Versatility in music does more good to you than bad, and the same remained true in Monica Dogra's case. The vocalist of Shaa'ir+FUNC dedicated the new year to her solo experiments, and so far, the songwriter has an-album-and-two-singles-full of reasons to be happy about. Monica Dogra’s latest effort is a collaboration with Malaysian songwriter Resh. The two artists, signed under Universal Music, would recreate the latter’s original titled ‘Trouble’.

“It’sself explanatory,” says Resh, about the song. “It does not necessarily mean ‘Trouble’ in the gravest sense. It’s everything between that and the casual remark ‘Oh, that seems like a lot of trouble.’ From the visual point of view, there’s several interesting elements, and on the sonic front, Monica brought her A game.” Monica Dogra has lent her vocals to the original, and the duo - who met for the first time in Mumbai only last week - will record a video around ’Trouble’. “Yes, the video would involve some dancing,” said Resh, althoughadding the duo would not be seen dancing in the video.

In Dogra’s latest efforts, versatility includes collaboration with familiar and unfamiliar musicians creating sounds universally acknowledged and popular. A phone call is what it took for the two musicians to know each other and progress for the collaboration. Her album ‘Spit’, released early this year, involved collaborative efforts with at least eight different musicians. The approach extended to another single released last month with UK-based D-Code ensuring her first international label release, and ‘Trouble’ with Resh. Dogra believes the lack of promotional activities through album tour for ‘Spit’ after its release, was a conscious decision, and added that the singles are coming at the right time.

“Albums are surely necessary for an artist to express himself/herself. In India, you are dealing with a very niche audience. The scene revolving around album tours is similar to what it was nine years ago (with Shaa’ir+FUNC). I have realised that I won’t be able to generate the capital that I need to create the content I want by touring bars and pubs,” said Dogra, when asked about the lately adopted ‘singles-only’ approach. “In ‘Spit’ and D-Code’s case, the collaborators were friends I had known for a long time. In Trouble’s case, it’s a different game. I had only heard and read about Resh, but the phone call convinced me that we are on the same wavelength with our music,” informed Dogra, whose other major projects for the year involve judging the second edition of the English singing talent hunt show ‘The Stage’. “So far, our camaraderie has worked,” insisted Resh, and indeed the duo seemed totally comfortable and excited about the video, slated to release mid-September.

Apart from composing and featuring in the video for the track, Resh would also direct the music video, thus making it his fifth directorial effort. The singer-songwriter also owns a production house, a studio and record label.

Dogra has had an eventful year with an album release and Emmy nomination for her international docu-series ‘Woman With Gloria Steinem’, and the musician-turned-actor would soon be seen behind a console and a laptop. The singer attended DJ school in London lately, and confirmed that she would soon be seen and heard DJing live.