Ashwin Bhaskar, who went viral with his dialogue-with-beat video ‘Perfect OK’ last year, has teamed up with K-pop artist, Alexa. Ashwin sang with her in the cover version of her new single ‘Tattoo’. While the song was released on 6 January, the cover track premiered on 30 January.
Ashwin says the offer comes from the ZB label (ZANYBROS), a big name in the Korean music video production industry, which manages Alexa among other K-pop artists. “When I got his mail, I thought it was fake. I sent a message to his official account and he assured me that it was a genuine offer,” he says.
Ashwin, an audio engineer, composer, singer, lyricist and music producer, believes that he might have come in contact with him because he is uploading a lot of music content in English on his YouTube channel (Ashwin Bhaskar). “My impression is that many international musicians are exploring the Indian market and perhaps it is part of that trend,” says Ashwin.
He says that the label was appreciating his songs on the channel and reached out to him long before the release of ‘Tattoo’ to work on the cover version. After sending him the lyrics and instrumental parts, they gave him the option to keep that version or make it the way he wanted. “I chose to do it my own way. Later, they sent in excerpts sung by him and his video. I did the editing, mixing, mastering, and music production in my studio before uploading it.” The video has got more than one lakh views.
Alexa (Alexandra Christine Schneiderman / Kim Se Ree) debuted in 2019 with her single ‘Bomb’ and made her mark in the K-pop scene with songs like ‘Do or Die’ (2020) and ‘Revolution’ (2020) . Alexa currently resides in the US.
self taught musician
A native of Malappuram, Ashwin is a graduate in engineering. He did a Diploma in Audio Engineering from AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. A “self-taught musician”, he started his YouTube channel in 2012. After American pop rock band Maroon 5 posted a cover of ‘Memories’ on their channel, they uploaded a portion of it to their official channel.
Then came ‘Perfect OK’ in which he mixed up dialogues from a video of KP Nasal, an autorickshaw driver from Kozhikode. The video has been viewed more than 14 million times so far. This is one of many such videos on his channel. He has released three originals – “Story of My Life”, “Reality”, and “Let Me Be Alone” – and has also worked with some indie musicians.
Meanwhile, after the release, Alexa messaged him on her page saying: ‘You are such a wonderful singer!! Hope to meet you in person someday!!’
“My dream is to become an independent artist of international repute. I am working on a few songs and hope to release them this year,” says Ashwin.
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