Artist Sessions #19 - Anhad + Tanner on bridging worlds through music and collaboration

Music has a way of speaking before words ever do, carrying memories and emotions that shape an artist’s sound. For Anhad and Tanner, their story shows how these deeply personal beginnings can grow into something bigger—a collaboration that crosses distances, styles, and even cultures.

Anhad grew up surrounded by a family that saw his potential and cheered him on. That love and encouragement kept him grounded while pushing him to grow as an artist. I know this because I went to school with Anhad. He pushed for his music dreams even at the slimmer of an opportunity at school, even as a seventh grader, and his mum proudly came to every school event to support his dreams. Tanner’s journey started a little differently—with a four-track recorder he and his brother used as kids. That little device opened up a whole new world of possibilities for him, sparking a lifelong love for music production.

As a duo, they’ve turned the challenges of long-distance collaboration into an art form, navigating even the isolation of the pandemic to create music that feels fresh and cohesive. Their sound is a conversation between the past and the future, blending modern production with the soulful spontaneity of Indian classical music.

Today, we’re peeling back the layers of their creative journey, exploring the early sparks that lit their passion, how they work together, and what inspires them to push the boundaries of their sound.

Srishti: What are some of your earliest memories of music? How do you feel that influenced your sound today?

Anhad: A lot of my first memories of music are of how excited and supportive my family was when they saw that I had a knack for it. It's something that’s always grounded me but also pushed me to stay consistent and driven. I’ve never wanted to take their support for granted, so I think that shows up to this day in my work as a musician. 

Tanner: Not quite my earliest, but at some point as a kid, my brother got this digital four-track recorder that we would use to write songs, and for me, it felt like I had unlocked a whole new level of what making music could be like. It's one thing to jam on a few chords with your friends, but the feeling of getting to track, re-track, add effects, add layers, spending countless hours - that felt like such a wonderful hole that I never wanted to get out of. That love for getting lost in the details of production, the fine-tuning of it all, is a big part of my work with Anhad, and I might not have known to seek it out if it wasn’t for that little Boss Four track. 

Srishti: Tell us a little about how it all began. How did you meet and manage to work on this project post-pandemic?

Anhad: Well, due to the long-distance nature of the duo, we were already primed to deal with the struggles and obstacles of the pandemic. We kept working virtually over WhatsApp calls and sending emails back and forth with ideas for tracks. Basically, our duo as usual. A lot of the music just released on our album Still But Moving were ideas that underwent various changes and revisions through the pandemic. Still, it was only when we started meeting in person again that it became a cohesive body of work. And I guess that’s the project's root for us, those fully immersed collaborative moments where we can truly geek out and work on what we love. 

Srishti: What is more important for you - music’s preservation or progress? Or both? 

Anhad: I wouldn’t necessarily know which is more important, but I think we are more often coming into a writing session with the hope that we can progress the narrative and think of something new and interesting to say. That’s a big part of what our first record meant to us. The title, In Other Words, is sort of a nod to how we wanted to put our spin on sounds that were beloved and familiar. There’s certainly a pull to create something that makes you feel how you felt when you heard a song you love for the first time, and in that sense, you preserve a part of it, maybe its essence, you could say. But invariably, and I think that's the great thing about music, whoever is making the music will put their own unique story into it and progress the whole thing a bit. 

Srishti: Tell us about your process of collaborating with Indian classical musicians. 

Anhad: For the most part, it's pretty hands-off. The first step is thinking of what instruments we might hear on any given tune and who we might hear. Then, in a session, we usually just give a broad stroke of direction of what we’re feeling for the parts, and the rest is that unpredictable but always magical experience of just listening to a song take shape in front of you. It's such a contrast to how the rest of the writing process goes for us, and I think why it's an aspect of our music that we just can't go without. Between the two of us, we spend months working on ideas, sending revisions back and forth, but then when we have a session with one of our collaborators, the improvisational and intuitive side of things gets captured in a matter of hours. Combining those two worlds of music is an exciting thing to get to do.   

Srishti: Anhad - How has teaching music influenced your music-making experience? 

Anhad: Teaching is one of those things that trims down your process to the essentials. Through teaching production, I’ve had to be a lot more thoughtful about my own process in trying to find a structured way to pass it all on to my students. This, in turn, has helped me know my process better and even create new ones when I feel lost about how to achieve something technically or creatively.

Srishti: You recently released an EP, Silent Days, on one of my favourite labels, Anjunadeep Explorations. How did it come to be?

Anhad: Working with Anjuna has been quite special for us. It felt like the most natural way to present our music to a new and curious audience. It feels good to see our sound being accepted globally, which has always been something we wanted to push for. It has been very interesting to connect the dots between India, the US and the UK with this release, and we’re happy to have closed the year with this batch of music - which also, to us, is an extension of our album, Still but moving.

We simply wrote to Anjuna’s team and sent a big batch of music, and these three songs instantly clicked. After the intro call, we knew it would be the right home for these songs, and much like our writing process, everything else came together like a true collaboration.

Check out the HIVEWIRE playlist - The Hive

One 'The Hive' is where our diverse team shares new music and trends from emerging markets. 

Interesting reads from last week from Shashwat:

>>> Australia bans social media for under-16s: the first domino towards a new digital world? | Hanna Kahlert | MiDIA Research

Social media thrives on youth and creativity, which is abundant amongst teenagers who have all the time in the world. Banning under 16 youth will be challenging, but if implemented properly, which is a possibility given the advancements in technology, this legislation will be a game changer all around the world. While most trends and virality on social media go through this age group, companies must adjust to this new world order. While the virality of content may be affected, it will also influence the music outreach, which is tied to the virality of social media content. 

>>> Music industry backs new ‘TRAIN Act’ requiring transparency in materials used to train AI - Music Business Worldwide | Daniel Tencer | Music Business Worldwide

The TRAIN Act will allow music rights holders to demand disclosures from AI developers over whether they have used their work to train the AI model. However, this will not require the developers to compensate the rights holders. COPIED Act, however, makes it unlawful for developers to use any data sets without prior permission from the rights holder. Other bills include the NO FAKES Act, which will make using someone’s voice to create deepfakes unlawful. This is being done to safeguard artists' rights and bring more transparency to the AI training process. 

>>> What happens to music when fan-made content eclipses the original IP? | Tatiana Cirisano | MiDIA Research

Music is at the forefront of fan-made content as it is easier to modify. Many fan-made social media posts use a version of the song that is not the original IP. Artists and companies have used this as a marketing tool rather than trying to monetize it. Although sometimes, this content becomes bigger than the original IP leading the latter to become socially irrelevant. Incorporating fandom marketing and monetizing it will be the way forward. Dua Lipa’s Levitating x Woh Ladki performance in her India performance is a fitting example of monetizing fan-made content to serve the fans. 

Hivewire is an independent music industry publication launched in June 2023 by Srishti Das and supported by Akriti, Shashwat Hota and Yatin Srivastava. This dynamic newsletter offers a unique perspective on the music industry, focusing on emerging markets and the rapidly growing music cultures gradually making their mark globally.