The season of love has always called for sweet songs that get your heart racing and your stomach filled with butterflies. You know the ones: the feel-good tracks that transport you underneath the moonlight, staring into the eyes of someone that has your whole heart. 

And, no one makes those better than Armaan Malik. Often referred to as "India's Prince of Romance", the singer-songwriter has a knack for emulating warmth, comfort, and a feeling of peace in his music. You see that most clearly in his latest release, 'You'. 

"'You' is a song that speaks about that warm, fuzzy feeling that a person feels when they are in love and they've found that that person for themselves," Armaan tells Bandwagon. "We all have that one person that we feel the butterflies in our stomach for and we just want to spend the rest of our lives with them."

This comes as the latest English single from Armaan, who has made a name for himself in India and Bollywood, singing in an array of languages and genres all across the country's vast music scene. Now, wanting to embark on a new adventure, the 'Control' hitmaker is trying to break through to the global stage, hoping not only to share his music with the world but also uplift Asian artists. 

"I've had this almost 14-year journey now in India and I feel like with this experience, I'm starting over again. It's a completely new beginning for me," says the 26-year-old. "I have a lot of goals that I want to accomplish for the whole musical community in India and for what we represent."

As he's gearing up for another exciting year of music and living it up in Dubai, Bandwagon caught up with Armaan Malik to talk about working on 'You', collaborating with global artists, and his goals of spotlighting Indian music. 

Hi Armaan, how have you been?

I'm good! I'm in Dubai right now, I'm just having a small break here and also might be doing a concert here so I'm excited.

I really like the beach so I've been close to JBR and obviously, everyone goes to Dubai Mall so I go there as well. There's a couple of amazing restaurants here and there; I'm a big foodie so I've been to all of the different amazing joints here. I really love the Souk at Medina Jumeirah, I like that place. I really like visiting Dubai.

Congratulations on the release of 'You'! We heard it took a while for the song to come out, why is that?

Actually, it's been ready for two years—it was ready in 2020. It did take time because, obviously, the pandemic had its own delays but [I also] felt like the song needed to come at a different time, which is why it took two years to bring it up.

 

 

 

 

 

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You mentioned that 'You' is one of your favourite songs to date, why is that?

In India, I'm known to sing a lot of romantic songs. So, when I started out doing my English music, I wanted to kind of depart from that and do my own kind of thing.

So I did 'Control', 'next 2 me', and 'Echo'—these are sort of upbeat and up-tempo; but for 'You', I wanted to come back to something that people already know me for which is the ballads and the soulful songs. I've always wanted to do a soft ballad in English ever since I started making English music. 'You' was a no brainer in that genre.

I feel you know, personally as an artist and a musician, it's one of my best songs and one of my favourite songs yet. Obviously, I can't say best because there's obviously so much to go and there's so many more songs to make but to date, I think this is one of my strongest songs.

Is there a particular 'You' was made in English, opposed to say Hindi or any other Indian language?

Um, no specific reason. For me, music just flows very organically and if the tune and the lyric come to me in English then I feel it's a perfect fit in English. I go ahead with that if a certain melody comes to my head. If I feel like it's got to be in Hindi or another language, I go for that. The music basically speaks to me and I respond so there's no specific thought process.

I've always wanted to do a ballad in English and I think 'You' is a really special song and it's in that genre. It definitely was something that both my team and I wanted to put out for the fans and for myself as well.

In the last couple of years, you’ve brought your success to the global stage—from winning at the MTV EMAs in 2020 to collaborating with artists from all over the world. What has that experience been like?

I've always wanted to step outside of the boundaries of my country and go global with my music. I feel like 2020—when I released 'Control'—started that journey and each song from my English music project has gotten stronger.

Collaborating with artists from around the world is definitely something that I've always wanted to do it. Firstly, it's a mixture of cultures that happens. It's also the combination of different musical minds, which I'm super intrigued about; we all bring something unique to the table. I want to see how that kind of fits together, which is what happened when we did 'Echo' with Eric Nam and KSHMR.

It was truly amazing to see. All of us did something that is a little different from what we do usually, but yet so similar to the kind of music that we would naturally make as well. I've been a huge fan of KSHMR, and EDM music in general, and for me to have him and his sonics come into a song that I've sung and to also have Eric come in and do his thing on the second verse—it lifts the song even higher.

It's just active participation by all three artists from all across the world, and we are all three Asian artists doing something really cool for the first time. Never has that been a collab like this before where an Indian artist, a K-pop artist, and an EDM artist come together and do a global song.

It's also about breaking the stereotypes that we have around the world that Asian music is just within Asia and it won't grow outside. I want to take that with India and Indian music and want it to go global, which is why I feel like collaborations in the nature of 'Echo' and many more that will come in the future will make a difference not only to me but to the entire scene. I think Asian artists will be looked at very differently in the next few years.

As you continue to reach new heights, do you feel any pressure in terms of needing to meet expectations?

To be honest, no. I have a lot of people ask me this, do I feel any pressure of any? Not at all. I actually really enjoy the process of making music and I truly enjoy breaking into new territory and doing something that probably I or anyone from my country has not done before. Even though it might be daunting and scary at first, it's things like these that open avenues and paths for everyone else.

I'm not scared at all—in fact, I'm very excited! I've had this almost 14-year journey now in India and I feel like with this experience, I'm starting over again. It's a completely new beginning for me. It's happening in an exciting way because I am someone in my country but also someone new for everyone else who's discovering me right now so I think that feeling is really special. 

I don't feel any pressure of sorts, I just want to do great music. If there's any feeling of some weight on me, it's just the pressure of doing great music. It's a good force to have on me to put out good work. It's motivation for me to do good work out there and with each song, break new milestones and records.

What are some goals and dreams you still have for yourself and music?

As an Indian musician and as an artist that has primarily done Bollywood music, the first step was to step out of that and do music outside of that and in a different genre that I believe musically represents me. Now, the goal is to kind of take that music and that artistry and hopefully connect to people all around the world.

Obviously, do massive shows and tours and just reach out to as many people as possible, even someone who probably has never heard anything from India or any music from India or Indian artists. I would love to reach out to those listeners and just give them a taste of what we can offer as Indian musicians and Indian artists. That's something that I really want—for people to look at Indian artists in a different light. 

For me, obviously, there are a lot of personal goals that I want to accomplish but while that is happening, I have a lot of goals that I want to accomplish for the whole musical community in India and for what we represent.

Beyond performing, you're also involved in all aspects of your music. How do you maintain your creative energy doing all that?

Honestly, there are days when I really feel a lack of energy and motivation to do anything. I take those days off and I try my best to throw away my phone and not go to the studio that day. It does get exhausting as an artist, especially for someone like me, who is not only part of one kind of industry.

A lot of people think that musicians are probably just locked in the studio and doing music. Actually, that would be an ideal scenario but with technology, and with social media, there's so much more that is happening around music. It's not just about singing or just about making music, it's all these ancillary things that kind of add to the music and that consumes a lot of energy and time. I think it's very important for all the artists that might be reading and that relate to what I'm saying: It's okay to take that day off. It's fine, nothing's going to change.

Finally, what can we expect from you this year?

I have a bunch of singles that I really want to release, as follow-ups to 'You'. Hopefully, by the end of this year, I would love to compile all of them in an EP or probably an album—it just depends on how much time and effort I can put into that project but I would love to put out a body of work soon.

Apart from that, I would love to collaborate with different artists from different countries. 'Echo' was my very first international collaboration so I am looking forward to doing more of those with different artists and hopefully putting those songs out this year and just reaching out to a different listener base and just expanding my listenership globally.

Check out our video interview with Armaan Malik here. 

Listen to Armaan Malik's 'You' here.