Every now and then, a rare artist is born who is guaranteed to create magic in the world of music. That is exactly what describes Anoop Singh (aka Noopsta), who at the tender age of 14, is ready to drop a 10 original song debut album, “Altr Ego” which dropped on October 10th worldwide. Anoop is the gifted son of global artists Many Music (RDB) & Nindy Kaur, and together, they chatted about this much-awaited launch.

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW . . .

Welcome to another edition of Open Chest with Raj Girn Live. I’m your host Raj Girn, and I’m super psyched to be coming to you today. Fourteen-year-old Anoop Singh, a.k.a. Noopsta, the son of musical icons, Manj Musik and Nindy Kaur is dropping a 10 original song digital album worldwide this Saturday, October the 10th. It’s called ALTR EGO. Welcome to the show, family.

Manj Musik:
Thank you very much. It’s so nice to be on the show.

Yes, absolutely. I’ve had you both on before, but this is the first time I’m having my nephew Anoop. Nice to see you, sweetie. I was so excited that, you know, it’s something as big as this that’s getting us to go worldwide with everybody. Guys, I want to actually, for those of you who want to get some context around the conversation, we’re going to be having, Anoop is dropping this album in the next two days, as I said. And it really is an album everyone is talking about. They are setting it up as being the album release of the year. Considering the year we’ve had, we need an album that’s going to lift our spirits, don’t we?

So, with that said, let me just give you a little bit of context, because what I’m excited about having this conversation with these guys is the fact that this is going to be the third brand that has been released from this incredible family. To give you guys a little bit of context around the first two brands, let me just give you a little bit of information about that. So, Manj Musik came onto the scene in 2000 as part of the legendary Bhangra Band RDB. They took the world by storm with a unique style of Bhangra meets Hip Hop meets Bollywood following massive success in this Manj decided that he wanted to explore other styles of music and collaborate with a wider group of artists. So, after a hiatus, he came back strong as Manj Musik, the music director and singer songwriter, and has since collaborated with more than any other Indian artist in terms of mainstream musical artists. Not to mention he’s also created hit after hit in Bollywood, in films, many of them that you guys are very familiar with. He has a huge loyal following on social that surpasses across 10 million followers worldwide.

Nindy, my girl who I love so much, my sister Nindy Kaur came onto the scene in 2002 after marrying Manj who encouraged her to bring her unique singing voice to the masses and what an awesome decision that was, because she quickly amassed a loyal following around the world for her collaborations with RDB and multiple Bollywood hit songs to her credit. But being the woman that she is and one of the many reasons I admire her, Nindy then forayed into entrepreneurship as the founder of Nindy Kaur Cosmetics, which can never be because they can never be always in stock. I find that like as soon as she drops something. It’s like, poof, it’s not a stock. So, you can go check that out definitely. I feel the reason is, is that one thing I know about Nindy and I know about Manj as well as they’re both very authentic people in their personal realm so the art they put out there, the products they put out there are always kind of very indicative to who they are themselves.

I feel that a lot of what’s got to do with the mass Bollywood celebrity following that Nindy has with her cosmetics and the millions of people that follow her around the world as well. So Manj and Nindy share, and this is the purpose of us going live today, a very talented 14-year-old son, Anoop Singh. He is a chip off the old block, taking the best from his mother and father to create a strong identity, all of his own, which I’m assuming is the reason that he decided to call his debut album ALTR EGO. Before we get into that, Anoop is not new to the music scene, and he’s collaborated with well-known artists like Raftaar and Humble The Poet in the past. And, you know, like the rest of the world. I have to ask you, Anoop, I’m starting off with you, darling, throwing you in the deep end. I’m curious about why you decided to name the album ALTR EGO. Was it because you have two very strong brands already in your family, in their own right, and that as you launched this is about you. This is about identifying who you are as an artist, as a young man and as a voice in your own right. So, tell me a little bit about why you decided to call the album ALTR EGO. I feel that’s what the reason was, but I want to hear it from you.

Anoop:
So, we were basically making the whole thing and obviously my dad has had a history of making a lot of Bhangra songs and everything, so I honestly, personally don’t listen to absolutely anything to do with Bhangra. I know nothing about that. I only listen to mainstream like Travis, The Weeknd, Bryson Tiller, Drake all these guys. So, I love making music like them and dad really likes the music as well. So, I thought instead of doing the whole same old, same old, because Manj Musik is known as the guy who makes Bhangra hits and everything. I did an ALTR EGO, another guy, who’s complete opposite of him and loves trap, hip hop and is just has a really dark tone to it.

Absolutely. Oh my God. So that’s about your father and his ALTR EGO, which I feel he created so that we are very defined about the fact that this is not about you as Manj Musik. This is about Noopsta and what that stands for, what his music stands for and, you know, the legacy that he’s obviously going to create because duh, it’s in his DNA. So why don’t you just touch base on that a little bit, Manj?

Manj:
Yeah, obviously, everybody will automatically know that J-Man is me regardless anyway.

Can I tell you something before you carry on? So, when I looked at the album cover and I saw J-Man I was thinking who’s J-Man with my old woman eyes, I had to make the album cover larger to have a look. Who is this dude? I’m like, dude, that’s my bro Manj. I know that face.

Manj:
So, I mean really it was just exactly what you said. I did not want this album to shine because it’s connected to a brand that’s been going for years and years. It’s connected to J-Man now. Really? Who is J-Man? Nobody knows. And nobody’s ever heard of J-Man. And if it comes up on people’s Spotify playlists or iTunes, it says Noopsta and J-Man, nobody’s going to connect with this because the brand is there. They’ll connect because his music shines and we wanted him to shine as a music producer, more than shining because he’s the son of Manj Musik.

And you know what? I really got that. And I feel that also is something that you guys have been really, really smart about from the get-go. Like back in 2000 onwards, when you guys first started on the scene before people even knew what branding was or, you know, creating kind of personas and identity in the public. You guys were very clear on what you were as a brand man. Manj, you were a part of RDB and Nindy when you came on the scene, you were quite clear and adamant that if I’m going to be partaking in this kind of musical journey, I need to be there as my own identity, as myself. You never, ever looped yourself in with RDB. You were quite clear that I am Nindy working with RDB. So, it’s almost like right from the beginning you guys had a really good sense of what branding was all about. Nindy, why do you share a little bit also about why you decided that that’s the way it needed to be? Because most people would be like, you know, RDB is really, really successful it’s so easy for me to just be the female voice of that band. That’s not what you wanted. You were clear and adamant about that.

Nindy:
First thing Raj, I’m kind of old school as well. When they brought me in, I kind of did think that, Okay, now what I’m going to get is a lot of she’s just riding off RDB. And I really didn’t want that. I mean, you have a lot of people that did say that at first. And then I just said to Manj, because I remember the boy sitting with me and saying, we want you to be like this. We want you to be the Indian Beyonce. And it was hard because you get nervous, you’re thinking, okay, I want to be myself. But these guys are trying to create something else because they want something else. They want that Beyonce. So I remember just saying to Manj, if I’m going into this industry, I know a lot of people have a different personality on stage and a different personality at home, but I just kind of want to show that this is Nindy and this is the way Nindy is. And I just want to be real. And Manj was like okay, just go for it.

And you know what? That was a testament to why it was very clear about who you were as a brand, it’s very clear about who RDB was. It’s very clear about who Manj Musik is and that, you know, just kind of understanding of being sure that you’re being authentic to who you are as a person and as an identity is clearly there in this kind of album that’s being released, even in the title itself, as I mentioned off the top, ALTR EGO, you’re forcing people to look at what it is you want them to see rather than them deciding what they’re going to think about this. And I think that was really, really smart and clever branding. I want to go back to Anoop you call yourself Noopsta. I mean, as a Brit, I understand that for all those around the world that don’t get that, tell me why you decided that was going to be your music avatar.

Anoop:
We kind of sat down and we thought, okay, we obviously need to incorporate my name in it somehow, but not just keep it as Anoop or Noopy or anything like that. So, we just randomly came up. We kept saying a bunch of stuff here and there. And then I think you came up with it and you said Noopsta. And I was like, okay, that name sounds sick.

Manj:
Trust me he is very, very picky, very picky. So, you know, I had to go through a whole bunch of names. He kept saying no, no, I don’t like this. And Noopy is like his little nickname at home. He likes being called Anoop by everybody else. And I was like, you know what? You need a stage name. You need that alias name on the stage.

Absolutely. So, let’s talk a little bit about how you guys, before we get into the actual album itself, which I’m super excited, I have so many questions to ask. I could go on forever. You guys know me? British, Indian woman, chatterbox. But what I wanted to ask before we actually head into the album is a question for both you, Nindy and Manj. How were you okay with him foraying into such a mass public arena at such a young age? Like tell us a little bit about your kind of ideology behind that, because one thing I do know about my sister, Nindy, is everything is on purpose and nothing happens without there being an absolute, you know, clear understanding of what’s going on.

Manj:
I think there’s two different answers to this because I approach it differently to Nindy. So, obviously my whole life has been around being in public and being in the public eye. For me it’s very normal. It’s very, very normal. I’m used to it. I don’t mind it. I quite like it. So I’m okay with it. For Noopy to go into this whole new digital world of going on to YouTube and Instagram and blah, blah, blah, it was a little scary. I think as parents we were kind of keeping it very under control first, making sure. And as you can see, he’s not even on Twitter, he’s not even on Facebook. He only recently got onto Instagram because we launched the Raftaar track and we got a lot of fans from India.

But now I’m okay with it because I feel as though he’s at an age now where I can kind of tell it that listen, we need to do this to engage this audience. Kind of teaching him not from the from the aspect of being famous, but this is business. In the business term, like I want him to move forward on a business term. Fans are going to be there. You’re going to need music for fans, and you love the fans and the fans love you. And if you don’t have the fans, you’re not a music producer. You’re not going to shine without the fans liking your music. But in order to engage with fans, in order to capture their hearts, get into their ears, get into their eyes, this is what you need to do. I’m kind of treading slowly, carefully, and I keep feeding him little bits and bites here and there of this is how you need to control yourself in the new digital age of digital media and the public. I’m okay with it. I’m happy with it. I think Nindy is the security guard momager. She’s in a different way.

Absolutely. And I want to come to you now Nindy and your thoughts, because obviously I get where Manj is coming from because he has been in the industry for so long and he’s a man. You know, these are all kind of dynamics which are very different from women like us who are South Asian women who are moms. And we brought up to be nurturers. We’re also entrepreneurs in our own right as well. But we have a multiple dimension of the way that we look at things as opposed to the dudes. They know that you’ve got it. Manj knows that you’ve got everything in order so he can be Manj, he can do his thing and he does it phenomenally. So, let me hear it from you, because there’s a worldwide audience out there of women, of ethnic women, of women who have multiple jobs just like you do.  Both within the home and also as a businesswoman in your own right.

What were your thoughts and how do you kind of get your head around the thought that, you know what this world is about? Like from the inside you know what to expect on the good, the bad and the ugly, what were your thoughts around, I guess, allowing this to happen? Because obviously Anoop is underage. He needs your permission to do this. Give us your thoughts around that, because I know there’s tons of women out there, especially women from our culture who grapple with what they feel comfortable with allowing their kids to do? I mean, I’m of the thought that, you know, I need to encourage my son to be and do what he needs to be and do, because this is his life and it’s his karma, it’s his dharma. And my job is to make sure that with my wisdom of experience that I’m able to help him navigate his journey until he’s able to navigate it himself. Tell me your thoughts, my love.

Nindy:
Okay, so when Noopy was quite young. I think the first time ever to be on tour was he was three months old. That was the first time. Ironically, it was from Toronto to India. I just kind of knew since then, Raj. I remember having him on the flight and thinking, this is going to actually be his life from today onwards. Then I think when he was about three or four years older, we did a university gig. I think it was Western University That was the first time because we used to always have him backstage. So, one of the boys from my team used to always have him backstage. I just wanted him with me no matter what at every point. One of the boys was holding Noopy backstage and I think he couldn’t control Noopy because Noopy was like I need to get on that stage. So, he just let him go and Anoop came out on the stage. And this is Anoop’s first time on stage in front of a really big crowd. And this guy here is running up and down, blowing kisses to the girls, touching their hands like this.

I knew from then Raj, he’s a natural like you said It’s in his DNA. And he’s definitely no matter what, he’s going to do something in music. And then I’ve seen him every day with Manj since then. Like a baby in the studio singing with Manj. We have videos of him touching keys and everything. And I just knew that, okay, he is going to be in the entertainment in the music industry no matter what. So, I think straight away that mommy hat of, okay I need to be protective as well, because just like you said, there’s a lot of things that happen behind the scenes. Noopy has from a young age because he’s been backstage, because he’s always been with me. He has seen things happening backstage. We have physically been able to say to him, Noopy that’s something you don’t want to do. And he has seen the outcome of people doing such dumb things. So, we’ve kind of you could call it brainwash or whatever he like firmly knows at the age of 14 now. ‘Yeah. I don’t want to do that.’

And another thing I really love about him, he’s really 50/50 like me and Manj. But I love the fact he’s got that side of me of, I don’t want to be famous. I don’t care to be out on the stage. Everybody screaming for me. What I do want mom, dad. I want my music to be out there. I want people to really listen to music and enjoy my music. So, I feel so much at ease. And I think to myself, I’ve got to a point now where I leave him to it to make the decision. It’s just like you said with your son, you know, you’re going to guide him. So, if you see it going left, right a little bit. You’re going to put him on the straight and narrow again and this is from your experience as well. We were brought up very differently and we’re raising our kids very differently. We do as much as I can say, nobody’s a perfect parent, but we know the do’s and don’ts. And the best thing about Anoop is he has 24/7 being with me and Manj and as much as we are his mom and dad but we’re his best mates as well. So it’s so nice for us to just sit with him and say, listen Noopy, you don’t want to do that because you know, the outcome could be this or that and he’ll just grasp it in a second and say, you know what? You guys are right. We’re just really, really fortunate that it’s this way. Every day we drill him, every day, you know, your education is important. You know, whatever you want to do, do it get your degree, whatever. But remember, you can have your music career. It’s not a problem. But you do need something else to fall back on.

Right. And that’s the momager talking right there.

Manj:
Oh yeah, that’s the momager.

Nindy
I’ll check his DMs and I’ll filter through them.

Manj:
She is checking everything.

Nindy:
I get labelled as psycho by his dad.

Manj:
I can’t even go into the studio and take one of these beats without passing it through momager over here who has a signed contract agreement that I have to sign and then I can move forward.

Yeah. That sounds about right. I love it. So, let’s talk about this album, Anoop I’m going to come to you first. Why did you decide that you wanted to launch an album right now?

Anoop:
I just thought seeing how everybody is stuck at home, that everybody has literally no choice but to do whatever they want and especially listen to music. And I thought this is probably the best year for music to be released because everyone has no choice but to listen to music. So, giving them something to just listen to, to dance to or something at home, I just thought, yeah, why not make an album with dad, a few other people as well and just make them really happy.

You’re such a smart cookie. Totally a chip off the old block, you know? What could be a better time to launch an album and for people to take it seriously when the world is at a standstill as it is now, and when people really need that lift up, that sense of feeling, a part of communal, you know, worldwide feelings that we all want to have that are positive. So, let’s talk a little bit about these 10 songs that you decided to put together with J-Man. Let’s talk a little bit about how you chose them, because I can imagine that you probably had a ton of different options to think about here. I guess my first question here is, you know, the typical route and I’m almost stopping myself from asking this question. I already know what Manj is going to say because he doesn’t do anything typical. But the typical route is, you know, you drop a couple of songs and then you follow it up with an album, right? You’re not doing that. Talk to me about why this is the way you’re doing it. The album drops and then you’re going to pull out some singles. I am curious.

Manj:
Basically, he makes music every day. There isn’t a minute where he’s not making music, he makes more music than I have probably in my whole history. He’s constantly making music. His passion for music it’s like he’s got a great balance of making music and doing his kids playing and PS4 and blah, blah, blah. So, what was happening was he was making so much music. I was like, listen, if we drop a song after a song after a song, we could be here for like years. He’s exactly like my older brother. There’s like a there’s a part of my older brother that’s inside him, which is which is basically he’s impatient. Let’s make it and let’s move to the next one. Let’s move to the next one.

But that’s why RDP was so successful. It was like the push of your older brother. I mean, that’s why you guys became worldwide. He put you guys out there. I get it. I love that he’s got the DNA of all of you, like the magic moments that are important, somehow he is that cocktail of it all. I love that you recognize that.

Manj:
100% I saw that straight from the get-go.

Nindy:
When he does these kinds of things, we always say ‘okay Kuli, calm down.’

Manj:
Because he’s so eager to keep making music and keep releasing stuff. I said Noopy do you know what, I don’t think there’s any point releasing singles and singles and singles. Let’s just put the whole album together. You want to do a whole album? And he goes look dad honestly, I don’t get album, singles, I just want to make music. Like, let’s just make stuff. And I was like, okay, so that’s when I thought, okay, he’s not that knowledgeable about the Bhangra industry because obviously not listening to so much Bhangra and Punjabi music, even though we do try to push him to listen to more Punjabi music. He’s like yeah, that sounds okay dad. It’s hip hop music is what he likes.

So I said, okay, why don’t you make beats? I’ll start coming up with some compositions and sometimes, you know, yhe’d make a beat. And I’d go running into the studio, like Noopy, that’s brilliant, that’s amazing. Let me think of an idea for this. And I said, okay, you know what? Let’s just put the album. Let’s make one full album, 10 tracks, in fact, he ended up making fifteen tracks. Let’s get some different features on there and put the album out and then we’ll see how it goes and then Noopy was like are we going to release videos? And I said yeah of course if you want to do videos. And he said I don’t want to be in the video. And I said, oh, what don’t you want to be the videos, because obviously with every music you release, you should be on video. And he’s like, my personal preference is to not want to be in a video like I don’t mind just making music and being in the background, but I’m not really a big fan of, like, being in the video, even though he did his party. He used to love being in Videos back then. I think if we put him in front of the camera, I think you won’t have any issue.

Right. Of course, because it’s the world he grew up in, right? I guess that’s why the fame of it all Anoop isn’t like that big of a deal for you because it’s not something that you haven’t experienced, right? So coming to that, I want to ask you why was it these ten tracks made this album like Manj your father just mentioned that there was fifteen that you kind of finalized. What was it about these ten? Were you trying to tell a story where one leads to another? Or is every single track its own individual mini story and allowing you to have as much diversity in terms of the types of music that you wanted in your album? Give us a bit of a sneak peek about it, because we don’t have it yet and I’m dying to know what’s on it.

Anoop:
So basically, when we were choosing all the tracks, obviously from so many of them that we made, there’s a few here in there that kind of sounded a bit too similar. And I was like, okay get rid of all the ones that sound similar and keep it completely different. This needs to be its own theme. This needs to be its own theme throughout the whole thing. There can’t be a single one that’s like, okay, that kind of sounds like it was already played before. It needed to be like each one is fresh to your brain.

Wow. I’m so excited. So, what types of music are on this album like genres of music?

Anoop:
There’s trap, there’s commercial, there’s maybe like a bit of reggaeton, like, there’s like trap mixed in with each other.

Manj:
He gets all these inspirations from the music he’s listening to. And this is sometimes the majority of the music that we don’t listen to. Me and Nindy. And what he’s listening to this stuff. Who do you listen to like where is the inspiration coming from?

Anoop:
The Weeknd, most of the time.

Very versatile artist. I get that. I do. So, let me ask you this. You are also launching one of your songs. It’s dropping soon or has it dropped already? Jee Karda?

Manj:
No, that’s basically the first music video that’s going to release with the whole album. So, we already gave that Jee Karda song to BBC who Bobby Friction did the official worldwide exclusive. So basically, the radio stations were like, you know, give us one song at least I know you release the album on Saturday, but we want one song we can promote. So, I said to Noopy what song do you think? He likes Ezu’s stuff, he loved Ezu, he’s doing really well in the UK. So, he was like, well, let’s do that one. We kind of filtered it out to a few people, radio stations and whatnot, and said, what do you think of the whole album? Had a little listening session. And everybody said, Jee Karda should be a perfect commercial song to release first as a music video and to give to radio stations.

Ok, perfect. And so, let’s talk a little bit about what parts of these songs were kind of done by who. So, in other words, you guys collaborated on this and then you have these other external collaborators as well. How did that all kind of come together? I love the stories behind creating art.

Manj:
It all starts with him because there is nothing that I can build on to without that foundation there and what he does in the studio, foundation wise, is always something completely out of the box. Even just yesterday, he made something again in the studio here and me and Nindy were like that’s so cool. It’s just something that I would never make. None of his beats sound the same.

That’s an important point to make. He’s not like an extension of you guys. He is his own entity. Again, that comes back to the everly titled album as well. I mean, what is my alter ego? Check out these 10 tracks and you’ll get to meet who that is, right?

Manj:
Absolutely. And he uses a completely different music program, like for programming music. I don’t use the program he’s using to make music.

Nindy:
I need to tell you this Raj, because this is so funny. I’m not familiar with the music programs and stuff. So I was siting in the living room and I remember being Noopy’s in the studio making some music and Manj just get up all of a sudden. And I could hear Manj say, Noopy, which program are you using I could just hear, how did you do that? How did you do that?

Manj:
I learn something every day from this guy. Like, how do you do that? How did you make this or that’s kind of cool. He’s probably really good now on the keyboard better than me. I was never taught keys or anything like that. I always kind of picked it up myself a little bit here and there. He’s learning guitar from YouTube.

That world being able to learn anything off YouTube, right? We didn’t have that. Honestly between us and our generation and the generation of our kids. The difference between what we’re exposed to, I think is more than it’s ever been in the last like five hundred years because of technology. Like, it’s incredible. This one generation. The gap is huge in that regard.

Nindy:
I always tell Noopy, I say if I had Google back then, I probably would have had about four degrees. And I said I remember having one assignment to going to the library to find out through all the pages, looking for stuff to work on. And I said, now it’s just you Google it.

Yeah. You don’t even have to leave your house, right? Who says you can’t have four degrees yet, Nindy?

Manj:
For some reason Nindy thinks she’s like seventy-five years old. I don’t know how that works.

Well you’re like one hell of a hot seventy-five-year-old lady. With this album coming out in two days, what do we have to look forward to like, you know, what’s the process of releases? Are you releasing the album first? The song first? Where do we go to check it all out?

Manj:
The album will actually release on all digital stores probably on the 9th night. Officially the 10th is the date, but in India they’ll get the 10th and then on the 10th we are at 12 o’clock India time, which will probably the middle of the night here, U.K. time, 7:00 in the morning. We’re going to release on my YouTube channel the official music video for Jee Karda. So that will come out. Then right after that out, once that’s out, you guys will have all his masterpiece in your hands. It’ll be out on the 10th so everybody can go and check it out and give us some feedback. And then after that, we have another four videos, one video which Noopy is doing a little cameo feature in, and they’ll be released every 10 to 15 days after that.

Wow. You guys have got all this like on lockdown.

Nindy:
And, you know, to be honest. You know, in a positive manner. Thank God all of them. Because all these videos, all this music couldn’t have happened. Manj is always on the road. Noopy’s always in school. We’ve all been all over the place doing our thing. Soon as lock down hit in Bombay, it was just nonstop after that.

Wow. So, let me ask you this, because it just popped into my head a question that I’m really curious about, the album art. Talk to me about that.

Manj:
So, there were so many different album arts, right? We had the designer come up with a bunch of different ideas. First, he said to me, okay, does Noopy want to show his face or what do you want to do? And I said, no, I don’t think he does. But should we do a photoshoot and he said, do you have any pictures on hand? Then me, Nindy and Noopy, we always end up going around Toronto. So, we went to an area where there was like storage and took a bunch of pictures there. There was one picture that Mindy took with her phone, and it was just me with the mask on, obviously, and Noopy standing there. It wasn’t a staged picture. We were just out and about. We were wearing masks, Nindy said it looks good so, let’s take a picture. So, we took a picture. And when I sent that to the designer, he was like, I love this father son kind of design of this and I’m having some crazy idea. Then he made the artwork and sent it to me. And I mean, I go it straight away. I showed Nindy and said did you get the hidden messaging here somewhere and after five minutes, she kind of got it. Where there’s me and Noopy there and you see the sun in the background. It’s relevant to Sun. And then he also made the one with the baby picture because I sent the one on Noopy when he was just a little baby sitting on the bed and he goes, buddy, I think I have a great idea of using the baby picture. And I said to Noopy, do you mind? He was like, Oh, I look so cute. And he’s like, okay, yeah, that’s fine. Yeah put that out. So, we were like should we put this one out, put that one out. We were like let’s put them all out.

I love it. I love it. Absolutely. So, this actually brings me to a question I want to ask, especially since I know you know how strong Nindy is regarding this. And as well, as you Manj, let’s talk about brand image. Anoop, your visual brand image, is that something that had participation from your parents or was it something that, you know, this is who I am, and this is the way it’s going to be, talk to me a little bit about that.

Anoop:
Well, I just enjoy making music and everything, I make the beats and then dad comes up with lyrics and everything, but from that point on, I just let that take control. And he does the whole marketing and show it off for me. And I don’t get any ideas for that. I just say I’ll make the music.

Nindy:
You actually give ideas. Manj will bring something and say, look at this, Noopy. I’m going to put this up like that. And he’s like dad that’s so showing off. Tone it down dad.

Manj:
In his own way, he gives us the feedback that we need. He doesn’t even realize half of the time he’s even doing that. And that’s just naturally just coming out of him. Like I’m not having to force an answer from him. I’ll just be like, what would you think of this? We’re going to do this. For example, we designed the cover and I showed it to him. And what did you say? You said, in the artwork you didn’t like the font.

Anoop:
Oh yeah. I said I wanted the font like Japanese style.

Manj:
Yeah, exactly. He said only come and change the font, I like it like this. And when we changed it, you actually look a million times better. So, he didn’t realize the feedback he gives us is very, very valuable to us. Yeah, but we love that. We love that. It’s just organic. It’s natural.

Nindy:
I just love, Raj, the way he is when he’ll be like just tone it down, tone it down, because I’m not going to lie Manj and his brothers, they were the biggest showoffs and that used to annoy me. Calm down.

Yes, absolutely. So that he gets that from your side then, right? Because one the thing I know about Nindy is that even in her most glamorous phase, you just know that Nindy’s in there. It’s not like a mask. This is still who she is. And I guess that’s kind of what is happening here with Anoop as he continues to discover the person that he is. I wanted to ask you this as well in terms of the types of people that you feel this will resonate with Anoop, what are your thoughts? Who are you targeting? Because this is a very eclectic album. I mean, I got that really, really loud and clear, and this has nothing to do with the brands of Manj Musik and Nindy Kaur, this is like a very, very different album. So, I want to be clear on who you feel your audience would be for this album.

Anoop:
Honestly, I’m not very sure what my audience would be, and I didn’t really target a specific audience. I just decided if I put the music out, then people here and there, no matter what, if they’re like older or if they’re the youth or something and they keep listening, I just thought as long as they like the music, I’m happy then. It doesn’t matter who listens to it. I just hope they enjoy the music.

Nindy:
One thing Raj that I want to say, I actually just realized as we had this conversation that me and Manj have not in his whole time of making these beats, we’re not telling him that he needs to change this to cater to a certain audience. We’re kind of pushing him that Noopy just bring your own personality, let people know you for you.

Manj:
I’m going to be honest with this. He sparked a different a different section of me, like his beats and his stuff that he makes when you hear the album, some of the compositions that I’ve made for the actual lyrics are completely different. Even Nindy used to walk into the studio and said, Manj, you know what, when Noopy is making these beats and you’re doing the stuff, it’s completely different. It’s so sick. it’s so different.

Nindy:
Because it’s very easy to get wrapped into catering for the audience like me and Manj run into this problem all the time. Are people going to like it? Are they not going to like it? And we end up making certain changes and hoping people like it, you can’t lose yourself because you’re just trying to cater to the audience. There was a time that you could make a song and you knew it was going to be a hit. Not anymore. No more.

Manj:
You don’t know what’s going to be a hit and what’s not.

Why do you feel that is like what’s changed in the music industry, guys?

Manj:
I think just the fact of it being so open now, I think the opportunities for more I mean, even the smallest music producers, singers sitting in the bedrooms making the most very, very budget videos can be a huge success today because of this platform. This platform has opened the whole world to a totally different vibe now.

Nindy:
The platform does have its pros and cons. One thing I’ve learned since it is on this digital platform, the negative of it is if people get the fake views on everything and most of the people seem to be brainwashed now that, oh, if this one’s ten million in ten minutes is the best song and it could be really nothing.

Manj:
One of the biggest faults in the digital platform today. The smallest guys who are doing amazing work don’t shine because the people with lots and lots of money can make it look like they are shiners. I think this this whole opening up of the Internet has given everybody from lots and lots of money to people with nothing an opportunity. But unfortunately, there is that downside where people with money will always outshine because they’ve got the views and they’ve got the counts and blah, blah, blah. And it makes it look like they’ve got super-duper hits.

So absolutely. It’s the game, right?

Real music from back in the day when the DJ you used to play in the club. But we were like, oh my God, this is a great tune. Everybody who was playing it, you knew it was a hit. If nobody was playing it, you knew that it wasn’t a hit.

Nindy:
Everything is based on views. You might actually find a song on the net that you really like, and you think is good, but you know what X, Y and Z is going to turn around and say but no, it hasn’t got the hits. They’ve assumed that’s not good song.

And it’s interesting you say that because there are so many extremely successful and I say this in quotes, artists out there, we haven’t even in the media business who really aren’t good. They’re really not good. This sounds kind of weird, but because they’re not good people watch them because they’re crap and they can’t believe it and they share it with people that, my God, check this out. And all of a sudden, this person becomes just like sensation. So, I guess that’s what it comes down to. And I feel that Anoop has done something really smart with this album, from what I’m hearing, and that is that he’s just put himself out there. Who he is as an artist right now at this point in his life, what he loves to do, what he cherishes in terms of the different genres of music? And I think that’s very indicative of kind of what’s happening in this world today.

Where should we really be putting ourselves in boxes? We’re not in this box, should we be in that one and if we’re in this one, we can’t be in that one. And what I love about this generation is that none of that matters to them. They don’t identify with boxes and cliches. And you know what historically has or has not happened. They’re truly about being authentically who they are. And that is what I know, that we’re going to get out of ALTR EGO when it drops in two days. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. Anoop I’m really, really excited about the future for you, because what you’re thinking about is about being a true artist.

Very few people, especially in today’s world, think about the art and the work associated with it, because they’re too busy wanting to be famous and get the likes and the views and the comments, et cetera. That stuff isn’t as important as what is going to create the legacy that you need, like the legacy of being true to who you are and sharing that with the world. I mean, the platforms really should be about sharing who you are with the world. So, any final words? That you’d like to share, that you’d like to tell people out there about the album, about maybe some other things that you got coming down the pike.

Nindy:
I want to definitely say something, we’ve already had the comments of what’s going on in Bollywood right now and we obviously already get really good comments, the support of the people to give love. We’ve also been getting ‘this is complete nepotism’. People need to understand, Raj, we’re going to encourage our kids and we’re all going to support our kids with whatever they want to do and if this is his dream, we’re going to support him. So, if you want to call it nepotism, whatever that’s up to you, but then I switched it around once somebody wrote that on my Instagram and said, this is completely silver spoon fed, this is nepotism. And I replied and said this is new Noopotism, hashtag Noopotism.

[all laugh]

Manj:
Anybody who says nepotism we turn it to Noopotism.

Oh, my God, I love it. But, you know, it’s really interesting that you guys are saying this. I mean, I understand on one side about the whole nepotism thing when it’s done in the wrong way. But that’s not the case here, right? Here you have a young man, a young artist who is extremely full of creativity. He is a very different identity. If you don’t believe it, guys just go and pick up the album, you know it’s going to be something really incredible from someone that’s had music in them from the womb. I can’t wait to hear the album. It’s dropping in the next couple of days, October the 10th. Folks anywhere that music can be downloaded and streamed, you can check it out. What are the last words of anything that you guys want to share here?

Manj:
We just want to say only to all the fans. Obviously, everybody who has been supporting, Noopy. He has a whole bunch of supporters on his own Instagram who really keep always saying, amazing, we love this, we love that. Thank you very much. Keep supporting him because everything he’s doing now, musically, he’s doing it to express himself. And hopefully you guys will enjoy it and it will make you guys happy at the same time; it’ll make him happy that you guys are happy. So, if you can all just keep supporting him, don’t forget the album is going to drop this Saturday. Ten ten twenty which was Nindy’s idea for the date.  

Did you do that numerological?

Nindy:
I was just being silly, Raj.

Manj:
I like the number so it’s good. That’s it really. Nindy’s doing her thing with Nindy Kaur Cosmetics, it’s doing really well. Thank you for everyone who’s supporting her stuff. And I’ve got a whole bunch of new releases coming out from different artists and collaborations, more mainstream stuff. And I’m slowly but surely not mentioning too many things, getting him involved into some of the mainstream music.

Right. Because the vibe of his musical style, right?

Nindy:
We’ve been very fortunate because somebody from the mainstream who’s really big has picked up something from him.

Manj:
They love his stuff. They love his style. In fact, they wanted to manage him and said we’re going to change his name to Lil Manj. And Noopy goes, No, no, no, Noopsta is fine. Hopefully with God’s blessings. Let’s see where this goes.

Absolutely. And my final question before I let you guys go, which I don’t want to do, because I feel like I haven’t seen you guys for so long and I miss you guys. This is us catching up right? But to wrap this up, my final thing is, is that the world is still very much on lockdown and on stand still. They are kind of being limited to being a part of the family environment for long periods of time, which is causing all kinds of negativity as well as positivity. You guys have been, as a close-knit family, seeing each other all the time from the get-go. This is the lifestyle for you guys. Any advice for people out there since this is what you do, whether there is or is not a pandemic? What can you say to people out there to kind of get through the whole too much family time? How can they how could they navigate it, especially since now we’re going to be getting into, like, the ugly weather.

Manj:
We were talking about, you know, my God, it’s going to get cold and it’s going to be horrible. I think you just got to stay positive and within your own family, just keep it interesting. Just keep things moving, keep it interesting. Sometimes we’ll just blast music and we’ll have a dance at home. Noopy will blast of music and we’ll just start dancing around like that. It’s the craziest thing ever but we just do it and then some days we’ll say okay Noopy what movies you want to watch, and he’ll be like this one and we’ll be like okay let’s watch that one. Sometimes me and Nindy will think of some really old movies.

Anoop:
Quick recommendation. Definitely watch Goodfellas.

Yes, that’s a good one. A classic.

Manj:
We just keep it interesting within our little circle.

Nindy:
We realize that everybody’s just been traveling here, there, we’ve been apart a lot and we were just really glad that we could spend that time with each other. It’s been nothing but a positive outcome. There’s really been a lot of negative stuff happening out there, but you’ve got to keep it within your four walls and with your family. There’s nobody better than your own family and everybody really needs to realize that.

Absolutely. I completely agree with that. My darling family, I love you so much and I cannot wait until we can have big fat hugs.

Manj:
We’ll see you soon.

Nindy:
Thank you, Raj.

Thank you so much. And Anoop. Good luck, my darling. It’s going to be amazing. Can’t wait.