Saleka Shyamalan sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and talks about creating her own music. Plus, she dishes on going to her father, M. Night Shyamalan's sets when she was little, working on the film 'Trap,' which musical artists inspire her and more.
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00:00very dark and and really twisted also eeriness through it kind of brought me into this interesting
00:05like dark pop genre that I really fell in love with when it came to portraying this character
00:10on stage that's so not me because I'm not a pop star so it was a lot of channeling you
00:15know the artists that I admire Rihanna, Rosalia, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift.
00:19Hi my name is Salika Shyamalan. I am 28 years old. I was born in Philly. I'm a singer-songwriter
00:34and actress. One word I would use to describe myself would be a perfectionist. My household
00:40was definitely very lively growing up and definitely creative. Yeah I mean obviously
00:45you know both my parents are in the arts and there was also a sense of respect towards the
00:50arts always from a young age which I think is a beautiful thing and growing up you know I let my
00:55my parents played a lot of jazz and R&B so you know Nina Simone, Etta James, Lauren Hill, Amy
01:01Winehouse those are sort of like you know the the the strong women that I listened to. I played
01:06classical piano since I was young and so that was sort of the avenue that I thought I was going to
01:10go into and then when I was like 15 or 16 I felt like this desire to compose and kind of
01:17create my own music. We've been going to his sets since we were little. It was a very integral part
01:22of my childhood just getting to witness all the work that goes into making a film. It was
01:27sort of just normal it was like other everyone's dads goes to work and mine makes movies.
01:33The movie kind of came about from conversations that my dad and I have been having for many years
01:39about wanting to bring music and film together in some way and that you know comes very naturally
01:45because you know Indian culture is filled with Bollywood movies and Purple Rain is one of our
01:50favorite movies and we've watched that as a family many times so we really kind of wanted to do our
01:55own version of that where music was not just in the background but you know witness digestion
02:00but you know witness diegetically and part of the plot. He's a master at what he does so it's all
02:05it's really from his mind but especially for this project just because I was so involved and we were
02:10talking about it from the beginning we definitely were brainstorming a lot. Definitely you know a
02:14lot of it was inspired by you know our experiences as father and daughter going to shows. So for this
02:19movie I had to write 14 original songs for the soundtrack to simultaneously like this pop music
02:24but also scoring something very dark and and really twisted that's happening. Also eeriness
02:30through it kind of brought me into this interesting like dark pop genre that I really fell in love
02:34with. When it came to portraying this character on stage that's so not me because I'm not a pop
02:39star so it was a lot of channeling you know the artists that I admire. We talked about Taylor
02:44Swift a lot in just the sense you know how especially her fandom is so beautiful and
02:50intense and and her influence especially with young girls I think was important and Rihanna,
02:54Rosalia, Billie Eilish these were all like you know artists that I really love and listen to
02:59their music a lot but how they kind of bridge the worlds between vulnerability and softness
03:05at moments but also huge stage production and like something that feels massive. Original art is so
03:12rare right now but I think that that is what people need and kind of crave and so originality
03:17and in like these artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX you can see their individuality
03:22and like who they are comes through. I just was listening to Sabrina Carpenter's new album which
03:26is so beautiful and gosh her voice is amazing and she's such a witty songwriter so I really admire
03:31that. I got to collaborate with a few of my dream artists on this project as well. I worked with Kid
03:35Cudi, Russ and Amore. I'm really excited about that because you know there's there's so much
03:41more depth to the album that I want to show.
03:47I think talking about privilege is very important and I think a necessary thing in all aspects.
03:53I would say you know my experience with my family has just been one of a lot of pride and and you
04:01know my my grandparents kind of came to the U.S. with this like literally dollars in their pockets
04:07and kind of nothing and my dad was sort of this American dream kind of kid that was able to
04:13succeed and and so for us there's a lot of pride in working with our family and kind of helping
04:18each other. You know we're an immigrant family, we work hard, we support each other, we kind of
04:22follow in each other's footsteps because that's what we know and it's that's feels like a very
04:26natural thing for us in our family and there isn't really a lot of shame around it. My dad also has
04:31kind of instilled that idea with my sisters and I from a young age that like you know no matter what
04:36if a person comes up to him and even if they say something negative or positive or neutral
04:41about one of his films that they contributed you know like he'd always say you know that person
04:47paid for a brick of our house by like watching some a story that he made in his mind and that's
04:50such a beautiful thing that we all get to kind of feel connected to each other across the world and
04:56across generations and cultures through art that we connect to.