FEATURE: Spotlight: Priya Ragu — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Priya Ragu

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BECAUSE she is releasing…

her mixtape, damnshestamil, on 3rd September, I wanted to feature the incredible Priya Ragu. That is not the only reason. Ragu is an amazing artist who everyone should check out. I will sprinkle some of her songs through this Spotlight. I also am keen to put some interviews together, so that we can discover more about an incredible talent. The first interview that I want to mention is from The Line of Best Fit. They spotlighted Priya Ragu back in February:

“Her whole life is a product of such curious contradictions. Ragu's story, for one, starts at the confluence of two starkly different cultures. She grew up in Switzerland after her parents were forced to flee from the Sri Lankan civil war in the 1980s. They were understandably strict growing up. “My parents were very protective,” Ragu concedes. “They just wanted the best for us. I wasn’t able to do the things that my schoolmates were able to do.” She’s wryly self-deprecating about it in conversation now but as one of the few Tamil families around, her childhood presented challenges. “I was a loner!” she laughs. “I didn’t have many friends, I was just doing my own thing. They were able to do sleepovers and I was never allowed to do that, so of course they would leave me out.”

It was a family trip to Toronto that first opened Ragu's eyes to her own culture. “That was the first time I was able to really live that side of me (Tamil),” she recalls. “There’s way more Tamil there than in Switzerland. Seeing Tamil restaurants, Tamil shops, even the bus driver was Tamil!” Trips to South India - particularly Chennai - ensured that she remained in touch with her heritage as much as possible: “Chennai is also Tamil Nadu so the culture is more or less similar to Sri Lanka. My parents are very spiritual so they would take us to the temples. It was almost like every second year we flew down.”

Tamil music was a frequent soundtrack in her early years, particularly the composers Ilaiyaraaja and A.R. Rahman. Forever grappling with the tension of her two cultures though, it wasn’t until discovering The Fugees that her ears were opened to the possibilities of Western artists. “I think it was Lauryn Hill’s voice,” Ragu explains. “It just connected with my soul, the way she sang the melodies and her emotions that were seeking through her voice. I just felt really connected when I heard her for the first time.” When she lists her current musical influences, they remain wonderfully varied: “I’ve been listening to a lot of Snoh Aalegra (the Swedish singer/songwriter born in Stockholm to Persian parents) and Anderson .Paak. I’ve been listening to old soul music too, like Stevie Wonder. I also like Common, Mos Def, The Roots.”

Her musical talent was first explored at the age of 10 when she joined her father’s little band. “I don’t think you can call him a singer but he loved to sing, back in Jaffna,” Ragu remembers. “On weekends we had jam sessions at our house, we had family members coming over and friends, my brother would play the keys and people would sing songs from Kollywood movies (Tamil cinema).” Her father became friends with the owner of an instrument store and soon they were using the store’s rehearsal room once a week to practice their songs.

Similar to Billie Eilish and her artistic partnership with Finneas, Ragu makes all of her music with her brother, Japhna Gold: a musician himself long before she started, he now handles the production while Ragu mainly controls the lyrics (“We really complement each other”). Working so closely with a sibling could be fractious but not so with Ragu and Gold. “Our relationship has become way stronger,” she enthuses. “It’s a path we’re taking together and to be able to celebrate all of these little successes that are happening with your family member, that’s the coolest thing.” The sound the pair have forged through this happy partnership is an intoxicating blend of modern R&B and powerful South Indian beats”.

I have been following Priya Ragu since last year. She is putting out so much incredible music! If you have not experienced her work, then follow her on social media and check it out. It is hard to categorise and define what it sounds like. Tracks like Good Love 2.0 have elements of R&B and Art-Pop. Ragu is a compelling vocalist and amazing creative. She is so commanding and fantastic on everything she records. Although she sort of came to out attention last year, so many people have highlighted Ragu as one to watch. The Forty-Five included her in the prestigious The Future Five. They were excited to find out more about what this year holds (the interview came out in January):

“Late last year, Priya Ragu shot out of the blue with one of 2020’s best instant salves. ‘Good Love 2.0’ – her debut single for new label home Warner – inhabits the side of R&B that makes you feel like you’re forever on a tropical club dancefloor or in a festival tent at sundown. A tale of perfect love, it’s lightly euphoric and full of evocative imagery (“Can’t deny we fell in love like shooting stars/ We were young, we were reckless/ Champagne toast on us for breakfast”) that blasted through the gloom of 2020.

The eagle-eyed, finger-on-the-pulse among us would have already been familiar with the track though. It was one of four that Ragu released independently and, like those other songs, sparked attention for the Swiss-Tamil musician across the globe. As well as making smooth songs with transportative powers, Ragu’s creations boast a unique sound that reflects her own upbringing – a mix of the western pop she was steered away from by her parents when she was growing up, and the Kollywood, Tamil and Southeast Asian music that filled her house. Topped with her caramel vocals, it’s an irresistible, exciting blend that offers a fresh, original take on classic R&B and neo-soul.

PHOTO CREDIT: Megan Winstone/Vogue

Before labels came calling, Ragu was ready to release a whole album of such gems last year, but plays on BBC Radio 1 from Annie Mac ignited interest in her. “My brother [Japhna Gold, Ragu’s constant collaborator] was like, ‘Maybe we should wait and see, sit down with the labels and see what they have to say,’” she explains. “I was like, ‘No, no, no, let’s just drop it!’ I was really not patient.” Then the coronavirus pandemic hit and scuppered her plans for a release party and concert. “I took it as a sign that maybe I had to listen to my brother and wait.” As we found out in our chat with R&B’s new inventor and optimist, it’s just one occasion that fate has taken the lead in Ragu’s story.

You’re part of The Future Five – what are you looking forward to in 2021?

“For sure, a lot of positive vibration. Really, I would say, uplifting, positive, good songs. And a lot of cool visuals.”

You grew up in Switzerland – not somewhere that’s particularly thought of as a big music hub – and there isn’t much representation of Southeast Asian, or specifically Sri Lankan or Tamil, musicians in the west. How did that affect you when you were starting out?

“That was never the first thing in my mind, to represent the cultures. But I also never thought that I could be this international singer, so even to break out of Switzerland and to reach out over borders… People write to me from all over. I just never thought that would be possible, you know? It rarely happens in Switzerland. For sure there are a lot of amazing artists that have reach in Germany, because of the German language, but not internationally. I was like, ‘How do I even do that? I don’t even sing in German. I won’t even reach Germany!’ So I didn’t have that confidence.”

You were just doing it more for yourself.

“Yeah, I just had my normal job. I was working for Swiss Airlines, buying aircraft parts. This music thing was always there. A lot of people would ask me [at open mics and in the music scene in Switzerland], ‘Hey, when are you dropping an album? When are you dropping a single?’ At that time, I was not even writing my own songs – it was a lot of pressure. So I took a step back. But I didn’t realise that was the universe speaking through them for me to take action. I knew I had this gift in me and I just never took the time for it, because I worked full time. So I just said, ‘Maybe I should take a half year of time and quit the job and just focus on music to see what I’m able to do’. I did that. I went to New York and I just wrote the songs with my brother over Skype and I was really impressed that I had these abilities within me.”

Your parents weren’t very supportive of you doing music at first and so you kept it quiet. At what point did you share your music and ambitions with them?

“When I first released the first song with my brother. I didn’t feel like it was necessary to say, ‘Now I want to make music and this is life now’. I just made music and I did work at the same time – which I’m still doing, I still work for the airline, but it’s just 30 per cent. At one point, they knew, because they saw that it’s not letting me go, this music thing. Also with my brother, it’s very rooted in his own mind. For sure he’s going to be a musician for life. I didn’t have that, so he really inspired me to take this path because he never gave up”.

There are a couple of other interviews that I want to bring in before wrapping up. Going back a little bit, in December 2020, EUPHORIA. featured Priya Ragu. She talked about the lack of representation when it comes to South Asians in the mainstream:

“Her forthcoming album showcases that same juxtaposition of cultures, providing a unique blend of music styles. For example, one of the tracks has this almost retro-classic soul feel to it, whereas single “Good Love 2.0” certainly has more distinct Indian influences to it. “Not every song is a mixture of cultures, some songs are super soulful and some songs are Kuthu, Indian, rhythm. The album’s just a mixture of everything. It gives me the freedom to create what I want.”

Ragu is also very aware of the fact that there is little representation in mainstream music when it comes to South Asians — not without being pigeonholed to just one particular genre. To be able to have that freedom to create her own style and challenge perceptions of traditional cultural gender norms is something that’s close to her heart. “For me, when I grew up, it was just M.I.A. And as soon as I saw her, a whole new world opened up to me and it gave me a lot of strength. And also to embrace my own culture. I’m hoping that I can inspire other people from the diaspora that we are not only the people who can clean and cook, but we have this creativity in us as well.”

Ragu’s adamant on incorporating exactly that message into her music as well. “It’s about celebrating diversity and showing off my Tamil roots and just really embracing who you are.”

Ragu’s brother, Japhna Gold, is her main collaborator when it comes to her music. She smiles as she recounts exactly why they work so well together. “We have the same vision — we want to empower women and we want to stand for the same causes and stuff like that. So we see ourselves as messengers in a way, you know? Through our music. So it’s just easier to work with my brother.” Ragu adds that it’s also just a lot easier to work with someone who knows you so well, knows your past and present so intimately, because they’ve already seen it up close. “To show weakness and stuff like that, I don’t know if I could do that with some random producer. It’d take a long time to open up”.

The final interview that caught my eye was from/with gal-dem. Ragu was asked about confronting some hesitation and reservations from her parents regarding her career path – and when she started making music with her brother:

“How are your parents feeling about your career taking off? I read in an interview from a while ago that they weren’t that keen about you pursuing music – which I guess is a relatively standard immigrant parent thing, wanting us to go for paths that offer security.

I mean, it’s totally understandable that they didn’t support me initially. My parents came from a civil war and of course they just want the best, safest thing for their children. Also, they didn’t see any opportunities or possibilities to become successful here in Switzerland – you rarely see artists making it big internationally from Switzerland. So I was just seeing how I could make it here in Switzerland, but that was also kind of a hindrance for me because I was brown-skinned, I was singing in English, not German or French, I was doing soul music (which not a lot of people in Switzerland listen to).

But clearly you kept going anyway.

Yeah, I still had my safe job, everything was good, I had good friends – but it just wasn’t enough, you know? I just thought, ‘this can’t be the purpose of my life’. I only started taking music seriously a few years ago, me and my brother, then we put a few songs out by ourselves. Everything I was earning with my office job, I invested back into my music. You were asking how my parents felt – of course, they were strict for a long time. Like a lot of South Asian parents they wanted me to settle down, but I knew there was something else I needed to do. I was suppressing my inner-voice which was telling me to do music, but it was too loud in the end – I had to listen to it. It wasn’t an easy thing to do – especially when I’m in my early 30s. You don’t see a lot of people changing their careers, risking things or starting something new, especially in music.

We’re glad that you took the risk. When did you and your brother start making music together? Growing up together did you have similar music taste?

Definitely, I grew up looking up to him and always wanted to know what he was listening to. But he wouldn’t share [laughs], he was like ‘find your own music!’ So sometimes I would just hack his computer to see what he was listening to. When we were kids, we played at events with our father – I sang Tamil songs. That was for about two years or so. Then in 2017 my brother and I started making music – before that, he was producing and rapping. I was confused, doing backing vocals for other artists. When we started working together it was kind of a clash, pulling in different directions – I wanted to be more soul-y, jazz-y, sax, flute, he wanted to do boom-bap, something more experimental. But then after we had made one song, it was easier to keep going – it became easier for me to trust where he was going with it. Then at one point he was like ‘let’s bring in some of these South Indian melodies and rhythms’. And so we did – I think it makes a good mixture of both worlds.

I was on Instagram and saw that you’d worked with the stylist Neesha Tulsi Champaneria – she’s so good! In general is it important for you to work with South Asian creatives, or did that just happen randomly?

I really consciously try to work with other South Asian creatives! It’s important for me to bring both parts of my culture into what I do, musically, styling, visuals, everything. It’s a lot of fun to have this creative freedom. We shot the video for ‘Good Love 2.0’ in Goa, and we worked with talent out there. There’s so much talent there, making art we haven’t seen in the west, so it’s cool to give those artists a platform too”.

Even though she has not been on the scene for that long, I feel Priya Ragu is going to be a much bigger name very soon. Her music has that sense of edge and wonder that distinguishes her from many of her peers. Many are looking forward to her mixtape later in the year. It will be interesting to discover what it offers. If you are new to the music of Priya Ragu, do ensure that you…