Singer-songwriter Allister Martins shares with NT BUZZ how the loss of a loved one inspired his new track ‘Without You’
ANNA FERNANDES | NT BUZZ
For so many, the past year has been one of grief and sorrow. A new track by singer-songwriter Allister Martins explores personal loss after the death of a loved one and the multi-faceted grief that comes with it. He
describes the track that dropped yesterday, June 8, as “a one-sided
conversation with someone we’ve lost”.
Titled ‘Without You’, the alternative-pop track is an intimate remembrance of his uncle, advocate Rajeev Gomes who passed away last month due to COVID-19 complications. “Rajeev would always tell me that he’s my cousin and not my uncle because he hated anything that made him feel old. He and I shared a very cool relationship. We’d talk about random stuff. And he’d always have my back no matter what. He was a father-like figure who always told me not to worry about anything,” Martins shares.
The inspiration to write the song came to him at the funeral. “On the day of the funeral, as the coffin was being taken to the graveyard, Rajeev’s wife, Cheryl kept asking how she’d go on without her best friend. The love and pain made me think about what she’d be going through. I did my best to put myself in her shoes and pen down this song.” Everything else, he adds, started falling in place thereafter. “I picked up the guitar and just went with the flow. I didn’t take more than one take as I felt a lot of pain when I first recorded it and didn’t want to change it.”
Channelling loss into music isn’t new to Martins. Music, he says, has helped him deal with everything in life right from failing in school, being broke in Mumbai, to personal losses and breakups. And this case was no different. However, he shares that this song is very dear to his heart. “A lot of us have lost someone close or special since the virus hit and I’m sure most would be able to relate to this track,” he
adds.
And being stuck indoors with his girlfriend Nakita Tania Fernandes during the state-wide curfew, he decided to direct and shoot the music video by himself in his room as well. The music video, which features Nakita, is about a person dealing with someone she’s lost recently. “Give or take a few things as this is the first music video that I have directed, the video is exactly what I had in mind while writing the song and thankfully it came out the way I wanted it to.”
The track, that has been written, recorded and produced in his room, has been released on all streaming platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music.