Music
Here's how Ritviz's smash hit 'Udd Gaye' was written
We caught up with electronic music producer Ritviz Srivastava to understand how the surprise hit of 2017, 'Udd Gaye', was written.
'Udd Gaye' by 21-year-old DJ, singer and Hindustani dance music producer from Pune, Ritviz, became an instant hit after listeners across the country were able to connect with its melancholic lyrics clubbed with upbeat melodies. And most don’t even know that Udyan Sagar, aka Nucleya, was so taken by the song that he personally offered to master it before its release. Check out the story of 'Udd Gaye' below.
5 min
Story of a song: Ritviz's Udd Gaye
Ritviz - Udd Gaye: This is the story of his song
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We had a chat with Ritviz Srivastava to discuss how the song and its video came about.
How did the idea of this song come about?
It started from a melody that didn't work out into a full song it was originally meant to be. Instead, it became the midsection of 'Udd Gaye'. I sent the demo to Rahul (Sinha, manager), who sent it to the Bacardi House Party people, and they got excited about it. They started thinking about the video along with Reema Sengupta from Catnip. Only the first half of the song was ready by the time they started jamming on the theme of the video.
How did the structure of the song come together?
It started off being a complex structure. A friend I initially sent it to said it could be four different songs. So we decided it should be simpler. The melodic bit of it was pretty dark and intense, but we thought it could be turned into something else. So we took the intro and bass line from the previous song, and we made a drop and bridge later with the main melody.
What’s your music writing set-up like?
I like to work solo so I just have a minimal set-up in my bedroom. I like to work when I'm alone and in my zone.
(Rahul jokes that Ritviz basically works on his laptop when lying on his bed)
Did you bring people in at every stage of making the song?
No, I don't prefer to share with anyone except Rahul and my mother. The friend who heard the song and gave me advice that it was complex was actually an impromptu thing. He's a rapper called MC Illa Straight, and we were trying to work on a beat at the time. 'Udd Gaye' was originally meant to be a hip-hop track. So that's how that happened.
How involved were you in the video?
The concept was done by Catnip, but we were involved in the creative calls. Rahul was more involved in the details because I was focusing on the audio since both were happening simultaneously.
Do you think of visuals while writing the track?
Not really. Maybe one of the 300-400 tracks that I have ideas for becomes an actual song. Songwriting definitely doesn't happen keeping the visuals in mind.
Ritviz
© Nishant Matta
What's the inspiration for this song?
Haha, personal experiences, of course. There has been a lot of internalisation and build up to it though. I think that's why it connected so much with people as well, not just the melody but the way it is presented. I really do feel what I'm saying. I felt inspired enough by this one story to do ten songs out of it. I wasn't aiming to create an abstract theme, but I spent half a day going through all the demos with Rahul and 'Udd Gaye' was the one that stood out most. Even with the EP, the emotion that is constant through everything is happiness. I was really happy at that point in life.
There's another track in the EP called 'Barso', which is about anticipation. And another one called 'Jeet', which is about winning. Even what Udyan found most exciting about 'Udd Gaye' was that the lyrics were slightly sad but the tone was happy. I feel the same for 'Jeet', and all the other songs too. You can sense this happy tone, even more, when playing the instrumental version.
What was it like when the video came out, and the song became what it is?
I was reading comments all the time; got introduced to so many things and people. The first day we got a lot of hate in the YouTube comments section on AIB's upload because it was unexpected coming from them. It was the first time that there was music on their channel. There were eight comments on the video saying, “What the hell is this?”
But at the same time, we were getting positive comments from other places, privately. We had a private link that had 25,000-30,000 views, and we were getting positive messages from our friends and family. So day one was slow, but then day two onwards things just went berserk. People started making their own videos and dance routines. We started sharing these videos, and so did AIB.
Then ten days after the video release, we played at NH7 Weekender in Pune, and 3,000 people turned up, so that was amazing.