MUMBAI: Spitfire aka Nitin Mishra is the newest artist in the hip hop circuit, who has made his debut with Ranveer Singh’s record label, IncInk, also co-owned by Navzar Eranee. From the four-song EP that dropped online recently, the music video of the title track, Paathshala talks about hip hop as an institution that has an ability to give direction to one’s life. In an exclusive chat with Radioandmusic, Spitfire takes us through the four song-EP, as he plays each song and describes the story behind it.

On Paathshala, he says, “Paathshala is the second song and the title track of the EP. It talks about hip hop, art and artists - Hip hop mein gyaan hi nirala hai, hip hop ne hi mujhe sambhala hai yeh, hip hop tu sunjara lagaake kaan, naye daur mein puraani paathshala hai yeh. For me, art is like hip hop and how it saved me. Your art will school you, be an institution in itself, give you direction and teach you ways of living. It’s a breakthrough song hence the title track of the EP.

IncInk co-founder Navzar Eranee also comments, “Paathshala is stimulation by Spitfire. You can also call it poetry or rap music that we have coupled with music to express it to the world and it will keep changing every time you hear. For me, it talks about experimental, real knowledge and information, which is expression and that is your place of escape and that is also your place of doing because you give direction to your expression and vice versa.”

“There is nobody else like him and that’s what makes him an artist. He is even more unique because if you have heard his song without any music, or even when you have a chat with him in poetic language, he is difficult to grasp. So, there is a constant learning with him, he is constantly stimulating,” Iranee says while appreciating Spitfire.

Watch Paathshala video here

On another track, Akaash Vani song, which means ‘spoken words’, the newbie hip hop/rap artist exclaims, “It is a compilation of small poems and arts made by my art team. I told my life experiences to Mihir Sud and Avian D’Souza, who have created these artworks. I told them my entire life story, from where I belong, my thoughts about things as well as what I feel about music and how do I want to express it. They extracted certain things from it and created an artwork, which plays in the form of a story.

Spitfire gives us a gist of his favourite track Vartalap, “It is one of my favourite tracks from the EP. It actually means talking to people about various things. It teases you - Main Panktiyon mein karta hu ye saare gam bayaan, gaanewala besharam ye dhun hai behayan...kala ko meri pohchana hai mujhe charan pe, jalega dil yesuno geet suno kaami garamsa. The best thing about Vartalap is that it is a rich track language wise. Since, I like to mix Hindi and Urudu, I blend them well in my songs.”

The third track, Tum Jaano Na is about artists and their connection with their art.

“This is the third track from the EP. It is about the relationship between an artist and art. It is about the connection you feel in life and about moving forward. Shayar ke kagaz kalam ka gam se rishta hai kyat um jaano na, ladte sipahi ka maut se rishta kya tum jaano na. Throughout the song, you can feel a connection with different things as I talk about them,” shares Spitfire.

Anushka Manchanda a.k.a. Nuka and Shikhar Manchanda a.k.a. RAKHIS are the music producers of this EP as well as at IncInk Records.

Shikhar Manchanda talks about the music creating process, “The ideas have been there for a bit, but its only in the last one and a half months that we have closed down on these four songs. We just sat for an entire week and created the EP.”

To this Spitfire adds, “It was like a mutual vibe. I would write any hook line and share it with Shikhar, who would then visualise it and tell me his vision on it.”

Further, on the response and expectations, Shikhar exclaims, “Honestly, I don’t expect anything. We are just having fun. This is what we wanted to do and not confine to any typical type of agenda that one would has as an artist. We just wanted to do good work. I am excited about everyone hearing the song.”

With this EP, Spitfike aka Nitin Mishra has expressed his life and creativity as every song of his has an emotion attached to it. The writings, music, entire package created and the team at IncInk has indeed done a fantastic job as they introduce this talented artist.

All songs from Spitfire’s debut EP are available on major streaming platforms.