Working with Sean Kingston on the new single “Day Goes By” was “a very organic” experience for Indian singer Ananya Birla, which is what she wanted to reflect in the video for the track, premiering exclusively below.
The two met while Kingston was touring in India and “vibed really well,” according to Birla. In fact, she recalls, Kingston sang directly to one of her friends during his performance, which helped the two artists “get off very well, initially. He said, ‘Let’s get in the studio when you’re in L.A. next.’ I said, ‘Yes, that would be awesome.’ A couple months later we were in the studio recording and shooting a music video. It was a great experience.”
Directed by Mike Ho, the clip for the “Day Goes By” single, which came out last month, features Birla and Kingston performing the song amidst flashy surroundings, both separately and together — and clowning a bit during the latter. A couple of extra dancers give the song a sexier edge, but Birla is particularly attached to the footage of she and Kingston together. “I learned a lot from working with Sean,” she says. “The whole thing was very on the spot. The producer and engineer were playing beats and we found the one for this song and we were passing the mic from him to me to come up with different melody lines, and I was adding lyrics on the side. It was a very collaborative process. And he had the idea for the dialogue between a girl and the guy, which was a great idea. He wrote the parts for the guy, I wrote the parts for the girl. It was an interesting way of working.”
“Day Goes By” is a standalone release, and Birla’s sixth single overall, but undoubtedly boosts her image outside of her homeland. She had major success earlier this year with “Better,” and she’s planning her next moves now, including “getting more music out there” as well performances in the U.S. “It’s a lot about me being out on the road, and I’m super pumped about that,” says Birla, who’s opening for Wiz Khalifa this week in Delhi and Mumbai and will be playing her own shows in India this fall. “I’ve been getting a lot of invitations from California, Texas…It’s heartwarming to see. Hopefully with this song, as time goes by, (my profile) will be increasing. If that happens I would love to (perform) everywhere in the world.”