‘I love a song that feels like a gut-punch’: Musician Nayantara Bhatkal picks her favourite tracks

I make music under the moniker Still Ocean. It’s the space outside of commissioned singing, composing and music production projects that is just my own. At the heart of it, it’s singer-songwriter fare set against a sweeping, cinematic sonic landscape. I think the name captures something that is gentle and quiet on the surface but carries a world within.

I knew from the moment I started singing professionally that I had more to say than I could with just my voice – I wanted to write, compose and produce. I’ve been working on this music for about eight years now and have only just put out my first song. It took me a while. I needed to grow as a musician, as a person, to take ownership of these songs.

Which is why Still Ocean’s first release, Phoenix, is rather significant for me – a song about giving birth to the version of yourself that only lives in your head.

Phoenix

Still Ocean

Here are six tracks that I really enjoy.

Strange Fruit

Nina Simone

I really love a song that feel like a gut-punch. It could be the performance, the lyrics or even the production-something that makes you weep. Maybe that’s just me but those are the best kinds of songs. Here are some tunes, old and new, which capture what I love about music and music making.

You know how sometimes you imagine who a person is just through their music? My love affair with Nina Simone began that way. As a teenager, slowly falling for jazz, I dreamt of her. As I grew older, I learnt more about her life, her politics and her spectacular musicianship. She was truly a gift to the world. This rendition of Strange Fruit, produced by Hal Mooney, arranged and performed by Simone, is painfully perfect.

Container

Fiona Apple

I can only aspire to be as fearless in my songwriting as Fiona Apple. Container feels almost mythological in its approach. For me, it also captures what the role of the storyteller, the songwriter is in the world: “I have only one thing to do and that’s/ be the wave I am and then/ sink back into the ocean.”

Dear Mind (En Route)

Rachel J Singh

I heard this song last week and it blew me away. There’s something young and sad and bitterly beautiful about it. Rachel Singh’s performance is so gentle yet visceral. It reminded me of what I love about discovering new music- going blindfolded on a journey with someone and not knowing what surprises await you.

Chellama

Sean Roldan

The composer in me really admires what Sean Roldan does with his music – creating something that is so confidently Indian but universal all at once. Chellama, from the film Joker takes me to a world of tenderness-a flower fluttering in a storm. Although I don’t understand most of the lyrics, I feel every line and word.

The Warli Revolt

Swadesi (featuring Prakash Bhoir)

I really believe that the personal is political but as a musician, I struggle to bring that philosophy to everything I write. The Warli Revolt is an inspiration. It carries pain, loss, rage, hope, love and energy within it. Spectacular video and incredible performance. I have cried every time I’ve heard this song.

You’ve Got To Feel

Empress Of (featuring Amber Mark)

Womxn form a minuscule percentage of the people involved in the technical aspects of music-making. I connected with a lot of fellow womxn producers and sound engineers in other parts of the world during the lockdown and it was such a gift, to feel like I’m part of a larger dream, a hope to be heard. I discovered You’ve Got to Feel through one such group. I love that the song is so assertive and celebratory. It captures a uniquely feminine expression of protest.