Tanya Shanker Plugs In to Dramatic Pop on ‘Cyberfantasy’ EP

Nostalgia – especially of the early 2000s pop variety – is in for Bengaluru artist Tanya Shanker’s new EP Cyberfantasy, which is led by the earworm title track.

Shanker teams up with co-composer, producer and mentor Richard Andrew Dudley for the five-track EP that brings back the braggadocio of pop artists like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, complete with vocal melodies and production flourishes.

It might recall a different era of pop, but Shanker – born in 2005 – believes there are some similarities between back then and right now. “I think with a lot of the themes dealing with being chronically online or being a citizen of the internet, Richard and I thought that drawing from the era when the World Wide Web had just emerged would be the most ideal way of going about making the EP,” she says.

Cyberfantasy follows Shanker’s 2023 EP What Lies Beneath as well as her 2020 rock-rooted debut album Battlefield. In the span of about five years, Shanker has traversed multiple genres, from pop to R&B to rock. With the release of Cyberfantasy and leaning into Britney Spears and Beyoncé, we had to ask whether Shanker ever wished she was born in another decade. She says with a laugh, “If there was an era that I could have been born in, I would say probably the Sixties or Seventies, because rock music was just starting to gain popularity at that time and it would have been amazing to see the rise of legendary artists like the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and more. I always tell Richard that if I was born during that time, I would have certainly been a typical ‘rockstar.’”

While that fantasy is different, the music video for “Cyberfantasy” takes us to Shanker in a neon sign-lit room with a wall-mount telephone unit, singing about an internet relationship and its challenges. Shanker says she along with Dudley and cinematographer and editor Armaan Mishra shot the entire visual within three hours, making it one of her quickest shoots.

Elsewhere on the EP, there’s more experimentation, with trap beats skittering on the loud and brash “Takeover,” synthwave on “Dopamine,” electronic-pop on “Mirage” and something straight out of Top 40 pop-rock on “Love Me Then.” While comments and feedback has been flowing in, Shanker is particularly proud about her friend Nandita sending “the most detailed analysis” of Cyberfantasy EP, with thoughts on lyrics, production and concepts. “I was so touched that she took the effort to sit down and write such a long message about why she enjoyed so I think that was the best compliment I got,” Shanker adds.

The EP marks yet another sonic exploration for Shanker, who says she’ll continue to explore “new genres and styles till I find what works.” She adds, “I think that is the only way to truly evolve and grow as an artist.” Up next, she’s working on touring with her solo project, Tanya Shanker Collective. “I’m also working on collaborations with numerous other artists this year which I’ll be focusing on as well as continuing to write and discover more music,” she says.