Person of Interest: Saleka Shyamalan on Creating Her Own Music, Working With Father M. Night Shyamalan & More

3 hours ago

Saleka Shyamalan sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and talks about creating her own music. Plus, she dishes on going to her father, M. Night Shyamalan's sets when she was little, working on the film 'Trap,' which musical artists inspire her and more.

Transcript

00:00Very dark and and really twisted also eeriness through it kind of brought me

00:04into this interesting like dark pop genre that I really fell in love with when

00:08it came to portraying this character on stage that's so not me because I'm not

00:12a pop star so it was a lot of channeling you know the artists that I admire

00:16Rihanna, Rosalia, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift

00:19Hi my name is Salika Shyamalan I am 28 years old I was born in Philly I am a

00:33singer-songwriter and actress one word I would use to describe myself would be

00:38perfectionist my household was definitely very lively growing up and definitely

00:43creative yeah I mean obviously you know both my parents are in the arts and there

00:48was also a sense of respect towards the arts always from a young age which I

00:52think is a beautiful thing and growing up you know I let my parents played a lot

00:56of jazz and R&B so you know Nina Simone, Etta James, Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse those

01:01are sort of like you know the the strong women that I listened to I played

01:07classical piano since I was young and so that was sort of the avenue that I

01:10thought I was gonna go into and then when I was like 15 or 16 I felt like this

01:15desire to compose and kind of create my own music we've been going to his set

01:20since we were little it was a very integral part of my childhood just

01:23getting to witness all the work that goes into making a film it was sort of

01:28just normal it was like other everyone's dads goes to work and mine

01:31makes movies

01:33The movie kind of came about from conversations that my dad and I have been

01:41having for many years about wanting to bring music and film together in some

01:45way and that you know comes very naturally because you know Indian

01:49culture is filled Bollywood movies and Purple Rain is one of our favorite movies

01:53and we've watched that as a family many times so we really kind of wanted to do

01:57our own version of that where music was not just in the background but you know

02:01witnessed diegetically and part of the plot he's a master at what he does so it's

02:05all it's really from his mind but especially for this project just because I

02:09was so involved and we were talking about it from the beginning we definitely

02:11were brainstorming a lot definitely you know a lot of it was inspired by you

02:16know our experiences as father and daughter going to shows so for this movie

02:19I had to write 14 original songs for the soundtrack to simultaneously like this

02:24pop music but also scoring something very dark and and really twisted that's

02:28happening also eeriness through it kind of brought me into this interesting like

02:32dark pop genre that I really fell in love with when it came to portraying this

02:36character on stage that's so not me because I'm not a pop star so it was a

02:41lot of channeling you know the artists that I admire we talked about Taylor Swift a

02:45lot and in just the sense you know how especially her fandom is so beautiful and

02:50intense and her influence especially with young girls I think was important and

02:54Brianna Rosalia Billie Eilish these were all like you know artists that I really love

02:58and listen to their music a lot but how they kind of bridge the worlds between

03:02vulnerability and softness at moments but also huge stage production and like

03:08something that feels massive original art is so rare right now but I think that

03:13that is what people need and kind of crave and so originality and in like these

03:18artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Charlie XCX so you can see the

03:21individuality and like who they are comes through I just was listening to

03:24Sabrina Carpenter's new album which is so beautiful I guess her voice is amazing and

03:28she's such a witty songwriter so I really admire that I got to collaborate

03:32with a few of my dream artists on this project as well I worked with Kid Cudi

03:36Russ and Amore I'm really excited about that because you know there's there's so

03:40much more to kind of more depth to the album that I want to show I think talking

03:48about privilege is very important and I think a necessary thing in all aspects I

03:53would say you know my experience with my family has just been one of a lot of

03:59pride and and you know my my grandparents kind of came to the US with

04:05this like literally dollars in their pockets and kind of nothing and my dad

04:09was sort of this American dream kind of kid that was able to succeed and and so

04:14for us there's a lot of pride in working with our family and kind of helping

04:18each other I you know we're an immigrant family we work hard we support each other

04:21we kind of follow in each other's footsteps because that's what we know and

04:24it's that's but feels like a very natural thing for us in our family and

04:28and there isn't really a lot of shame around it my dad also is kind of

04:31instilled that idea with my sisters and I from a young age that like you know no

04:36matter what if a person comes up to him and even if they say something negative or

04:40positive or neutral about one of his films that they contributed you know like he

04:45always say you know that person paid for a brick of our house by like watching some a

04:49story that he made in his mind and that's such a beautiful thing that we all get to

04:53kind of feel connected to each other across the world and across generations

04:57and cultures through art that we connect to

Person of Interest: Saleka Shyamalan on Creating Her Own Music, Working With Father M. Night Shyamalan & More | THR Video

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended