Jay Anand on singing Looop Lapeta’s title track, identifying as a trans man in India, and more

In a freewheeling chat with indianexpress.com, Jay shared his experiences of working in a Bollywood movie, how he was introduced to music, what kept him going, his training, and if his gender identity was a hindrance when it came to finding work in India and more.

Edited excerpts:

How was the experience of working in a mainstream Bollywood movie? Tell us a little about your journey.

It was a great experience, even though all of us were working from different cities in the thick of the pandemic. I wasn’t at any point connected with anyone from the crew apart from the music directors Sidhant Mago and Mayank Mehra. I’ve known them for a couple of years and had met them after I returned from my US tour and was playing at a show in Mumbai.

When were you introduced to music? Was it something you enjoyed since childhood?

My parents were always into it. Even when I was too small to hold a guitar, I was already pestering my parents for new instruments! They noticed that I could pick up songs by the ear, and encouraged me to join as many hobby classes as I wanted. I received support from other quarters as well — my music teachers from school, my class teacher from grade 12 who exempted me from homework because I told her that I didn’t want to pursue anything other than music professionally. Nobody else in the entire school knew about what she did for me. That said, my parents were slightly worried about the financial instability that comes in with the performance world. But once college was over and they realised that my other alternative was teaching music, they said ‘do whatever you want to do.’

Are you trained in music professionally?

I’m more of an Indie musician — singing in Bollywood or even working in advertisements was not something that I was planning for. It just happened! It was a great opportunity when it came to me, and I took it and had fun with it. I’ve been learning music since I was four years old, but any kind of formal training only began when I enrolled at the Global Music Institute in Noida. Soon after, I left for Los Angeles to study at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. I did my performance major in guitar and minor in songwriting.

Has your sexual identity ever been a hindrance when it came to finding work in India?

I’ll start off with what I felt when I was in the US. We had to make a marketing plan for ourselves for a college class and pitch our strengths — be it singing, songwriting or being part of a band to the rest of the class. Even back then, I didn’t want to be identified as a trans musician, I wanted to identify as only a ‘musician’. My sexual identity didn’t really matter a lot with the kind of work I was doing in the US; however, India is different. You can end up losing a lot of shows or opportunities because café owners will specifically ask for female artistes for a particular event. I’m not saying that all establishments behave the same way, but most don’t care about the background of the performers they are hiring. At the end of 2020, I had reached out to all the platforms that stream my music like Apple and Spotify etc., and requested them to change my name to Jay, they readily agreed and the rest is history! My current workplace deserves a mention due to their continued solidarity. My official email ID was always by Jay, though my paperwork still has Janvi. And they just made the entire environment very comfortable for me professionally, which I never thought was possible.

How was the reaction of the LGBTQIA+ community in India after the film’s release? Did you find support, encouragement?

Definitely! I’ve connected with a lot of members of the community through Instagram and even in real life, people have been very supportive of me and my work. Initially the response was a little lukewarm as many didn’t know that I’d undertaken this project, but I haven’t heard one negative comment over the past few days. That is the beauty of the community, they keep encouraging, they keep pushing, which is wonderful.

What lies for Jay Anand next? 

Currently, I have a lot of my own stuff, which is in the pipeline–I have been recording some stuff in Hindi, which I have never officially released before Looop Lapeta. And of course, my primary language has always been English when it comes to my work so, I have a mix of both at this point, which I’m building with a couple of friends with whom I have worked with in the past. We’re structuring it, figuring out how to put some of that out. I am hoping that people will like Looop Lapeta, enjoy the song and see potential in me.

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