Meet Chitra Dassapa | Singer-songwriter & Violinist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chitra Dassapa and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chitra, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind my success is understanding that being a musical artist is a combination of having an extreme obsession with making music and a strong sense of creative direction. Obsession and passion are two different things in my opinion. Obsession is self-motivating, and often thankless; the feeling when you have dreams that fixate over a single lyric or snare sound. It is inexplainable and impending. This type of obsession is a person’s gravity, a centrifugal force. Passion is deep interest, where moments of obsession are present, but if obsession is 24/7, then passion is a 9-5 job. I bring this up only because music is my obsession and becoming my own creative director is my passion. My obsession for music, as cliche as it might sound started at four years old when I begged my parents for violin lessons. The idea that sound isn’t something you can touch, but can impact the brain emotionally and critically was mind-boggling to me as a kid. Therefore, I spent all of my time learning violin, which later turned into the viola, and piano, and singing. Somehow, by 7 I knew one day I would be a musical artist, and this gut-feeling is what has led me here; working to become a better musician everyday. I have always had an interest in graphic design, high-fashion, and immersing myself in art-related experiences. During the beginning of the pandemic, I decided to teach myself Adobe Photoshop and through this I began to learn how to make collage art and design album art for my friends. As a usually non-visual thinker, this process forced me to understand color palettes, research and discover my visual references, which lent itself to that of film and fashion. Bringing this back to music, when making my own album art, or doing any audio-visual-related content, my decisiveness towards all of the above has become much stronger, allowing my collaborations , (visually) to benefit greatly as well.
I can only hope that my obsession with writing music and desire to become my own creative director to the fullest capacity can make me even more successful.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The two things I am the most proud of are how far my songwriting and ability to incorporate strings into the production of my music has come over the past year. As a songwriter, I write everyday, whether it’s a journal entry, a poem, a short story or a stream of consciousness, I enjoy using wordplay to explain and simplify thoughts into metaphor. As a fast-moving person, writing poetry and song ideas works with how I communicate my feelings; which in all honesty, is clearer through music than in relationships. In terms of string-playing, it has taken me time to understand how strings could have relevance in my pop-structured music. I always felt as though I had too many references; I love rap and drill, but also Motown, Bronski Beat, Miles Davis, and composers such as Ravel. I saw this as a disadvantage until I started working for music producer and DJ, Mark Ronson as a studio intern. As someone who had never grown up around the music industry, I was immediately struck with so many different life perspectives, people, and ways of making music. Learning about Mark’s process, and how the variety of styles he grew up around is what allowed his music to feel both modern and nostalgic helped my decision-making skills, and realize that having too many references is never an issue. Ultimately, I solved this stress through my song “Throwaway” which is on all streaming platforms. With the help of Brede, and Sanjay Henry who co-produced the track, I was able to include massive string sections, paired with a trap, hip-hop beat, and stacks of vocal harmonies in the loose context of a ballad. The lesson I have learned is to trust in nothing else except my own intuition and gut feeling. From that, the music I believe is intuitively best, becomes the brand. The visuals, the clothing, hair, attitude of performance, and color-scheme is built from what the chords and song are telling me. I am lightly-synesthetic, and my visuals are very much derived from that. Lastly, (and most importantly), as an Indian American artist I am painfully aware that I am entering spaces in entertainment taken up in majority by White musicians. It is a huge motivator for me to break this glass ceiling and have as much relevance as any other up and coming musician because of my storytelling and intention. I strongly believe this industry would benefit from having more South Asian and Asian musicians for representation and perspective purposes. Art is too dynamic to be reduced to the dimension of one race or ethnicity.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Wow – so many places to go. Firstly, I love hiking, and some of my favorite go-to spots are Runyon Canyon or Malibu State Park. I also enjoy working out and doing hot yoga, so I’d be taking my friend to Corepower Yoga (which yes, is all over the country, but whatever). I would take them to Silverlake for a day, go record shopping at Cosmic Records, and get Roots & Rye, (the best açaí in Los Angeles in my opinion). In terms of food, some of my favorite places are Warrior LA in West Hollywood, Nic’s on Beverly for brunch, Lady Byrd in Echo Park, Urth Cafe on Melrose, and Man Eating Plant, the food truck. If we were going for a night out, Zebulon is must, Gold Diggers, (but check who is DJ’ing), Bar Lubitch, and Bar Stella in Silverlake, to name a few. I love deep listening events; In Sheeps’ Clothing puts on a really good event at Neuehouse which I would highly recommend. The beach is a must, because California! Manhattan Beach, Malibu beaches, and the Santa Monica pier would be my go-to options. Driving through Mulholland is a must and driving to see the Hollywood sign is cringe-y as it is nostalgic, but still a must. Lastly, I would find concerts to go to while my friend is visiting as well!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

There is one organization that deserves credit to my story, and that is the summer program that California State Institute of the Arts puts on every year. In 2016, I was accepted into the music department as a violinist, and as a 16 year-old who had never seriously explored music beyond classical violin, this month changed my life. Before coming to CalArts, I didn’t see myself as a solely a violinist long-term; I had taught myself how to sing by covering my favorite artists, and taught myself piano just enough to learn my favorite songs. Additionally, I had a passion for writing short stories, poetry, and playwriting. However, I never sought to tie together my different interests; in fact I didn’t understand how. Coming to CalArts, I dove headfirst into classes ranging from composition and Indian classical music, to traditional Balinese music. Simultaneously, I was meeting incredible, young, musicians from different walks of life and specialties. For the first time, I had professors comment positively on my ability to improvise on violin, sing, song-write, and compose. They pushed me to join multiple ensembles to expand my repertoire and because of it, I met some of best friends and collaborators who I still work with today. After leaving this summer camp, I realized I would never go back to being a narrow-minded, one dimensional musician, because music isn’t linear. It was there I realized, performing classical works from composers who have long-past would not satisfy my desire to create. Most importantly, however, I realized that without a doubt I was going to pursue music professionally in the hopes of becoming a recording artist.

Website: https://www.thisischitra.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisischitra/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chitra-dassapa-947b36179

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chitradassapa/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp8d1BI3c827y90jKzq_5OA

Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisischitra?lang=en

Image Credits
Claire Jantzen