Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Aalisha Jaisinghani. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Aalisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

It’s not impossible to earn a full-time living as someone in a creative field — it’s not easy, but the struggle is highly worth it.

Most full-time creatives are working multiple jobs. In my case, I have three separate sources of income. My main focus is my film scoring and personal music career, and those avenues can pay decently when pursued strategically, but they sadly don’t cover the bills. Secondly, I work as a private contractor for a to-your-home music lessons company; I teach piano lessons to kids all around Manhattan. Living in a rent-controlled apartment that falls in the middle of my students’ locations was certainly fortuitous — unfortunately, luck is always a factor. My third source of income is my part-time Adjunct Faculty position with Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, or RMCAD. I created and developed their new Intro to Film Scoring class, and I teach a couple of their remote music courses, from Music Theory to Composition to the Film Scoring class I created.

While the sum of these jobs typically covers me, it’s never certain. It’s a paycheck to paycheck life, which has to be accepted early on, and those paychecks aren’t always guaranteed.

The indie films I work on have varying budgets, and the number of projects I’m working on at a time isn’t a number that’s wholly in my control. On top of that, sometimes filmmakers have to extend or delay their timeline, which in turn, of course, delays payment. When it comes to piano lessons, the families of my students are often away for the holidays. Those clients can also cancel lessons for various other reasons, like if a kid is sick or has a conflicting unmissable event. Since I’m paid for the hours I work, those cancelled lessons equate to unexpected blows to my living budget. The key is to always keep these margins of error in mind when budgeting, and to budget way ahead of time. At RMCAD so far, I have been teaching for consecutive terms. but since it’s a part-time contract position, it’s not always guaranteed that they’ll rehire me. There may come a time where there are more Adjunct Faculty teachers than they need, and I’ll have to readjust my plans for that 8-week term.

There are other ways to make money as well. As a classical and jazz pianist, I sometimes land gigs to play background music for events, which can pay handsomely. And when I gig with my rock band or perform my solo music around the city, we do earn money, but typically only enough to cover costs like rehearsal spaces — but hey, covering those costs is still something.

I can’t stress enough that the real key is budgeting and being prepared to reroute at any moment. And remember to keep those savings growing!

It’s also really important to not be hard on yourself when you’re first trying to assemble these puzzle pieces together. When I completed my Master’s degree, I felt hopeless for a few months. I applied to all kinds of jobs, all over New York City and remotely. I was starting to dread the possibility of having to leave New York, where I’ve been really thrilled to live. I was also so consumed by the general job hunt that I didn’t work on many films for a while, and altogether feared regression. In the end though, it all pieced together beautifully, even if it took a while to assemble the puzzle. Don’t stop searching, and get creative with the types of jobs you search for. It takes a certain level of determination, so stay determined and don’t be intimidated by periods of uncertainty.

The uncertainty and instability of it all is definitely terrifying, and a risky way to live, but if your head is really in the game and your heart is really in the path you’re pursuing, it’s definitely possible, and it’s absolutely completely worth it.

Aalisha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a film composer, songwriter, singer, performer, producer, and classical & jazz pianist!

I’ve scored dozens of short films, animations, and other screen media projects. Recently, I’ve worked on many experimental horror and thriller scores, where I often manipulate my own voice to create otherworldly soundscapes. I’m a huge fan of suspense, and I’ve loved exploring darker sonic worlds, especially since it diverges from the rest of my musical background, which is mostly classical and jazz. Integrating vocals into many of my compositions adds an extra layer of intensity; there’s nothing as personal and primal as the human voice, which immediately unnerves or moves people subconsciously. You won’t always register them as vocals in the tracks, because I physically and digitally contort my voice to create very unique sounds. I absolutely love experimentation. For that reason, actually, I’ve also loved working on heartbreaking and sweet dramas, because of the beautiful possibilities that come with vocal painting. And comedies also lend so well for experimentation!

I won “Best Music Score” in the MultiDimension Independent Film Festival in May 2023 and received a nomination for “Original Music” at the Watersprite International Festival in February 2024 in Cambridge, UK. My other accolades include my nominations for “Best Music Score” for three different short films within the span of two Organization of Independent Filmmakers (OIF) Orlando festivals, preceded by an FMF YTA Screen Scoring Honorable Mention Award from the Krakow Film Music Festival in May 2022. And I have also been so fortunate to watch many of the 40+ short films I’ve worked on make their rounds through amazing festival circuits, bringing highly deserved success to the filmmaking teams I’m so grateful to have been a part of.

I’m currently working on a handful of short indie films, as well as my first indie feature, and absolutely love having my plate full. I actually find that alternating between simultaneous projects heightens my creative abilities when it comes to each individual one, because having diversified responsibilities allows me to avoid a monotonous mindset. I’m so excited about the projects I’ve recently wrapped and am currently working on, and I can’t wait for people to finally see all of these films!

When it comes to my songwriting, I can’t pinpoint myself within any singular genre. My public discography consists of over 40 released songs, including rock, jazz, and, most recently, alt-pop songs, which I often record, mix, and produce myself, usually mastered by mentor and collaborator Jamie Lawrence. Though, with my love for collaboration and learning from others, I’m expanding more of my work to incorporate and feature other artists! I love to mesh my many influences rather than follow unspoken rules of any one genre, which means many of my releases contrast. I’m proud of my lyrical work; I don’t write lyrics with the hope that they’ll be universally relatable, and instead focus on making them notably authentic to myself. I recently wrote, produced, and released a single that I’m incredible proud of, called “In the Mood for Love” which is under the artist name “Aalisha” on streaming services!

In addition to my solo artist career, I have fronted, led, and written songs for multiple rock bands. I frequently perform with my current band, DUCK! around New York City, and we are so excited to record our first EP soon.

Along with DUCK!’s EP, be on the lookout for a solo album from me in the coming months… :)

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For an artist pursuing their passion full-time, instability is an inevitability. It’s really easy to get stuck in your head, stressed that you’re behind in life or not where you want to be. But one really amazing thing about being a creative is that the fruits of our labor are tangible, and also have their own lifespans. There will always be evidence of your hard work at every stage of your journey. And sometimes, when it seems a project you’ve released has failed or isn’t going anywhere, you may find years and years down the road that it somehow pays off.

I once attended a virtual seminar with Siddhartha Khosla who explained that his theme for Only Murders in the Building was actually derived from composition work he did during the pandemic, for a personal project that didn’t end up coming to fruition. I always have a million unfinished projects or budding ideas tucked away in several scattered notebooks, and leaving those projects untouched for potentially years can be demoralizing; I would look back at them as a waste. But after watching Khosla’s seminar, I realized that no artistic work we do is a waste — you never know what can come of it. Whether we utilize or repurpose the music in the future, or even just learn from the process, everything we create is valuable.

Our creations are also benchmarks of our progress. It’s easy to get in your head questioning how much you’ve actually gotten done in a certain period of time, but the tangible evidence of everything you created quickly proves you wrong!

Another extremely rewarding aspect is the direct catharsis we get to construct for ourselves. When it comes to my songwriting, I have an outlet that I have full control over. When we listen to music during emotional times in our lives, we often find ourselves searching for relatable songs, and it can be so cathartic to sing along or cry to those songs. I get to create tracks that are directly about my experiences, making them the absolute most direct form of that catharsis.

No matter how much we have to go through to make it all work, pursuing a life as a full-time creative is absolutely worth it, and you’ll always have your own proof of that!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

While music in general has been my dream since preschool, film scoring wasn’t the path I pursued for most of my journey. My background is as a performing musician — I was primarily a classical and jazz pianist, but also sang in different kinds of ensembles, such as jazz bands and vocal groups. I also fronted a couple rock bands! While I was experienced in concert composition and adept at music theory, my aspirations always involved being onstage.

When COVID hit, all shows were canceled indefinitely. Pursuing music was already a choice contaminated by uncertainty, but the uncertainty that COVID brought on for performers was paralyzing. If I couldn’t perform, I didn’t know what to do.

I started to apply to grad school, for piano performance as well as concert composition. I passed my pre-screenings, took the GRE, and began assembling my portfolio… but I started to have doubts. I attended a performing arts middle school, followed by a separate performing arts high school, and I majored in piano at both. In college at Washington University in St. Louis, I completed a Bachelor’s in Piano Performance along with a Bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics. This means I had majored in piano for 11 consecutive years. While it’s an integral part of my identity, and something forever deep in my soul, I began to realize that pursuing piano performance as my main focus for the rest of my life wasn’t actually what I wanted. Concert composition didn’t entice me enough either; it was really just a backup idea. But college graduation was creeping up fast, and I really didn’t want to apply to STEM jobs with my math degree.

I admitted to Chris Stark, my composition professor at the time, that I wasn’t thrilled about the steps I was taking for my future. I wanted to create and perform music, but I didn’t know which route was best for me. As a film composer himself, Chris suggested I consider scoring, and gave me a crash course as I applied to NYU for their graduate program in Screen Scoring. It was a serendipitous decision, considering film scoring allowed me to utilize the entirety of my background: classical and jazz piano, songwriting, rock music, electronic production, orchestral work, vocal work, and so much more. I’ve also always been an avid film lover and secret writer, so it all really came together beautifully.

Since then, my career as a film composer has been the most rewarding and fun life ever, while still allowing me to pursue all my other musical passions. It wasn’t the path I expected my life to take, but I’m so grateful it worked out this way.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/aalishajai
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aalisha-jaisinghani-a01026257

Image Credits

Watersprite International Film Festival Photo Team
Big Apple Film Festival Photo Team
Imagine This International Women’s Film Festival Photo Team
Candice Wu
Stella Wunder
Anu Srikanth
Nico Palomba