Every musician has a different source of inspiration for making music. For Amit Trivedi, it’s travel. The composer-singer usually travels across the world to make music and to add essence of different places to his work. In the latest instance, Trivedi travelled to various places in India to connect with earthy Indian voices, traditions and stories to create songs for his new independent project, Songs Of Soil.

“Travel has always been my main source of inspiration and that has helped me create some of my best songs. I visited five states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. I ended up visiting Rajasthan twice, because there was so much to cover from that region. It was fun. I got to meet some of the best folk artistes of the country,” says Trivedi, who took around a year to work on the project, given the ongoing pandemic.

The National Award-winning composer wanted the songs to have an earthy touch. “The idea was to get some of the best folk artistes of the country together to create something different and original, which the audience has never heard before,” says Trivedi.

This travel experience was a huge learning for the Dear Zindagi (2016) composer. “I had to understand the culture and folklore of every region and jam with the local artistes. One of the songs features me with an instrument called parai, which I am still learning to play. It was gifted to me by Anthony Daasan (folk singer from Tamil Nadu),” Trivedi ends.