Nanette McGuinness 00:00
[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, Artistic Executive Director of Ensemble for These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Nina Shekhar, who we spoke to in December 2023. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] Beyond mentors, what or who has influenced you the most as an artist, and what are you currently listening to or looking at or reading?
Nina Shekhar 00:40
In terms of other influences, I mean, I mentioned like Pink Floyd was a big influence for me. I think, interestingly, I, I've been slowly getting more influenced by like, non-musical things too you know, as I've been kind of learning to develop a visual language a, you know, I've been kind of looking at the arts and are like, just in a broader sense, you know, the visual arts and yes, like, so much of, like, even fashion, like, you know, like the way that other people approach ideas of a culture and form and things like that. And, you know, there's like an Indian designer I found recently named Gaurav Gupta. And he's been kind of deconstructing sarees, like, the very famous traditional garment from India, and like, into these really architectural shapes, and he's kind of taken off, because Beyonce wore that stuff and like Cardi B, like all these famous people started wearing his things this year, but before then, like, I noticed, he was doing this, like, really interesting take on, like, how he engages with a cultural practice. And, and also, you know, a lot of times I think we associate, Eastern culture, or like, non-Western cultures with this idea of, like, tradition and preservation, like, there's a sense that, oh, like Indian traditions have to be, like, fixed in time, and they can't change. But that's not true. You know, everything evolves over time. And so, you know, that idea of how he's kind of breaking apart this very traditional garment into something that, like, lives today into this more experimenting with the shape, you know, experimenting formally with it, or how he engages with, you know, his own culture has been really inspiring to me. And, you know, I've also been kind of reading more Judith Butler, you know, they're a famous sociologist and gender theorist, and, you know, I'm working on a dissertation was kind of related around those things. It's been really influential to me and kind of thinking about my own identity, but also the way I, I see gender expressed in the media and in art, in general.
Nanette McGuinness 00:40
Yeah. For your dissertation, do you write a piece and a paper or just a piece or just a paper?
Nina Shekhar 03:21
Yeah, so we do both. So it's kind of a large musical work and, and a paper. So my papers about related to what I was talking about earlier with Bollywood, related to gender and sexuality in Indian cinema, and, you know, there was this era of cabaret songs actually in like the 60s and 70s. In Bollywood, that was really kind of a major shake up in, in like Indian society, and that, you know, so often before then, female characters are represented as this kind of, like the, like, the innocent, pure woman, like the ideal woman was this like, very chaste kind of figure. And then suddenly, there were these cabaret songs where they had these like, vamp, and there were vamp songs, you know, with, like this, like, like, cabaret dancer, which was like, "Oh my gosh, there's like the house gonna be on screen?" It was like, like, shocking for people. But I realized, like, so much of my own identity, when I saw that I was like, "Wait, an Indian woman could be like that?" and it was just like, really kind of earth shattering for me and, and how I constructed my own identity. And so my dissertation was kind of an exploration of that era. And since then, like, in a lot of Indian songs, like in the movies, like even just vocally like, what kinds of voice types of representative are different women, and, like, lower voices versus higher voices, you know, lower voices were considered kind of, like raunchy compared to like the pure austere woman. So, yeah, exactly. So it's kind of related to that, my written dissertation. And then my main, my basic part is, I'm working on an album right now, actually. So this is kind of like one of those passion projects that I've been wanting to do. And I'm like, "Oh, I have to do it." So I'm making it my research.
Nanette McGuinness 05:35
Why not, right?
Nina Shekhar 05:36
Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of related to these themes and exploring my own sense of femininity. And this idea again, of what it means to be an American and kind of thinking about that immigrant identity sort of lens.
Nanette McGuinness 05:56
Yeah, actually you've been making me think of a number of things, the voice, the higher soprano, that's more like the little girl versus the femme fatale noir, sultry, even if we can say it post-sex voice, you know, that kind of thing, contrast and how that is explored. But yeah, being an American and being of immigrant family, that story, I think, played out for you in the dual major. Right?
Nina Shekhar 06:23
Right, yeah, I think that that's a common, my experience was a very common, like, immigrant family experience, I think, you know, there's a sense of, how do you pursue an American dream? Like, how can we make sure that this person, like our child can be protected financially, you know, I think the it's very scary, you know, my parents, when they moved to this country, they had no money. My mom, actually, like she, my mom and my dad, when they they had just been married, not that long before. And then they soon after, had my, my brother. And my mom worked in a lab in Missouri, and my dad worked in a job in Kansas, and he would commute on the weekend...
Nanette McGuinness 07:14
Oh, wow.
Nina Shekhar 07:15
...with her, just like the new baby. And they, my mom would tell the story, like how they didn't have any furniture or know where to go to buy furniture. So she would just sit on the floor. So I think this is a very common immigrant experience, you know, and, you know, over time, they've worked really hard to make a comfortable life for me. And but, you know, I think that this mentality of, of being very protective over your children, and in a culture that is different from their home culture, and knowing how to make sure that your child is protected financially, is safe, is not taken advantage of I think it's a really common fear for a lot of immigrant families, so I think it's something that has definitely informed my own experiencem and, you know, why they were so afraid for me to even just go into the arts. They didn't know that it could be possible to actually sustain yourself professionally and financially.
Nanette McGuinness 08:26
Yeah, they're more comfortable now, right?
Nina Shekhar 08:28
Yeah, they're very excited now. Yeah. Now my dad is like, very, like, tell everybody that I'm a composer. He's like, very excited about it. And for them, it's like, because we didn't really have any artists in our family generationally. So he's like, how did that happen? Where did you? Where are you a musician? Like, where did this come from? And so he's, like, very excited about it and likes to tell everybody. Yeah, they definitely come around. And I think they're, they're very excited now.
Nanette McGuinness 09:05
[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Nina Shekhar, for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media, and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT, our concert season online and in the Bay Area, or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit us at e4tt.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. For Good Measure is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to co-producer and audio engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]
