Malayalam indie musician Arya Dhayal on her new track, ‘Kaade', and her journey

The Hindu

03-07-2025

A woman's refusal to be taken for granted, her journey towards self-realisation and her rebellion: Arya Dhayal's new single, Kaade, has several layers to it. The track, written and sung by her, and produced and mixed by Varkey, keeps you hooked with the rhythm, the groove and Arya's voice.
Arya traces the birth of the track to a synopsis sent to her by writer Nitheesh Adoor. 'It was more like a story pitch for a movie, with a female character in focus. But as soon as I read it I was transported to my village, Nadal [in Kannur district]. The milieu of the story — forest, village, the mist, sacred grove, etc, took me to my home where I felt like sitting by the bank of a pond, when it rains. Within five minutes the lyrics was ready,' says Arya.
Nitheesh's story talked about a female deity and Arya worked around that theme. In the verses she wrote, the woman becomes one with the forest, Nature and the wilderness. She refuses to be subjugated by society's expectations. It is more of a celebration of the feminine spirit.
'This work has been in the making for three years. Once I composed it, I sent it to Varkey chettan, with whom I have worked before. I needed a folkish sound for the song. It took us nearly one and a half years to arrive at the present version. By then, we were saturated,' says Arya.
The striking cover art for the song has been done by actor Minon. 'Since it is about a female figure, we wanted it to be a powerful image. We tried using AI, but it didn't work. That was when Minon's name popped up. I sent him the track without the synopsis, and he came up with what I wanted.'
The video of the track has also grabbed eyeballs. 'We didn't want to do a typical music video; at the same time we couldn't afford to do something big without the support of a label. That's when my friends came up with the idea of a reel. After a lot of brainstorming, we decided to go with fluorescent face paint and UV light. We did some jugaad with all that, and it has come out well,' she says. Arya makes special note of the members of her team, Antony Joby and Ananthu Gopi.
The team is ecstatic about the appreciation the track has got on social media from musicians like Vishal Dadlani, Badshah, Nucleya, Khadija Rahman, and other creatives.
According to Varkey, working on Kaade was a surreal experience. 'Arya came to me with a stack of vocals and beautiful harmonies over the lyrics she wrote. Then the sound search journey started. Arya calls me 'scientist' and I call her the 'creator'. It is always a fruitful collab and I am super grateful. The song is like a sonic exploration, where the rustic sounds of the arrangement, like the metal harp and skinned drums, converse with Arya's very folksy vocal interpretation. We got a simple groove with a Caribbean influence, and things layered over it. We sampled some folk stringed instruments to give the song an organic flavour,' he says, adding, 'Writing with Arya is a fun process, as she is super patient. She gave me and our stem mastering engineer, Krishna Sadasivan (Kay Ess), the time to shape the sound of the record the way we are hearing it now.'
Arya, who writes her songs, shot to fame on social media during the lockdown through her videos in which she fused Carnatic and Western songs, playing her ukulele. Examples being a mix of swaras in Thodi, a Kathakali padam from Nalacharitham Day IV and 'Believer' by Imagine Dragons (5.1 million views) and Suddha Dhanyasi raga with Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of you' (836k views).
'It has been a beautiful journey. Every day is a new lesson. The industry was new for me and my family. I remember my first ticketed show when I struggled with how to take the mic off the stand. Gradually I got the opportunity to work with some of the best musicians – Sithara Krishnakumar, Harish Sivaramakrishnan, Govind Vasantha, Sachin Warrier, Jyotsna Radhakrishnan…' she says.
She went on to do stage shows and released a few indie tracks as well. 'I am happy that these days more people are listening to indie music and turn up in large numbers for concerts.'
'Kaade' is streaming on YouTube.