Working in the music industry for seven years, Gwen Dias recently released a singe Legacy from her debut album, ‘Gwen And The Groove’. Here she speaks to Shikha Jain about her journey and more…
Gwen is a singer-songwriter, performer and recording artist born and raised in Bombay. Gwen attributes her musical influences to artists from a diverse palette of genres like Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Hans Zimmer. The compositions of Disney’s iconic movies and Broadway musicals helped shape her musical sensibilities.
At an early age, Gwen’s singing was greatly influenced by gospel music. Singing in church choirs she believes, gave wings to her dreams. “Gospel music is my root, because that’s where I got my music from and realised music has the power to change someone’s life and all my music is influenced by it,” says Gwen.
How it all began
Gwen started off with an Acappella group that she had joined and there were quite a lot of friends of hers, who she used to sing in Church with. “I used to do gospel music with them and they were also a part of the industry. Like Suzanne D’Mello, Thompson, Hendrix. We decided to make a group, because we realised that we could create good music together. We started doing studio sessions, and that’s how MTV Unplugged, Coke studio and all our Bollywood sessions happened. And that’s when the journey began with friends,” explains Gwen.
Birth of the first single
The biggest inspiration for her first song that she’s releasing, Legacy, was when she was in the car on a rainy day and the wipers of the car were cleaning the rain drops, and this line came to her mind which is the first line of her song also, “Would you remember me if I went away, or would I be a raindrop on your wind shield that you wiped away?” So, that sort of thing inspired her to start writing a song Legacy.
“The songs come to me in a very visual way. I literally see what I’m writing, If I’m writing lyrics, I can already see what I’d want in my video. Hence, it’s a very visual experience for me. The inspiration comes to me in the most natural way. Sometimes, it’s just one line or a hook line that comes to me and I keep recording it on my phone, so right now, on my phone, I’ve like a 100 recording clips,” says Gwen.
Story so far…
The song is all about being remembered and how a legacy is different for different people. Like for somebody, their family is their legacy that they want to leave behind, for somebody else it might be their work, for her, it’s the music through which she wants everyone to remember her. She even wants to know what everyone’s legacy is, since it is so varied for each one of us. “This question has always been on my mind, what will people remember me for? And I know a lot of other people are also thinking about what difference will they make? All the more why I wanted to start this journey of mine with the song, Legacy”, adds Gwen.
Extended Play (EP)
Her album, ‘Gwen And The Groove’ has five songs and she’s planning to release one single in every two months. And by the end of the year, she’ll her entire album, because she has already shot all the five videos for her songs.
“Music for me could be anything, it could be from waking up in the morning and hear a bird chirping near my window to just a sound of a car horn. I get my inspiration from situations in my life. Sometimes, weirdest of things inspire me, just like a falling leaf for that matter or my dog who is sitting outside or a child crying on the road; it’s life that inspires me,” says Gwen.
Apart from singing
She has taught music and conducted workshops for children and aspiring young singers for several years. Gwen also writes and directs stage and street plays. In the past she has acted in local productions of plays including playing the lead in the musical ‘Oliver’. Her dream job would be to work with ‘Sting’ and ‘Bruno Mars’.
“For the past one month, I was rehearsing with my church choir and we did quite a big event at the church and people were extremely happy with it and I still sing at churches. Every Sunday, I’m in church, so they always inspire me to sing and learn music. This time around, I even sang with them very recently, we were about a choir of 30 and there was also a band, so it was like everything came to light again,” says Gwen.
Gwen’s debut single Legacy is the journey of a search for a way to be remembered and the fear of being forgotten that inevitably grips everyone. Author Mitch Albom beautifully says ‘Life has to end. Love doesn’t’.