Interview: ADVIKA’s Musical Journey

Courtesy of ADVIKA

Interview by Tara Saraf

I spontaneously decided to take the train to meet ADVIKA, a Boston based artist and producer, in her hometown of Needham, MA, for an interview while packing up my things to go home from college. After I spotted her in the coffee shop where we chatted, my eyes immediately fixated on her floral outfit, blue mascara, and handmade earrings that were made on brass. Her artistic nature evidently goes beyond just music and spans several different mediums. In the beginning, we discussed the two things we knew we had in common: a family friend and our undergraduate school. While my college life at Berklee was just starting, Advika’s had come to a close a year ago as a graduate of Electronic Production and Design. As one may suspect, from our conversation, Advika’s musical journey, however, has much more to be revealed. 

It’s a pleasure to speak with you, Advika! You’ve said that “The songs on Chasing Birds, your latest EP released in May 2025, reflect your growth as a person and musician.” Just as the EP showcases your journey, do the songs also form a story or journey of their own? 

What exactly do you mean by a journey? 

Like, are there characters within your EP that have their own journey or is it mainly about you as a person? 

It’s mostly written from my own experience. 

Your main influences are Carnatic and Jazz music. On Chasing Birds, there is a cover of the iconic jazz standard “Autumn Leaves.” What made you choose this song in particular and how does it relate to the bigger picture of the EP? 

Well, the EP as a whole, I was kind of viewing it as my debut. I’d released a bunch of singles before, but I wanted a project that was…my introduction…as much about me as I could fit into one project. I mean like, what my influences were and what kinds of things led me to be here as a musician, and Autumn Leaves was in there because jazz is one of my huge influences and backgrounds. And “Autumn Leaves” is one of the first standards I learned even before I really studied jazz. And I thought it was fun to do a different arrangement of it. My version of it is in 11/8 instead of 4/4. 

Yeah, it did feel a little bit different. 

Yeah, and it’s also got a viola arrangement which I tend to do a lot. 

And your voice sounds incredible on the track. 

Thank you.

You also create all of the cover art for your singles and EP. Where does the inspiration come from for these intricate pieces? 

I don’t know why specifically for the nature, I kind of just feel inspired by it often. I like to be outside and…I like trees and flowers and things. The title track of the EP is “Chasing Birds”, and there’s a lot of nature imagery in that song, and I included a lot of the imagery from that song in that specific piece of art. The reason for quilting—It’s made of fabric entirely, done with my sewing machine—I thought it would be kind of neat because, as I said, it’s an intro to me and who I am as an artist. I thought that having a quilt of many pieces of fabric, kind of, the way one’s identity is made up of different pieces, I kind of thought that would be cool. 

What does an ADVIKA show look like? 

It changes around a lot, honestly. I’ve done a lot of music with a band, like piano, bass, drums. I like to do that a lot because I have a lot of music that lends itself towards that. Lately I’ve been going on a more experimental route. Any shows that I do in the future are going to include voice and pedal board because I’ve been building up my own pedal board, like, guitar pedals and process through it. I’ve been enjoying doing some experimental effects and processing with that. A lot of that soon. Probably a lot of solo shows soon. 

Tara Saraf with ADVIKA

Amazing. I’m just curious, are there any artists you’d like to open for or collaborate with? 

Oh my gosh, yes. A huge inspiration right now is Cécile McLorin Salvant. I don’t know if you’re familiar with her, but she’s a jazz vocalist. She kind of started out, as most jazz vocalists do, singing a lot of standards, and she’s got an incredible voice. Her interpretation of these standards has always just been amazing. Lately, she’s been also going down an experimental route, writing just amazing, weird music that I love. I like that weirdness. 

You have a talent for creating immersive soundscapes by blending South Asian sounds with jazz elements. What is the creative process behind this? 

When I’m sitting down to compose something, I tend not to put limits for myself. I tend not to tell myself, “Okay, this is gonna be a four minute song, this is going to be a three minute song.” I center the storytelling, and then when the idea comes together, I let the song breathe for the amount of time that it needs to be told. I really enjoy doing that. I like longer compositions and really letting something sit in itself. Sometimes, uncomfortably too long. I think that that could be really powerful… really let the listener feel something. I just like storytelling and I think that’s how it unfolds. 

Well, it was not uncomfortable for me. 

[laughs] 

It was really cool to listen and be patient for a little bit, just let the song do its thing. I think we live in a world where we have viral moments way too much. We need more intense moments while listening to a five or six minute song. That’s definitely appreciated. Thank you so much for sharing! I deeply appreciate all of your insights. Musically, or even personally, what does the future have in store for Advika? 

So I’ve been working on a few things, actually. Since you asked about the cover art and what that’s all about, very soon, I have a music video for that project coming out May 25th. I’m releasing an animated music video that I animated myself. 

That’s on the anniversary of your EP. 

Yup, exactly. Exactly a year after. It’s for “Chasing Birds”. The idea for that music video existed in my head for a while. That inspired the cover art and I held onto that idea for the music video. I’m really excited about that. I’m also working on a new album which is nearing completion. I’m probably going to release it within ext year. Another album of almost 45 minutes of music. 

Does this album build off of your previous work? 

Probably everything I do builds off of everything that I did before. It’s not directly a continuation, but I do touch on a lot of similar concepts, feelings, and moods.

Listen to Chasing Birds HERE