Pop Duo Zoe & Urgen Drop Slick One-Take Video for Debut Single ‘With Me’

When Chennai/Mumbai vocalist Zoe Siddharth met fellow musician; Siliguri/Bengaluru artist Urgen Yolmo while competing against each other on the reality singing show The Stage in 2017, the two instantly hit it off. “We became friends quite quickly, and it was not long after that we realized our similar passion for creating content, vlogging and just breaking out into song,” says Siddharth. With their duo aptly called Zoe & Urgen now formed, it’s only been in the last couple of months that they started to really get the ball rolling on original material. Recently the pair released their enchanting debut single “With Me.”

Although Siddharth released her debut solo single “Human” last year, the singer-songwriter tells us that since then her primary focus has been on Zoe & Urgen. Due to both artists living in different cities, they usually only end up working together when one of them is in each other’s town. Yolmo says, “I was going back to Bangalore and in the spirit of the moment since I badly wanted to stay back, I took the guitar and started playing some chords while humming the lines ‘stay with me’ and Zoe added her harmony to it.” That jam planted the seed for what was to become “With Me.”

Yolmo recalls finding that spur of the moment recording on his phone a month later and immediately contacted Siddharth with the thought of fleshing their idea out. Yolmo then tapped into his art and literature background to create a storyline for the song. “I started going back to this one specific old folklore that’s about this girl waiting for her unknown lover to return but he never does and she eventually turns to stone,” he says. The singer adds, “The thought of this story gave birth to a story in my head about a soldier and the love of his life having a conversation about him leaving and she imploring him to stay”

The track opens with an eerie guitar chord progression before we hear Yolmo open the first verse as Siddharth chimes in with splendid harmonies and takes over the second verse. Both artists blend their voices brilliantly throughout the song while showing off their impeccable range as well as vocal control as the sole guitar runs in the background. Zoe & Urgen brought onboard musician Johann George to record the song at their friend Arish Bhiwandiwala’s home studio before Krishh Datta mixed and mastered it.

Zoe & Urgen have also released a splendid one-take music video directed by themselves and shot and edited by Mumbai-based videographer Blake D’Silva. The clip exudes the feeling of anxiety and anguish as both artists perform the track in a stoic manner as the camera follows them around an apartment. “All the video needed was the unsaturated feel and the ease in movements of the camera with the way Zoe and I had choreographed which was accomplished beautifully by Blake,” says Yolmo.

Away from their own material, the pair also run a YouTube channel where they post covers, collaborations, do internet challenges and vlog together. However, the pair is keen on writing and releasing more original songs in the future. When it comes to their solo work, Siddharth is plotting to share a new song in a couple of months while Yolmo is fine-tuning his debut release. “We have a lot of stuff planned for Zoe & Urgen,” says Siddarth. Yolmo adds, “We are itching to perform again but due to the current situation there’s not a lot of opportunity. We can’t wait to get back out there.”

Watch the video for “With Me” below and stream the song here.