Kerala-based musician Ashwin Bhaskar collaborates with K-pop artist AleXa

Ashwin Bhaskar, who went viral with his dialogue-with-beat video ‘Perfect OK’ last year, has tuned in with K-pop artist, AleXa. Ashwin has sung with her in the cover version of her new single, ‘Tattoo’. While the song was released on January 6, the cover track premiered on January 30.

Ashwin says that the offer came from ZB Label (ZANYBROS), a big name in the Korean music video production industry, which manages AleXa among other K-pop artistes. “When I received their mail, I suspected it was fake. I sent a message to their official account and they assured me that it was a genuine offer,” he says.

Ashwin, an audio engineer, composer, singer, songwriter and music producer, believes that they got in touch with him probably because he has been uploading a lot of music content in English on his YouTube channel (Ashwin Bhaskar). “My assumption is that several international musicians are exploring the Indian market and perhaps this is part of that trend,” says Ashwin.

He adds that the label was appreciative of his songs on the channel and reached out to him much before the release of ‘Tattoo’ to work on the cover version. After sending him the lyrics and instrumental portion, they gave him the option to retain that version or produce it the way he wanted to. “I chose to do it my way. Later, they sent the portions sung by her and her video. I did the editing, mixing, mastering and music production at my studio before uploading it,” he says. The video has fetched over one lakh views.

AleXa (Alexaundra Christine Schneiderman/Kim Se Ri) debuted in 2019 with her single ‘Bomb’ and has made her mark in the K-pop scene with songs such as ‘Do or Die’ (2020) and ‘Revolution’ (2020). AleXa currently lives in the US.

Self-taught musician

Ashwin, a native of Malappuram, is an Engineering graduate. He did his diploma in Audio Engineering from AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. A “self-taught musician”, he started his YouTube channel in 2012. After he posted a cover of ‘Memories’ by American pop rock band Maroon 5 on his channel, they uploaded a portion of it on their official channel.

Then came ‘Perfect OK’ in which he mixed dialogues from a video by KP Naisal, an autorickshaw driver in Kozhikode. The video has clocked over 14 million views so far. It is one among the many such videos on his channel. He has released three originals — ‘Story of my life’, ‘Reality’, and ‘Let me be alone’ — and has also worked with a few indie musicians.

Meanwhile, after the release, AleXa messaged him on his page, saying: ‘You are such a phenomenal singer!! Hope to meet you in person some day!!’

“My dream is to become an independent artist of international repute. I am working on some songs and hopefully I will be releasing them this year,” says Ashwin.