Shilpa Ananth on Her Upcoming Album ‘Reproduction’: ‘Working Hard to Take Down Stereotypes and Cultural Expectations’

At every show of her recent India tour, Shilpa Ananth and her band held hands and prayed before they dived into the artist’s genre-hopping, groove and epiphany-filled setlist.

She says the band – comprising “beast musicians” such as guitarist, keyboardist and live looping artist Beatbox Ray, Hiran Benton on synth, drummer Ratish Chadha and bassist Assaad Lakkis all from United Arab Emirates – had each other’s backs. “I think that could be felt by the audience in each city at every gig,” she says.

From Kochi to Goa to Bengaluru and New Delhi and few cities in between, this was a different tour for Ananth in that she brought her own band with her instead of assembling artists within India. Overall, she counts the tour as “manic but so worth it.” She adds, “I had the best time night after night on each stage, meeting and connecting with people from all these cities. That was my favorite part.” The tour was put together in partnership with Chennai-based event management and creative company Quriosity.

Fresh from her trip to India, Ananth is now prepping to release her next full-length album Reproduction on September 27th. Conceptually, the artist is going deep into exploring themes of female empowerment and personal liberation through the album, alongside her continual interactions with identity crisis, existentialism and the sense of belonging or home that often marks the Indian diaspora artist’s works.

She says the title track particularly will make definitive statements. “[The song] is a statement I am making about how as a woman I do not need to marry, or have a physical baby, along with all the milestones of what is considered as success by South Asian culture and society in general, in order to find value or a place for myself within it. I am the mother of my music, each song is my baby, and I will live my life the way I choose, reproducing through my art,” she adds.

The major concern with the album is to “take down these stereotypes of and cultural expectations” that Ananth feels are burdened upon us from a young age. There are more experiments across genre, language, influences and more on Reproduction, which makes Ananth term the album project a “rebirth” for herself. “The process of creating it has been cathartic, and made me come to terms with owning up to my own strong, feminine, Goddess energy, as well as completely shedding any last vestiges of patriarchal control upon me, as I take up the space and time that I need to become the best version of myself that I can possibly be,” the artist says.

In the works for about five years, the album includes previously released singles such as “Fear,” “The Search,” “Align” and unreleased material like “1 and Only,” “Pravaasi,” and the title track “Reproduction.” There’s also a music video for “Reproduction” coming up, which was shot in Kochi. Ananth says, “I am so excited for this moment to finally become a reality.”