We recently connected with Ann Aarat and have shared our conversation below.

Ann, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

If I have to be brutally honest, the first time I knew I wanted to pursue a musical path professionally was when I was roughly 11 years old. I used to try and come up with songs along with one of my close friends in school then. Every day she would come to school with a new piece of music written, and I would be left feeling like I would never be good at writing music. The sad part and also the funniest part of it was that she made me feel that way for the longest time, and then a couple months later I realized that she was just copying lyrics from some of the well-written songs I had never heard of. I still don’t know what exactly she gained from doing so, but all I learned from that is to have faith in yourself and what you’re doing, and always trust your gut!

That did make me question if I was right to even think about doing something in music. And so did a million other things that followed it, like most of us creatives, I believe.

Anyway, now that was the time when I wasn’t properly introduced to music production. All I knew was that I can sing a little, and if I want to make music, I needed to know how to write music. I would spend day and night trying to cover songs on my own and would never post anything on Instagram or any other platform because I was very skeptical of the fact that I could sing.

Although I was forced to pursue engineering courses when I was around 14 years old due to my folks lack of confidence in the entertainment field and also because I wasn’t confident to defend myself and what I wanted to do. Halfway through the course I had to rebel and show that even though I am not sure exactly what it is that I want to do in music, I knew that it has to be in music. My folks started to realize that there’s a deep-rooted interest here that I just couldn’t let go, and they didn’t take much time from there to decide that they are going to do everything in their power to give me every possible opportunity to pursue music.

They sent me to a music school called Global Music Institute, back home in India, for more guidance, and this is when I was officially introduced to music production, and all I can say is that I have not turned back since then. I was roughly 18 years old then, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do in music and what brought me the most joy. It was the perfect blend of creative and technical aspects of music coming together, and is what I was looking for. Something about taking a musical idea and being the one to make it sound the closest to what I or the artist had in mind, being able to bring a musical vision into life, I immediately resonated with it and wanted to get that skill under my belt.

So yes, to conclude, I was roughly 11 years old when I knew I wanted to do something in music, but was around 18 years old when I knew I love producing music, to be precise, and it is all I wanted to do.

I eventually learned how to DJ and got more into the sound design aspect of music, but producing music is and will always be my first love.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I go by the name Ann Aarat (born Anju Sreekanth) and I am a 24-year-old, New York based singer, songwriter, music producer, sound designer, and DJ hailing from Delhi, India. Under my former moniker, Taceō, I had released a couple songs in 2023 before moving to New York for my Master’s in Songwriting and Production from Berklee College of Music, NYC.

After spending a few years in Mumbai, India, as an intern and having received my undergraduate degree in Psychology & Sociology from St. Andrew’s College, Bandra, Mumbai, I decided to pursue my Master’s degree in Music from Berklee and expand my musicianship and network by moving to New York. I completed my Master’s in 2024 with distinction and am now on a mission to establish myself as an artist, music producer, sound designer, mixing engineer and a DJ. I have been playing as a DJ in New York. Sharing my music and the genres I enjoy with others has become second nature to me.

I fell in love with sound design and DJing towards the end of my year as a graduate and my vision now is to focus on making unique sounds using just vocal or field recordings and Ableton, and fuse it in my work. I am working on surrounding my music with sound design and I am gradually working towards being able to work on musical pieces for visual media, to score for films or series’ that I resonate with.

Music production, mixing, and sample packs are some of the main products that I provide as an artist. I want to eventually work on creating small workshops and tutorials when it comes to my process of producing on Ableton and sound design. I do have my own sound as a music producer and I want to be known for that but I try my best to be able to produce music for friends/other artists who have a different sound because, for me, producing music is taking an idea and making it sound good as long as you understand the genre and what the artist wants it to sound like.

And finally, if I had to share one thing or project that I’m really proud of as of now, it has to be my master’s thesis project I worked on last year at Berklee NYC. As an artist who loves producing more than being a singer, I wanted to use voice for more than just vocals and use it mainly in my productions. I recorded around 30 people from my cohort and asked them to make any kind of sounds they could possibly make which I then processed using Ableton and made it sound like different elements in a song like the percussions, keys, trumpet, guitar and so on. I made five afrobeat-electronic songs using those processed sounds which sounded like it was electronically produced but, in reality, it was all made out of voice samples. This is how my love for sound design came about. This project is a big project and is still in the works but will be out soon!

Meanwhile, I have been releasing songs under my artist name Ann Aarat. ‘Red’ is my debut single and I recently released my sophomore single called ‘stay awake’ which is out on all platforms and has its official music video out on YouTube under my channel name Ann Aarat.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think, be it audio or video media, being able to bring life to someone’s idea or my own idea that’s in our minds is the most rewarding aspect of being an artist/creative.

And another aspect of it that reassures me that I chose the right field is when people are able to resonate with my work and when people can find something relatable in my work, even if it’s just one person. Being able to touch people’s emotions with what you do is what music or what sound in general is to me.

Entertainment itself is to pull people out of their daily routine, relieve stress, be in tune with your emotions, and go back to work either inspired or feeling refreshed. So being an artist/creative and doing that as a professional is honestly an honor.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The book called ‘Ikigai’ by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles is one of my favorite books that has helped me a lot in life in general, and I, at times, keep going back to read it again.

I know it’s more of a book for a long and happy life, and it’s not directly related to music. But the different perspective it gives you on having an efficient and productive lifestyle according to one’s needs, has helped me a lot to think differently and come up with my own work flow in both work and personal life.

It’s talks about finding a middle ground between your passion, profession, mission in life, and vocation. It gives you different tools you can work with and personalize a work flow for yourself.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to try a different approach to life and just play around with the tools it gives you to experiment with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.annaarat.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann.aarat/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaratann/
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anjusreekanth
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ann_aarat
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnnAarat
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/annaarat
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0WttBTU8eGDwXb8ovCUwcN?si=LYSbJMlYSLyITmKFPdKjAAApple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ann-aarat/1763273249

Image Credits

1. Ann Aarat – Image 01 (Photo by Ellie Holliday)
2. Ann Aarat – Image 02 (Photo by Ellie Holliday)
3. Ann Aarat – Image 03 (Photo by Ellie Holliday)
4. Ann Aarat – Image 05 (Photo by Antonia Groh)
5. Ann Aarat – Image 06 (Photo by Shaurya Kapoor)
6. Ann Aarat – Image 07 (Photo by LAWRENCO)
7. Ann Aarat – Image 08 (Photo by Ellie Holliday)
8. Ann Aarat – Image 09 (Photo by Andy Li)