Mumbai Singer-Songwriter Shanay Shah Drops Breezy Single ‘Keh Do Na’

After releasing his pleasing debut track “Ye Baar” in 2018, Mumbai singer-songwriter Shanay Shah told us at the time that it was to be the lead single off his forthcoming EP. However, things didn’t go as planned and Shah says, “Owing to some poor choices and involving myself with people who weren’t a good fit for me, the entire EP spiraled due to infinite delays.” During that period the musician still managed to release a few singles, perform shows across India as well as overseas (U.S., Europe and the Middle East) and is now out with his latest offering, the breezy “Keh Do Na.”

The new track was written in collaboration with Mumbai guitarist Pradeep Mathews from erstwhile rockers The Mavyns. Shah’s relationship with the guitarist began when he would attend the now-defunct popular Bandra pub Ibar’s Sunday jam sessions. After a couple of failed attempts to get a slot to perform, the musician was finally able to take the stage when one of the regular vocalists called in sick. “I performed a bunch of songs with my ukulele and Pradeep along with several other musicians were backing all the singers that night,” he says. Six months down the line Mathews reached out to Shah and programmed him for a three-city tour performing retro Bollywood covers. Shah says, “I had never done Bollywood songs, but with his [Mathews] help I curated a setlist and we had a great event.”

The playful “Keh Do Na” includes bright acoustic guitar parts, saxophone lines from Varun Rao, Shah’s melodic vocals as well as backing vocals from musicians Sayantika Ghosh and Abhijeet Srivastava. “Pradeep is a very easy guy to work with. He called me over to his place one day and played me this tune he’d composed on his guitar. A week later I had a vocal melody in place and the first draft of the lyrics. When we jammed, we knew we had something really interesting and that’s how it all came about,” says Shah.

According to the singer-songwriter, he confesses that the inspiration behind the lyrics to the song is his inability to tell someone about his feelings when he likes that person. He says, “The song captures the joy and the anxiety of what goes through my head in a situation like that.” The track has been produced by Ashish Manchanda and Aman Moroney and recorded at Flying Carpet Productions in Mumbai.

While in lockdown Shah has been working on new music and experimenting with different genres which have been a refreshing change of pace for him away from regular everyday life. The musician is also on the hunt to build a team around him which he hopes can help make his music reach a wider audience. “If I do manage to land a record deal, that would be absolutely fantastic. But in the meanwhile, head’s down, strings up and focusing on the rest,” he says.

Watch the lyric video for “Keh Do Na” below: