Tushar Vashisht: I feel happier when I am singing or playing music as it is my release

Tushar Vashisht has been learning and singing music since he was six and has trained in Hindustani Classical for years. Later, when he went abroad for further studies, he was part of a band and created original songs.

Vashisht says, “One of my first originals was called Pehchaan, which made it to America’s Best of College A Capella in 2008. It’s the only Hindi song to ever make it to the list. Since then, I have been busy with work and business.” He started his career as an investment banker, later joined Aadhar and finally, went on to create the app, HealthifyMe.

In the last 10 years, the singer didn’t have time to focus on music yet managed to create a few songs. It was a-year-and-half ago, that he “fortunately” met Raghu Ramasubramanian at a concert and later jammed with him on a few songs. One of the songs is his latest release, Kahaani.

Talking about the new song, Vashisht says, “It is about losing and finding someone, about love and how feeble it is. I am sure all of us can relate to the songs as everyone has loved and lost at some point. I was in a particularly down mood one day and had called Raghu, who told me to write the feelings into a song. An artist needs a muse and sometimes, heartache and in my life I have had both (laughs).”

Now, he plans to keep the momentum going and has worked on an EP, with three songs. Last year, during the pandemic, the duo found time to work on music and created a social bubble. “We hung out and we were all bit free on nights and weekends. In fact, the four songs took 18 months to make. I never feel happier when I am singing or playing music. And music is my release. I remember, when I opened for Lucky Ali’s concert in Bangalore and sang Kahaani, people responded well. In fact, they were singing along which usually doesn’t happen for independent songs,” says the singer, who created Pop, Rock and Sufi songs and is now experimenting with Jazz and Blues too.

Recalling the Ali concert, which was in an open air venue, Vashist admits that with the pandemic, concerts have taken a beating. “Things are bad and tough for music and musicians. But things will change and it has to. Once things settle down and we move on, it will all come back. While concerts and public gatherings have been curbed, on the other hand, people like me have time now to create more. Simultaneously, some really great music has been coming out, which wasn’t the case earlier. Yes, there have been some bad parts but there have also been some silver lining as non mainstream musicians have got the chance to put things out there,” he concludes.