MUMBAI: Switzerland-based artist RIDI drops Indian melody “Merry Go Round”.

Radioandmusic got in touch with RIDI to know more about her latest song and her collaboration with music icons Mousse T and Diamond Duggal.

Check the interview below: 

Congratulations for “Merry Go Round”, tell us about it?

Merry Go Round, an Indian melody had popped into my mind and I had kept it for a while. A few months later I thought the idea of a ‘merry go round’ was really cool and could have been an awesome metaphor. So then slowly the song started coming together. Once the writing process is done I usually start to work with producers, which is always great. But sometimes I can go a little psychotic and can start to restart and redo the song whilst we are in the producing stage. But I guess that’s the fun and thrill of it! Whilst making merry go round, it was such an honour to work with legendary producers such as Mousse T and Diamond Duggal, who have decades of experience with the very best musicians including Tom Jones and Shania Twain. I learnt a lot while being able to keep my unique sound and voice, allowing us to create a fun, energetic and authentic track with Merry Go Round which I hope listeners will love!

What is the story behind it?

Merry Go Round means so much to me and I’ve put so much time and effort to get this right. Heartbreak, loneliness, love, joy and many more feelings, are all emotions we experience from a young age and are ironically, the same emotions we experience when we’re older as well. So, in essence, we’re all just living on a ‘merry go round'. Merry Go Round explores the circular nature of life and the fact that no matter what age we are, no matter what phase of life we are in, what we go through and the difficulties we experience all come back around in different ways and different complexities. We may choose to forget who we are for a while and instead explore the world around us, but in the end, we will always remember who we are inside, and that no matter what, no one can ever break us. Actually, for a while I was transferring many schools and so that’s really when I felt like I was stuck on a merry go round. I felt like everywhere I went and anything I did it all would just come back to bight me and I just felt stuck!

Share with us about your collaboration with music icons Mousse T and Diamond Duggal?

I love the creative process of being in the studio and collaborating with some of the industry’s best musicians as I feel like I learn so much and grow as a musician. Working with Mousse T and Diamond Duggal in the studio for ‘Merry Go Round’ was an amazing experience and created a track I am so proud of and believe is really authentic to my true self and voice. Of course, like in any artistic project there is artistic tension!! For example, when creating the track Mousse T actually didn’t want to use guitar in the pre but being the annoying person I am I kept hounding him about it! He got tired of fighting my idea and so tried it and thankfully it sounded great!! So then merry go round got its western rock Indian fusion which I am so glad it did!! Moral of the story don’t be afraid to be annoying if its for a good reason!!

Upcoming projects?

I have loved seeing the response to Merry Go Round and how people react to this track as I have given it so much of my energy and love. I’d love to see especially how this plays out on social media and see what people think there and how they engage and respond to the track. I have a few more tracks coming out in the near future so can’t wait to start releasing those and then eventually I am thinking of doing some live music projects in London, which is where I am now studying Engineering. All my future tracks have an Indian touch to them too, so I am so excited to share a piece of my culture with every future song I make and release.