Video Premier: Rolling Stone India

The official music video for my first single, Mitar Pyare Nu, is out and premiering on Rolling Stone India!

Read the article and watch the video here.

Part of brass-meets-dhol fusion act Red Baraat and previously of multi-genre act Outernational, Brooklyn-bred artist Sonny Singh leaps into the world as a solo artist with his debut song “Mitar Pyare Nu,” influenced by traditional Sikh kirtans as well as fusion templates.

Produced by Wil-Dog Abers (from Los Angeles’ Grammy winning act Ozomatli), Singh released the song on August 18th and is now out with a music video shot in lockdown in L.A. by filmmaker and photographer Shruti Parekh. Reimagining a composition by Sikh guru and poet-philosopher Gobind Singh, “Mitar Pyare Nu” was written when the 17th and 18th century spiritualist was “alone in the jungle, separated from his family, after a long day of battle with the oppressive forces of the time,” according to the trumpeter.

In the video, Singh too is show in isolation with his trumpet, evoking gentle notes as well as roaring, emphatic portions of horns as he’s stood in a tent, poppy fields and other urban settings. “[Guru Gobind Singh was] isolated, but not alone because of his connected to the Beloved Friend, the Divine. That was the spirit we hoped to capture in a simple video with a one person crew and very little access to camera gear. Eventually we started getting shots of me in different locations around Los Angeles and Southern California, still always isolated in each shot, but never alone.”

Interview with Northwest Asian Weekly

I was featured in the Northwest Asian Weekly ahead of Red Baraat’s show in Seattle that was ultimately canceled due to COVID. Excerpt below, and full article here.

“Meet Sonny Singh, Red Baraat’s perpetual-motion horn man”

Most Americans seeing a turban-wearing Sikh, with a long beard, would not automatically assume such a man called Charlotte, N.C., his home, growing up.

But trumpeter Sonny Singh, performing with the Red Baraat band in Seattle on March 21, admits he got used to a lot of things, growing up Sikh in the South.

“My childhood was deeply shaped by being South Asian and being a Sikh,” he recalled. “My brother and I were the only two kids in the whole city who wore turbans, so there was a deep sense of isolation. Being bullied and harassed in school was a daily occurrence.

“But eventually, I took refuge in music. I started playing music in gurdwaras —Sikh houses of worship—playing harmonium and tabla and singing kirtan (Sikh devotional songs). At age 9, I started playing trumpet in school and never stopped!”

Read full article.