- 2021-09-02
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Priya Ragu Premieres New Song “Lockdown” on BBC Radio 1
Sri Lankan-Swiss singer-songwriter Priya Ragu premiered a new song “Lockdown” on BBC Radio 1's Future Sounds with Tom Grennan.
The song is taken from her upcoming debut mixtape “damnshestamil”, which is out on September 3, 2021.
Priya Ragu said of the song, “I wrote this song earlier this year during a time where I felt particularly isolated from the people I love most. It's about dealing with being alone in this situation and wanting to feel the energy of another persons presence, and to have somebody with you to stay up all night listening to Marvin.”
The accompanying music video was directed by Dumas Haddad.
She said, “For this video I always had a vision in my mind of two dancers spiritually and physically connected by their movements but separated by a barrier between them. It's a good metaphor for how a lot of people have been feeling over the last couple years, with a ton of built up love and energy, being held down by a higher force, and finding new ways to communicate.”
She continued, “The director Dumas Haddad, the realest G, has taken that idea somewhere even deeper. It's more than just a video about lockdown, it's a video that speaks to anybody that has ever felt isolated or surveilled in their own environment, and still find away to break through and express themselves, making sure their voices are heard, and letting others know they are fighting for them.”- Priya Ragu told Tom Grennan about the mixtape, “I mean, some songs is. It's just like, you know, with stern bad music, and then sometimes you have a terrible influences in it. It's just like, it's not like we're controlling it, we see what we create and then sometimes it's in there and sometimes.”
“damnshestamil” is her first mixtape under major label Warner Records, who signed to her last year.
She recalled, “It's really difficult to grasp it because I'm living in this internet realm. I've been born and raised in Switzerland, I just got signed last year. So it's still like a lot of things happened. And I'm still like, oh my god, is this real is this real happening. I'm just really grateful.”
She worked with a producer Japhna Gold on the mixtape. She said, “I mean, definitely, like family like we're like best place. And for sure, like in 2017 we're starting to do music together before then. He was doing his own thing I wanted to do my own thing. And when we did our first song. There was a bit of a clash, because, like another vision, I'll create music and I had enough vision. And so as soon as I told him like you know what, I'm just gonna trust you. And I'm just gonna let go right. And that's when he got the confidence to come up with this new sound, you know, and with, including the telephone, music and the influences.” - source : BBC Radio 1
