Get to know Grammy-nominated songwriter, singer and rapper Raja Kumari.
The Knockturnal had the pleasure of sitting down with Svetha Yallapragada Rao, more formally known as Raja Kumari last week at the Epic Records offices to talk about her latest releases and upcoming project. Raja Kumari knew she was destined to be an artist from a young age. With the support of her parents, Kumari was taught classical Indian dance from childhood. From dancing to singing to songwriting, Kumari first shot to popularity after Iggy Azalea’s “Change Your Life,” which she wrote, became Grammy nominated. After working as a songwriter for artists like Fall Out Boy, Gwen Stefani and Fifth Harmony, Kumari relocated to India, making a name for herself overseas and then eventually returning to the states to record and soon release her debut project. Check out what Raja Kumari has been working on and how she’s redefining the game.
The Knockturnal: Can we talk about the origin of your name?
Raja Kumari: Sure, sure. So my birth name, Svetha Yallapragada Rao, it’s always been one of those names that when the teacher starts to say your name in class you’re always like, ‘No! No! That’s me, please don’t attempt it!’ Also, Svetha my real name is a classical answer. I had done a lot at a young age with dance, so when it came time to do music I felt that I needed an alter ego or something greater than myself because my imagination of my music was much larger than I was at that moment so in order to even try to attain that I had to create this character that was a conglomeration of Mahishasura and Draupadi, all these incredibly powerful female characters that I had learned about and played through my dance, I made this one character. The reason that the name even came up was people called me “Indian princess,” that turned into wanting to use Sanskrit, it’s always been important to me to use my roots, to really bring the ancient into the modern. I feel that is part of my goals and aesthetic as an artist, to try to make people remember their roots and not let go of them as we move forward in this world, so, Raja Kumari choosing a Sanskrit name was super important to me, and it means the “daughter of the king” and I very much truly believe that with everything I do, I’m an instrument of God’s will, so when I say the king I mean the king, the one and only. The name is special to me.
The Knockturnal: Can you go into a little bit more about your background, where you were born, where your parents are from, your culture?
Raja Kumari: Sure. My parents are from Hyderabad, they came to America in the seventies, they came when they were twenty years old so they’ve been in America longer than they were in India, they’ve been in America for forty years. We were all born here, me and my two brothers. My eldest brother is a neurosurgeon, my middle brother did law and now does business, they’re both married so they’re definitely on that Indian track, and I always was different. I always wanted to do art. My parents were very committed to me being an artist. They made sure I was trained in classical dance by one of the best gurus in India. She came and lived with us so I had a very unique opportunity to study Indian art at an early age. That kind of played its role in influencing my music, my aesthetic, and my everything. Everybody in the family is in medicine, very Indian in that way, the American Dream, the Indian stereotype in America. For my parents it wasn’t their first choice necessarily, for me to be an artist but they came here with the idea that their children could do what they wanted to do and would have more opportunities so I never took that lightly. I always knew I was the product of the American Dream, and that if I did not pursue my dreams that it was almost a waste like, why did my father leave his country– a country that– I don’t care what people have to say, I love India– I love living in India. It took so much to make me move back, there was so much to rip me from the motherland, I really feel so at home there, so I think about my parents and what they sacrificed. That plays a role in my music.
The Knockturnal: So, going off your parents a little bit, how did their interests in music or what they listened to influence your sound and I want to know when you first started to take an interest in music?
Raja Kumari: I always listened to music, it was always part of my life. In classical dance you have instrumentalists that tour with you. I was always around Indian instruments being played live and being a part of live experiences definitely is going to change you as a child. My parents listened to a lot of classical music like carnatik South Indian classical, M. Balamuralikrishna, tillanas, thyagaraja keerthana, and anything I danced to, so just pure classical. and A.R. Rahman was okay in the house, we listened to a lot of Bombay, Roja, Rangeela, was a big one, Taal those albums were influential to me. That gave me respect for the music and also when I started to feel fusion I did fusion in a way that honored it, not steal from it. I feel like a lot of people whether they’re Indian or American, or whoever has borrowed from Indian music has kind of stolen from it and I don’t want to do that. I want to add to it. I want someone to hear my music and it makes them go listen to classical music and think, where did that come from? I try to leave things intact.
The Knockturnal: Going back to you saying you wanted to remind people of their roots and culture, do you feel a diaspora ever? You said it was hard to come back from the motherland when you were in India for a little bit. Do you ever struggle identity-wise, or does it all enrich and makes it easier?
Raja Kumari: I think both sides are a struggle. I think when I’m here I deal with different things. I deal with this idea of Indianness, how much Indianness is appropriate for an Indian woman in America. It’s totally chill for a blonde-haired girl to put on a full bridal outfit and do a whole video in India and it’s like, ‘Wow it’s so artistic!’ but if I want to do an Indian hand movement or wear a piece of Indian jewelry it’s like “ehh that’s too Indian,’ that’s such a crazy idea. In India that doesn’t exist for me. In India there is so much acceptance for what I’m doing and it allows me to explore and really experiment. I think both sides are important. The goal has never been, ‘I want to go home and get that,’ the goal has been, ‘I want the world.’ I want to be the one who brought the culture to everyone, the whole planet and made it approachable and understandable so both sides are important: the challenges of America, and India gives me the confidence to handle the challenges of America.
The Knockturnal: Going into your career a little bit, can you talk about when you started out, your Grammy nomination, writing for other artists, can you discuss that a little bit?
Raja Kumari: Sure, so I started recording for myself as an artist. When you have to pay for studio time you save up, you do songs but you can’t do it every day. To become a professional at anything you need to do it every day. I realized early on a lot of artists that were having a chance to do something different got on as songwriters. I started writing songs for ten and twelve year old girls that were coming in and working with the producers I just hired. I started realizing how easy that was and I got to be in the studio every day. I never intended to be a songwriter but realized I had so much to learn.
The Knockturnal: Where was this and why were you in the studio every day?
Raja Kumari: I was in Southern California and had hired three producers to record songs for me so I could make a demo since I’m an artist, but it ended after three days. I wanted to be there every day, I wanted this to be my life and thought if I was writing songs for someone else then I’d get to be there every day, it’d be free for me and I’d get to practice. So I sought out every opportunity. I’d write with my friends that were signed and would co-write. That’s actually how I got discovered. One of my friends was published and a publisher liked the flavor whenever my name showed up as a co-writer so she found me. That’s Katie Vinton, she’s one of the most powerful women in the industry and now she’s at Warner Chapel and she discovered me without even hearing my voice. She just noticed that she liked the vibe of that. She brought me to Pulse and I signed the publishing deal there in 2012. From there I signed the publishers and I would take every session. I planted so many seeds that first year. It’s crazy because that first song, “Change Your Life,” that was the song that Iggy Azalea did and was Grammy-nominated so it was that idea that when the first song you ever got placed was Grammy-nominated, you cannot stop. You’re not allowed to stop. God gave me one of those moments because it was going to be difficult to blaze this trail I am in. It was hard; especially when I was younger and didn’t have this confidence or understanding of self and music. The songwriting taught me so much. I got to work with a vocal coach who produced me for a year writing songs so I learned five-part harmonies, I learned from the greats. I was writing with Justin Tranter, one of the greats of pop music. You learn from the people around you. Now that I have learned from myself as a songwriter, I did those things and now can do my own things with my music and not have to take out all the Indian-ness. I’ve done a lot of pop music, I wrote songs for Fifth Harmony like “Like Mariah,” it’s right here but I have a very specific tone I want to put out into the world.
The Knockturnal: Can you talk about the challenges you faced?
Raja Kumari: Yeah a lot of challenges. I think the South Asian culture is unknown, with a lot of people, and politically what’s going on in the world, there’s no way to differentiate Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Iraqi and Irani, we all look the same. We literally do. I could be any of those women. I understood that about myself and what I represent. I think people push back when they haven’t seen it before. They need to see it has succeeded first, but it has to do its thing. So as a South Asian woman in an industry dominated by men I find that people have opinions on how a South Asian woman should behave which I find hilarious. I’m like ‘Hey guys! I’m right here, an Indian woman in the flesh, you know what? Fuck you.’ So that’s where that has brought me, but I’m thankful because it has made me really strong and clear and concise about what’s important. You can’t fight every battle, you have to compromise with some things but I don’t compromise with the art or my expression. I have patience. I know this is a long haul so I’ve really tried to put imagery into things as time has gone and maybe hasn’t made its way out into the world, but I’ll keep trying.
The Knockturnal: Yeah, everything is a process. Can we talk about the single, “Shook” and the music video and the creative process?
Raja Kumari: It’s so hands-on that it’s like I need to get hands-off sometimes. That’s what the process of “Shook” was about, it was about letting go and allowing creatives to come in and help me bring my art to a new level. Doing it on your own is great but sometimes it’s the only option you have. When I was working on this album and single I got to work with creatives that spent their whole lives studying what they do. When I studied my music they studied film, they’ve been stylists or creative directors. It was really about letting go and seeing myself through a new lens that other people were perceiving me through. “I Did It,” was a record that I really wanted to put out. It had been in my catalog for some time, and I knew if I didn’t put it out that it would stay there forever.
The Knockturnal: Why did you hold off for so long?
Raja Kumari: Everything takes time. Most of my music, until now, it would be about a year and a half from writing to release. I’d basically be writing these songs for the future. I’m somewhere else but this new album that I’ve just finished recording, and that “Shook” is the first single from, I’ll write and release it within six months. It’s the first time that my mindset is current right now, and what I’m going through. That’s an exciting process.
The Knockturnal: Can we talk about your upcoming project, what we can expect from the sound, the release date?
Raja Kumari: The date I can’t give you. I can tell you early 2019. I can say that. I don’t like to jinx myself with dates and I hate not keeping my word. It makes me sick. It makes me want to puke. The album is called, BloodLine, it’s definitely a chapter two for me of my story. I think The Come-up was chapter one, it was about manifestation, setting intentions, putting your mind towards these ideas and then really going out there and doing it. That’s what the last two years have been. I said that I was going to get the motherland, I just left. People were like, ‘You really didn’t come back! You’re still in India,” and I legitimately live in Bombay now by myself, I don’t have family in Bombay. I really just picked up and left so that whole experience; touring India, having eight thousand, ten thousand people sing back the lyrics, having ten thousand people yell, Gangotri at you, which is an a.k.a name of mine, it just changed me. It made me stop doubting anything. This album is very confident I would say. It deals with, where do you come from? Who are you? What is for you is for you, it’s in your bloodline. It’s the culmination of many generations of ancestors putting forth their hard work so you have an opportunity. It’s really about when I’m in America, I’m in America and when I’m in India, I’m in India. I’m not Indian to them but I’m the bridge, I am both. That’s part of my bloodline, part of my dharm, what I was born to do. When you start to get things that you manifest in your mind you have to protect them. You start to understand the seriousness. This album is anthems and battles. If you were coming to try and attack my kingdom, you would hear the drums of war and you would hear this album. It’s aggressive. My first album was twenty percent rap and eighty percent singing, and I would say this one is eighty percent rap and twenty percent singing. I gave that part of my character a whole chapter, to let her go. That came from the experience of doing live shows and watching when I start to rap how people react. So I was like, ‘Why am I doing this for ten seconds? I should be doing a whole show of this.’ It’s actually easier than singing, I don’t have to warm up. I can just come out there and yell? Perfect! Fantastic! But I love singing still. I pushed myself on this album, it was a challenge. It wasn’t just like, ‘Let me go make a pop song.’ Every day in the studio I pushed myself emotionally, spiritually, and I forced myself to be really honest and let people know how I’m really feeling and that was new for me.
The Knockturnal: So this is the first time you’re writing and putting stuff out in six months? Where was the majority of it written? In the states? In India?
Raja Kumari: In the states. This whole album was made in the states. I went to Miami and worked with Danja. I went to Atlanta and worked with Sean Garrett and we did a few. The other two were done in Los Angeles. So it was definitely made in America, this album. I think it has that attitude. I didn’t make this for India or for the Diaspora, I made this for the world. This is the first album I made for the general population, not for the pigeonhole, not just for my Indian kids looking for music for their culture show to dance to, this is for the people to understand us. Lyrically I brought a lot of vocabulary that people haven’t heard. Talking about Hindu guap, sending my Benjis over to Gandhi and now we feast, different things like that and it made me so happy to be able to do that.
The Knockturnal: So you said it was more fun to rap, was it easier to write rap lyrics?
Raja Kumari: No, lyrics are the same. It’s fun. I think it was just a challenge so it excited me. I had to work really hard. I wasn’t like, ‘Oh I’m just going to go in there and do this in a take.’ Sometimes when I was songwriting I was like, ‘I’ll do it in a take and then go home now,’ but for this, I’ve never had to work so hard for a vocal. For some of them there are some interesting couplets and rhythms and details that took time.
The Knockturnal: That’s so exciting. Do you have anything else you want to leave your fans with? Anything else you want us to know?
Raja Kumari: I just want to thank everybody for being with me on this and that this album is super exciting for me. I hope they enjoy it and go along the journey with me. I just want to keep evolving and it’s all about serving moods and moments. There’s a lot of moments and moods on this album, so I’m excited.
The Knocturnal: Awesome, and you said early 2019?
Raja Kumari: ASAP! It’s done. I turned it in. That’s all I can say.
Leading Photo Credit: Sasha Samsonova
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