Colonial Cousins singer Leslee Lewis talks his latest track Tu Hai Mera, reminisces 90s pop music

Composer and singer Leslee Lewis took up multiple roles for his latest track ‘Tu Hai Mera’, which he describes as Indi-pop of 2022. The sassy, groovy, and sultry romantic song sung by Kavya Jones, depicts today’s modern-day women. “I have written, composed and produced the song, and also directed its video. It’s a lot of things for me from its inception to the delivery point. But none of that would have been possible without the artist – Kavya Jones,” he tells Firstpost. “I wrote the song around her personality, and that’s coming out in the singing. She’s got a lot of moods. I think a lot of people are responding very well to it, so I am happy for her,” he adds. The song even took back some fans to the 90s when Indi-pop was huge. “I think 90s Indi-pop is me. Jaanam Samjha Karo, A Band of Boys, Colonial Cousins… I have done them all, so the 90s feel is something that people like about me I guess,” says Lewis, one half of Colonial Cousins that gave hits like ‘Krishna’ and ‘Sa Ni Dha Pa’ in the 1990s.

Lewis, who composed and produced Pal by KK in 1999, admits that through his new song he is bringing the 90s vibe to the table as that’s his personality, but he has also made it sound fresh. “If you look at the 60s, 70, 80s and 90s, people could sing and dance to the songs of those eras. After that, there has been a decline in those kind of songs. There’s more beat-oriented and EDM-based music now. The melodic songs sort of declined. That’s why people are remixing a lot of old songs,” he shares. He feels that ‘Tu Hai Mera’ is strong in melody – a quality that existed in the songs of previous eras. “The song is Indi-pop of 2022. The video has a pop feel. It is different from other music videos,” he says. According to him, nowadays, everybody is making music videos like movies. “A lot of times, independent artists are like playback singers,” he says. The singers sing it, they get featured a little bit, but some other actor or actress is mostly seen in the video. “It’s great, but everything seems to be around that. The thing with independent artists singing their kind of song, their kind of mood is a bit less,” he points out. The other thing he’s noticed is that the music industry is all online and it’s all about streaming. “It’s all about the platform and not about the artist. In older days you heard about Whitney Houston or Madonna. You don’t remember if they were with Columbia Records, Warner Records or Sony music. You didn’t know which label they were signed to. Today, it’s all about Spotify, T-Series or other labels. They are not branding the artist anymore,” says Lewis, who conceived and created all the music for Coke Studio India. Streaming on YouTube has become one of the options for independent artists to promote their music. The singer thinks it is helpful, but only to a certain point. “In the old days if you see, every record label had an A&R (artists and repertoire) manager. He’s the guy who selects the artist for the label. So out of 100 people, he selects 10 and says ’let’s put money behind these 10 and make music’. And out of those 10, you’ll probably like two. Maybe four or five of them will work, but still they are all good artists,” he says. “Today on YouTube, you can put out an album. Anyone can do it, but who is going to select the artist? There are millions of great albums, but you never hear them because they are not being selected. Those who have the right connection, promotion and money are the ones that you see and hear. And they are the stars,” he explains. Apart from independent music, Lewis was also tied up with a Hollywood project. He sang an English song, ‘Entourage’, in collaboration with rapper-singer Omar Gooding for the film Trap City. “I am waiting for the movie to happen. I feel like a lucky guy. I feel blessed that I got to feature in a Hollywood film song. I am happy they chose me and it’s been fantastic,” says the winner of US Billboard Viewer’s Choice Award. He is thrilled about his Hollywood debut, but he never had dreams about making it big in the West. “I never had Hollywood dreams. I have always loved to do music. For me, it’s always been about the music and being true to myself. I am not dreaming about wanting to get into Hollywood. My dreams are about creating great music that I can sing and some day you can sing with me on the stage live,” he says.

Natalia Ningthoujam is a Manipur-based journalist. She knows how to smoothly switch from being a fan to a writer whenever needed. She tweets at @nattynick.

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