KOCHI: Tanya Shanker often feels a sense of anger when she reads the news, especially reports of glaciers melting or the impact of global warming. So the 15-year-old singer-songwriter decided to address this in the way she knows best: Through music. On World Environment Day, Shanker will release her new single on major music streaming platforms like Spotify, Amazon, iTunes and Apple Music. Speaking about her track Gone Girl, she says, “Every time I thought of the environment, I felt an urgent need to do something to address the climate crisis.
So I thought why not write a song that personifies mother nature.”Shanker worked closely with her mentor Richard Andrew, who besides being an entrepreneur, is also a part of the Moksha All-Stars band. The two came up with the lyrics for the song in all of 45 minutes three weeks ago. “We decided to weave a story in, where we begin with what mankind has done to nature, and then imagined what Earth would tell us if she could speak. It then ends with a plea to bring about change,” says Andrew.
Besides vocals by Shanker, the track also features another budding teenage musician, 17-year-old Jaime Dudley on drums. The song’s video has been shot and edited by 15-year-old Dheer Dudley. Both the boys are Andrew’s sons. Working on this song came as a respite to both Shanker and Andrew during this lockdown.
“This is an issue we both feel strongly about and through the song, I found an outlet to express myself,” says Shanker, who is soon going to start her academic year as an 11th grader at Sophia High School. She hopes the song will help people bring about a change that takes us in a positive direction when it comes to the climate crisis.
“Two years ago, I watched a video about the impact the meat industry has on the environment. That’s all it took for me to turn vegetarian and never look back. So even if my song has a similar kind of small impact on someone else, I’d be happy about it,” she says.
Music has always been a part of her life, having discovered it at the age of 10. Besides writing and composing her music – her debut album Battlefield released in November last year – she has also collaborated with other musicians like the rock band Girish Pradhan and the Chronicles, Perfect Strangers and Sylvester Pradeep, who was a participant in the singing reality show The Stage. While Shanker hopes to someday go on a musical tour, for now, the teenager has an upcoming EP (slated for a September release) to get her step closer to this dream. @itstanyashanker on Instagram