Exclusive Release: Zoya’s Haunting ‘Keep My Body Moving’

Zoya Mohan has released the first single off her upcoming full-length album ‘natural disaster.’ Photo: Courtesy of the artist

When Zoya Mohan went back to her hometown of California after setting up her Mumbai-based band, performing a series of gigs and wrapping up her Power for Power project in India late last year, she immediately felt an unexplainable change of pace. Says the Indian-American singer-songwriter, who spent the whole of December 2015 visiting schools in the villages of Udaipur, Rajasthan, “India was nuts! It was like six months of chaos and amazing, amazing experiences”¦ When I went back to America it was super-sterile, I kind of had a counter-culture shock.”

Uncertain about where she and her music were headed next, Mohan began penning down songs about, as she describes it, “having anxiety and fear, and this dream I have about being a singer-songwriter and making that my living.” Many of the 20-30 wanderlust-inspired tracks have now made their way to Mohan’s fourth record natural disaster., which began falling into place after she received a call from [electronic artist management company] Krunk founder and artist manager Sohail Arora. “I had this feeling I should go back [to India],” explains Mohan. “And then Sohail called from Krunk and was like, ”˜Hey what are you doing? You should come back, sign with me .’”

Mohan, 23, is now back in India (at least for a year, she says) and on the brink of releasing the seven-track natural disaster., which “pays tribute to the trials and tribulations that come with following one’s dream.” Case in point: the first single “Keep My Body Moving” is the singer’s starting point of doubt and fear. Much like the rest of the album, the minimalist, haunting tune sees Mohan moving towards a more electronic sound while maintaining her signature poetic musings (“A useless creature confined to this bedroom/A sullen girl dreaming up memoirs of my youth/But, I have to keep my body moving”). Says Mohan, “The song is about being confined to my bedroom. There are some days I just don’t want to get out of bed and do it, I’m so paralyzed with crippling self-doubt. But even though I feel like that, I know I have to keep my body moving; I want to keep going.”

Listen to “Keep My Body Moving” below.

”˜natural disaster.’ album launch tour:
September 21st ”“ Antisocial Khar, Mumbai
September 24th ”“ The Mud Rush Festival, Mumbai
September 29th ”“TBA, Pune
October 15th ”“ The Humming Tree, Bengaluru
October 16th ”“ TBA, Goa
October 20th ”“Bandstand, New Delhi
October 21st ”“ Piano Man Jazz Club, New Delhi