Taking photos for my debut album was nothing like it was for The Beatles. Firstly, their record company could afford to hire the best photographers for their album covers, whereas I was on Universal Credit and had £150 in my bank account. A professional photographer wasn't an option if I wanted to eat. However, I did have an iPhone 14 Pro Max with a 12-megapixel camera and six-element lens, bought a year before the money ran out. Smartphones were, of course, something The Beatles didn't have access to. They would have had Polaroid cameras to instantly capture spontaneous moments, but the results could often be blurry.
Music videos weren't a thing back in the 1960s and 1970s, so The Beatles didn't need to worry about that - whereas I had to shoot both my debut music video and album cover image in a single day. This was mainly because it was a concept album, entirely full of maternal love songs about my daughter, who is now a stroppy teenager who would understandably rather hang out with her friends than shoot visuals with her mum.
One similarity with The Beatles was my love of Indian-infused music and culture (though, unlike the band, this is probably because I am actually Indian). Just as their 1968 B-side 'The Inner Light' featured Indian instrumentation, so my debut single 'Secret Asian' featured sitar and tabla. It's a song about how my mixed-race white-and-Asian daughter looks completely white, whereas I look totally Asian, and how I'm glad she won't face the racism I've experienced.
For strong memorable visuals, we decided to dress up in Indian clothing, each wearing shalwar kameez and jutti slippers, while I wore a maang tikka and nath (Indian jewellery featuring a jewel in the centre of your forehead and a nose ring with chain). My daughter was worried about wearing an Indian costume as she thought it was 'cultural appropriation' as she is white, despite my assurances that she's also Asian so it's her culture too. She was seconds away from refusing to take part, so we shot the video in the next road in front of a row of garages, taking turns to film each other. The location was a bad idea as the light kept strobing, and I now cringe when I watch the video. It doesn't do the song justice at all.
The album cover shoot, though in the same location, was a lot more successful. The final image is a selfie taken by my daughter. It's sharp and focused, closed in on our faces and perfectly framed. The lower jewel of my maang tikka is askew between my eyebrows, and I didn't have the Photoshop skills to align it, but I think the error adds a little charm and quirkiness. The image shows the contrast between my daughter's light features and my dark ones, her cool nature and my warm personality. It encapsulates the album full of Indian-influenced pop, and I like to think The Beatles would have approved.
Why now?
Well, I hit 40 and realised that I still wanted to achieve my childhood dream of becoming a pop star.
Yes, music is a lot more democratic these days, but you still need the price of a good used car to record a decent album.
With £5k ($6500) gone on recording gear, vocal tuning, and mixing and mastering services (which makes the 'democratisation of music' a bit less democratic), you need a decent smartphone at the very least for visuals.
I guess it's true that anyone can bang a spoon on their kitchen counter, record it on Voice Memos and upload it to Spotify via Tunecore or Distrokid, but to make a good album you have to shell out quite a bit.
How can I listen to it?
You can find the album on Apple Music, Spotify, or Bandcamp.
