab and 28 years old, he transitioned from an online sensation to one of the most sought-after artists globally.
His initial breakthrough with ‘Baarishein’ has now crossed 100 million streams on Spotify, solidifying his stature in the indie music scene. Such milestones have cultivated a devoted fanbase who avidly include his tracks in every acoustic playlist. His music, blending candid lyrics with evocative melodies, has amassed over 10 million monthly listeners, propelled by hits like ‘Gul,’ ‘Alag Aasmaan,’ ‘Mishri,’ and his latest release, ‘Antariksh.’ Anuv was also among the privileged few artists featured in the lineup preceding international singer Post Malone’s India performance.
Excerpts.
Tell us about the Guldasta tour.
Guldasta is my second all-India tour which kickstarted earlier this month in Delhi. It is set to be way bigger than my previous tour, ‘Dastakein’, which happened two years ago with much more music in store for my fans along with incredible visuals and a whole new live experience. The reason why we’ve kept the tour name as ‘Guldasta’ is because ‘Gul’ is one of my favourite songs that I’ve ever written and it’s a 10-city tour, hence the word ‘das’. I’m so excited about this tour as I had been performing solo shows for a while now and this tour just brings all the cities I’ve been looking forward to performing at, together on a map like a bunch, so calling it ‘Guldasta’ just made a lot of sense.
What sort of music should we expect?
I’ll be performing all my music that I’ve released so far on this tour. I sing originals that I’ve myself written and composed out of my own personal experiences in life. Every word, every sentence is based on something that I’ve personally gone through and has a personal touch to it as all my songs are an expression of tiny little stories from my life that I put out in the form of music.
Tell us about your journey in music.
I’ve been into music since I was a kid. I started singing at a very early age and I got into songwriting and playing the guitar at the age of 16. It’s been a while since I have been doing this, but I always thought of my interest towards music as more of a hobby rather than turning it into a full-fledged career. It all happened just before the pandemic when the songs that I had put out (as a hobby) started doing quite well and the number of streams and views I was getting was pretty incredible for an independent artist. This made me realise that I need to at least try and do this once in my life and see how it goes, and the rest is history! It’s been about three-and-a-half years and there’s no looking back now.
What sort of music inspires you?
Everything inspires me. I listen to all kinds of music from Pop, Indie-pop, sometimes country music, instrumental music to even hip-hop— I find inspiration in all these genres. I am a person who loves listening to songs that contain beautiful lyrics. The way I see music is that if I’m listening to a particular song and hear one line that sticks with me, I fall in love with that song. That’s the kind of music I am trying to build — to put these beautiful stories in my songs that stay with people when they are listening to it, so that they want to go back and hear it all over again.
What’s the current Indie music scenario in India?
I think independent music in India is currently thriving. It’s some of the best music that is coming out of this country right now. The number of streams that this music is securing across streaming platforms is proof to the fact how much indie music has grown. The number of people that are turning up at our shows is also incredible. Artists want to own their music right now which is brilliant and how it should be. At the same time, independent music is also starting to feature in movies, artists are being featured on the top playlists, securing covers and being discovered everyday by a new set of audience. I think the present is amazing, it’s the best that it’s ever been and the future is going to be way more incredible.
How does social media help you?
Social media is key as it is one of the most important ways to promote our music and put out information for the audiences to see and hear. We can never discredit and discount the role that social media plays. There are obviously other ways as well for music to reach people —just word of mouth is so important, but to inform people about a new song coming out or just to promote music and help it reach the right audience, social media is extremely important.
Who is on your bucket list for collaboration? Future projects.
At this point there are a lot of solo singles that I’m working on that need to be completed first. There is a lot of new music in the pipeline. I can’t disclose the names of people who I’d like to collaborate with right now but I do have some names in my head that I prefer keeping to myself. Let’s see how they react when I want to work with them and how it turns out.