Arjun Kanungo on teaming up with artistes from Japan: It’s the first ever Indian-Japanese collaboration and that makes it more special

Arjun Kanungo is known to experiment with his music and try out something new every track he creates. The singer-composer has taken things a notch higher this time as he has collaborated with Japanese artistes Julie, Cyber Rui for a new music album Industry 2.

“The fact that it’s the first ever Indian-Japanese collaboration makes it even more special,” exclaims Kanungo, adding, “I’m extremely excited. It’s a pretty cool thing. Also, I feel it’ll open up roads for more artistes from both the countries to come together and create magic.”

While the 32-year-old has been visiting the country quite frequently since 2016, it was only during his last visit that this idea cropped up. “I’ve been going to Japan at least twice every year. It has been a very interesting relationship with the country, learning about its culture. It’s a very nice place to write (new songs) and be creative. During my last visit, my manager in Japan suggested a collaboration with these artistes who are very popular over there. And I liked the idea because in that way, I’d also be able to offer something fresh to the audience,” he shares.

Even though it was a great experience shooting in Tokyo, the Tum Na Ho singer laments how a lot of things went wrong because of lack of awareness in the new country. “On one of the days, the production house that we had hired let us down and we had no equipment to carry on. Then there was a lot of things like that that went wrong in terms of locations. We were shooting in a parking lot, unware that it’s not allowed, and somebody called the police,” recounts the singer, adding, “On top of all this, there was language barrier. The whole crew did not speak Japanese. So, there was a time lag when the director wanted to speak to the cameraman, or when we wanted to communicate with the makeup artistes.”

Cross-country collaborations have always been touted to be a great way to incorporate elements from another culture, however, in this say, points Kanungo, there was not much scope to blend things. “That’s because the entire song was written and composed much before going to Japan. Moreover, everybody has their own unique taste, especially someone like Julie who’s got very hip-hop style. However, when she came on board, the track was already made. So, her coming in the picture didn’t influence the music. She came in to add to the already made track. But I feel like adapted really well to the style. It was new, but there was no Japanese influence in the songwriting or music. Overall, I think the album is still very Indian,” he ends.