“The thought of revisiting Ishq Manayein Kya? was always there” – Nihira Joshi-Deshpande

Sometimes, a musician creates a song or music piece and a few years down the line, they revisit and recreate it in a new way. That is exactly what Nihira Joshi-Deshpande has done. In 2021, she released a single, ‘Ishq Manayein Kya?’, independently. The song was a result of the singer-composer’s love for Salsa.

The upbeat song, which was sung and composed by Nihira and written by Manoj Yadav, was received very well. Now, three years later, Nihira has released ‘Ishq Manayein Kya? (Swing Version)’, a reimagined version of the song.

Talking about the reason behind presenting the song in a new avatar, Nihira says, “The thought of revisiting ‘Ishq Manayein Kya?’ was always there in my mind. When I made the cue track for sharing it with Orquesta Son Diamantes, I realized it sounded really nice just with a guitar playing in the background. All of us were very happy with the way ‘Ishq Manayein Kya?’. However, I did want to explore other possibilities and figure out some of the other ways in which the song could be put together”.

‘Ishq Manayein Kya? (Swing Version)’ sounds different from the original song in several different ways. While the original song had a duration of 5 minutes and 31 seconds, this one is 3 minutes and 1 second long. The song features some fresh arrangements by Tanmay Pawar. The original lyrics, written by Manoj Yadav, have been retained. Amit Gadgil has played the bass guitar and the recording, mixing and mastering have been handled by Amey Londhe.

Elaborating further on the process of recreating this track, Nihira says, “I re-recorded my vocals for this track. We could not have used the older recording. The vocals had to match the new arrangements. This one has a higher tempo. The groove has also changed. This one has a rock-and-roll jive and a swing flavour. The original song had a different bass line. Tanmay has produced the new version and his contribution has been huge. Because of him, shifting to a different genre became much easier.”