Exclusive Video Premiere: Zoya’s Dark Twists and Turns on ‘The Shaman & The Singer’

Indian-American singer-songwriter Zoya Mohan has released the music video for her new single, “The Shaman & The Singer.” The video was produced by Sanya Sagar of Pynkmoss Productions. Watch the music video, available exclusively on Rolling Stone India, above.

“The Shaman & The Singer” marks a notable sonic departure for Mohan, whose previous music as a singer-songwriter leaned heavily into the folk genre. In contrast, the new song is decidedly electronic pop. “Leaving the folk singer-songwriter behind feels more like a journey than a decision,” says the Indian-born, California-raised Mohan. “I was always really against opening the door of electronic into my music. I guess I was always afraid that once that happened the possibilities would be endless with production and in that I would feel out of control.”

What ultimately pushed Mohan to make the move into more electronic territory was a shift in her own personal music taste. “I grew so much as an artist over the past year and a half in India,” says Mohan, who moved to Mumbai from California when she was 22 years old. She also chose to move into production territory because she does flit between her two home countries, and electronic instrumentals mean that she doesn’t have to keep changing bandmates when she’s performing in different places. “”˜The Shaman & The Singer’ was the first song I ever produced completely on my own and I realized how efficient it actually was,” she says.”Now the live show can be triggered and performed with the exact same sounds as the recording.”

The music video for single depicts a vulnerable Mohan in muted, dark tones as she sings about a relationship that caused her to lose sight of herself. “I wanted it to be a simple yet grasping aesthetic,” says Mohan. “As the song repeats like an anthem ”˜I miss the girl I was before she became used,’ that emotion felt best represented in a bathtub, washing off the paint as a metaphor for washing off your past, the person and the memories that haunt you.”

Though Mohan is nervous about how her new sound will be received, her excitement is tangible. “Change is one of the most intricate things I have ever seen. And like they say, you have to lose everything to find what you truly are capable of,” she says. “I can feel it in my bones and in my art. And now, I am sharing it with you.”