Singer-Songwriter, Audio Engineer, and Music Producer Ashwin Bhaskar has garnered praise from Malayalis all over the world for his musical renditions. Listening to his music instantly gets us humming and tapping our feet. Ashwin recently dropped a video of him doing a cover on the song Tattoo By the K-Pop artist AleXa.
What’s amazing is that AleXa herself has accompanied him on the cover. This is possibly the first time in history a Malayali has collaborated with a K-pop artist. It’s wooing a lot of K-pop fans in Kerala and they are mighty proud of this achievement.
Ashwin shares, “The collab with AleXa was totally unexpected. She works under a South Korean Label called Zanybros. Her manager from the label sent an email, asking if I’d like to collaborate with her. The first thought that ran through my head was – Why would a big artist like AleXa want to collab with me?. The thing is, I would often get such emails and most of the time they end up being fake. So, I did some digging. I personally DMd her on Instagram, asking about this collaboration. To my surprise, her manager responded and confirmed. That’s when I said ‘YES’.”
AleXa is a K-pop artist whose debut video crossed five million views in its first week of release. Her new song ‘Tattoo‘ was released on January 6th this year. The track got into the Top 10 of Billboard’s ‘World Digital Song Sales Chart’ and has been receiving raving reviews since. As part of the song’s promotion, they wanted to collaborate with Ashwin Bhaskar. “I received the email in December 2021. Once I confirmed, they shared the song lyrics, and instrumentals for my reference even before the release of the song,” he shared.
Ashwin was supposed to coordinate with the artist herself but she was tied up doing her tours. As such, he was given two options. He was to either create his own production using his style or use the song’s instrumentals to create the cover. Ashwin commented, “I decided to go with my own version. I made a basic track, recorded my vocals, and informed them about my completion. All I needed was AleXa’s vocals. In two weeks, I received it. I mixed her vocals with mine and sent them a reference. They loved it!”
Post that, he had to create a video. AleXa’s team agreed with Ashwin’s usual style of shooting where he would his own home studio. AleXa similarly shot her part and sent it across. Ashwin edited the video in a split-screen format and they appreciated his effort. When he received the final stamp of approval to upload, he was jumping with joy.
The collaboration with AleXa was a surprise for Ashwin. “Antham vitt poyi” was his exact words. It was an opportunity for him to showcase his talent with an international, well-known artist. He shared, “I’ve now got the confidence to explore many avenues. Now, I’ll start approaching people. This time, I was lucky to be approached by them and I am super grateful for it. I hope such collaborations happen in the future too.”
Watch Ashwin Bhaskar’s lastest drop below:
