Culture & Living
Inside the mind of Natania Lalwani, the breakout voice from the Four More Shots Please! soundtrack
“Now I feel I can write on the spot. It might not be the best thing every day but it’s pure emotion and skill," reveals musician and song-writer Natania Lalwani in an interview with Vogue
Singer-composer Natania Lalwani is of the firm belief that if you want to do something right, do it yourself. Over the last nine years, the 27-year-old Los Angeles resident has not only established a successful recording career but has also become one of the most sought after songwriters in both India and the US. And she’s done it without a label or management. “My whole [philosophy] is like, okay, if the door doesn’t open, how do I climb in through the window?,” she tells us over a WhatsApp call. “And then it’s like, okay, maybe that house isn’t right, how do I go to the next house?”
Over the past couple of years, a number of folks have welcomed Natania, who uses only her first name professionally, into their homes and studios. They include Spotify India, which got her to sing their launch anthem; music producer Mikey McCleary, who roped her in to contribute to the soundtracks of the web series Four More Shots Please!, off which her song ‘Your Body On My Body’ has emerged as a breakout smash with over three million plays on audio-streaming service Gaana; and playback star Armaan Malik who enlisted her to co-write his recently released English singles ‘Control’ and the chart-topping ‘Next 2 Me’.
“My goal for this year is to try and write with as many as artists as possible and release as much music as I can,” says Natania who’s off to a good start. Earlier this month, she released a single, the self-love anthem ‘Can I Be Ur Friend?’, and an EP, the dance-friendly Pick It Up. “More stuff”with Malik will follow later in 2020 and at a time when the world has slowed down, Natania—who was born and raised in Mumbai and moved to LA at 18 to study at the Musician’s Institute—is experiencing her most prolific period yet.
It’s the result, she says, of her ability to turn out a tune spontaneously, a skill she learned while part of short-lived duo Hits & Giggles, which featured singer-songwriter Asha Madhukar and was active in 2016 and 2017 until Madhukar left to pursue law (Natania is now among her clients). “Before I used to be like, I have to be inspired, I have to have something going on in my life”, says Natania. “Now I feel I can write on the spot. It might not be the best thing every day but it’s pure emotion and skill. You just learn to write, especially with other artists because you get to kind of be their therapist and be able to tell their story, which is really cool.”
A more recent change is allowing her two “worlds”—the US and India—to complement each other. Here, she was primarily known as a pop vocalist and found success at the get-go with her debut 2012 single ‘Cherry Love’ and 2014 earworm ‘Box You Up’, both of which garnered heavy rotation on Vh1 India. Her talent was also recognised early on; she won the Asia Pacific edition of MTV’s Project Aloft Star competition in 2014 and a then-record three trophies at the Radio City Freedom Awards in 2015, for Best Pop Act (Critics and Popular Choice) and Best New Artist.
Back home in the States, she had her music placed in multiple TV shows, including talent competition So You Think You Can Dance, reality drama Teen Mom and sitcom Younger. But she’s had different agendas for the two territories from the onset. “I’ve always had a dream to be known as an artist in India just because it’s home,” she says. “Whereas [here] my focus has always been: I want to win a Grammy for songwriting. When I think about what I want to do forever, it’s writing.”
Her love for the written word is why she was somewhat of pioneer of the animated lyric video, which she has favoured starting with ‘Cherry Love’. Natania says that initially she found them “really convenient because I didn’t have the funds to shoot music videos for every song”. She’s kept the format, she says, because “I always love when people are reading the lyrics and listening to the music. I feel they understand the song so much more.”
She made the newest one, for ‘Can I Be Ur Friend?’ herself, using childhood photographs. But it’s not the making of the video that counts among her most significant achievements but the song itself, through which she finally learned how to stop being too hard on herself. The track was inspired by a comment made during her birthday party last October. “We [played] We’re Not Really Strangers, and one of the questions I had to ask a friend was ‘What do you admire about me?’ She said, ‘You have so much self-confidence’. When the night was over and I was taking my make-up off I didn’t feel like that at all. I was like, I wish I could be that person she was talking about. I can be so mean to myself, overcritical, judgmental and not forgiving. I’ve written so many love songs about other people. I wanted to write one to myself.”
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