00:00very dark and and really twisted also eeriness through it kind of brought me into this interesting
00:05like dark pop genre that I really fell in love with when it came to portraying this character
00:10on stage that's so not me because I'm not a pop star so it was a lot of channeling you
00:15know the artists that I admire Rihanna, Rosalia, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift.
00:19Hi my name is Salika Shyamalan. I am 28 years old. I was born in Philly. I'm a singer-songwriter
00:34and actress. One word I would use to describe myself would be a perfectionist. My household
00:40was definitely very lively growing up and definitely creative. Yeah I mean obviously
00:45you know both my parents are in the arts and there was also a sense of respect towards the
00:50arts always from a young age which I think is a beautiful thing and growing up you know I let my
00:55my parents played a lot of jazz and R&B so you know Nina Simone, Etta James, Lauren Hill, Amy
01:01Winehouse those are sort of like you know the the the strong women that I listened to. I played
01:06classical piano since I was young and so that was sort of the avenue that I thought I was going to
01:10go into and then when I was like 15 or 16 I felt like this desire to compose and kind of
01:17create my own music. We've been going to his sets since we were little. It was a very integral part
01:22of my childhood just getting to witness all the work that goes into making a film. It was
01:27sort of just normal it was like other everyone's dads goes to work and mine makes movies.
01:33The movie kind of came about from conversations that my dad and I have been having for many years
01:39about wanting to bring music and film together in some way and that you know comes very naturally
01:45because you know Indian culture is filled with Bollywood movies and Purple Rain is one of our
01:50favorite movies and we've watched that as a family many times so we really kind of wanted to do our
01:55own version of that where music was not just in the background but you know witness digestion
02:00but you know witness diegetically and part of the plot. He's a master at what he does so it's all
02:05it's really from his mind but especially for this project just because I was so involved and we were
02:10talking about it from the beginning we definitely were brainstorming a lot. Definitely you know a
02:14lot of it was inspired by you know our experiences as father and daughter going to shows. So for this
02:19movie I had to write 14 original songs for the soundtrack to simultaneously like this pop music
02:24but also scoring something very dark and and really twisted that's happening. Also eeriness
02:30through it kind of brought me into this interesting like dark pop genre that I really fell in love
02:34with. When it came to portraying this character on stage that's so not me because I'm not a pop
02:39star so it was a lot of channeling you know the artists that I admire. We talked about Taylor
02:44Swift a lot in just the sense you know how especially her fandom is so beautiful and
02:50intense and and her influence especially with young girls I think was important and Rihanna,
02:54Rosalia, Billie Eilish these were all like you know artists that I really love and listen to
02:59their music a lot but how they kind of bridge the worlds between vulnerability and softness
03:05at moments but also huge stage production and like something that feels massive. Original art is so
03:12rare right now but I think that that is what people need and kind of crave and so originality
03:17and in like these artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX you can see their individuality
03:22and like who they are comes through. I just was listening to Sabrina Carpenter's new album which
03:26is so beautiful and gosh her voice is amazing and she's such a witty songwriter so I really admire
03:31that. I got to collaborate with a few of my dream artists on this project as well. I worked with Kid
03:35Cudi, Russ and Amore. I'm really excited about that because you know there's there's so much
03:41more depth to the album that I want to show.
03:47I think talking about privilege is very important and I think a necessary thing in all aspects.
03:53I would say you know my experience with my family has just been one of a lot of pride and and you
04:01know my my grandparents kind of came to the U.S. with this like literally dollars in their pockets
04:07and kind of nothing and my dad was sort of this American dream kind of kid that was able to
04:13succeed and and so for us there's a lot of pride in working with our family and kind of helping
04:18each other. You know we're an immigrant family, we work hard, we support each other, we kind of
04:22follow in each other's footsteps because that's what we know and it's that's feels like a very
04:26natural thing for us in our family and there isn't really a lot of shame around it. My dad also has
04:31kind of instilled that idea with my sisters and I from a young age that like you know no matter what
04:36if a person comes up to him and even if they say something negative or positive or neutral
04:41about one of his films that they contributed you know like he'd always say you know that person
04:47paid for a brick of our house by like watching some a story that he made in his mind and that's
04:50such a beautiful thing that we all get to kind of feel connected to each other across the world and
04:56across generations and cultures through art that we connect to.
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