#318 TURNing it up with Simar

Ravia sits down with Simar to unpack how “Billo” became an alter ego, a sound, and a permission slip for women to feel bold. We talk creative instinct, Punjabi English code-switching, Brampton roots, and what it takes to build a music career with real support. 

• The Billo name, persona, and visual identity as storytelling 
• Writing from an “itch” and finishing ideas without second guessing 
• Building confidence by creating for ourselves first 
• How melodies lead lyrics and how Punjabi versus English gets chosen 
• Diaspora language, simple Punjabi, and the bridge to global listeners 
• Brampton upbringing, kirtan training, and pop and R&B influences 
• Returning to music after corporate work, marriage, and motherhood 
• Balancing career with team support, family help, and trust 
• Advice for young women in a male-dominated industry 
• Flipping perspective with “Pab Chakdi” and challenging the usual gaze 

Stream Billo now!

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Transcript

Welcome And The "Billo" Look

SPEAKER_01 0:08

You are listening to Turn It Up, the Universal Radio Networks podcast. My name is Ravia, and today I get to talk to Simmer, our Billow, a Canadian icon who is a South Asian Punjabi speaking woman who sings in Punjabian English, and we get to talk to her about all things below. Now let's get into it. I feel like that below, um, what's it called? The like hair. What is that hairstyle called? The edges.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Honestly, it's I don't have a name to work with that. I did. I I thought it would be kind of cool to use my hair to just put it in there. Like we do a lot of decorative stuff with the edges. But I was like, yeah, for when we had decided the the name of the album was gonna be Bello, like that was prior to, and then I was working with a makeup artist here in makeup artist uh named Angela Beauty Call. And I was like, hey, like, is it possible to do is that possible? Yeah, she's like, yeah, and she made it happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

So my goodness, because it is so iconic, and then you have your like long piranda, like just like twisting around. It is such an iconic look, and also I love it. I want to hear actually. So you said you came up with a name before for Billow. Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

So I don't know. It was just like I I'd been saying it in some songs. Like I have a song called Billorani, which I did a couple of years ago. And then in this in the songs that I was creating for this album, I kind of referred myself, referred to myself as Billow, you know, like a lot how a lot of these guys refer to themselves in their songs, or the writers will throw their names in the song. I was like, you know, and and then it just kind of became like my alter ego, you know, that the whole um persona that I wanted to to to just have on this album is just a billow, like a baddie, like that girl. Yeah, that girl, that girl.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So it's definitely like I am receiving that is giving that girl for for yeah. I appreciate it. I feel like for me, and like I Billow, the song Billow itself has been stuck in my head. Like I just keep playing it. Like I had people at my house, and I was like, guys, I'm so sorry. I need to play this song. I keep being like, Manuscan, like all the day.

Naming "Billo" And Owning Confidence

SPEAKER_00 2:45

That's it, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Like it's literally, it's there, it's it's here all day long. So I'm so grateful for that because it's so so fun. I feel like it gets me to tap into a part of myself that I'm like not always like ready to jump into. Your inner billow. Your inner billow. Get your inner billow.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

We all have an inner billow. And I feel like a lot of the music that's made, it's it's very male-centric. It's made for the men. It is for the women, it's it's like, you know, we we have a lot of great music that you can tap into that romantic side, that cute side, that fun side, but that sexy, confident, bold inner billow is that's that's very much needed. It is very much needed. And you provided.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Thank you for your provisions. Yeah. Tell me about your process for not just this album, but like your creative process in general as well. I'm also interested, obviously, with the specific album.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

I mean, it's it's very, very in the moment. It's very just impulsive, I'll be honest. Like, it's not like I actively constantly sit down to create. It's whenever the the itch happens. And then, like, if I'm in the studio and I'm like, I'm feeling this type of beat today, sometimes it doesn't come out in that moment. But other times, like when I wrote Let It Happen, for example, it just like I was just sitting at my computer one day and I I had some lyrics sent to me. And I and I told this story on IG. I just had some lyrics and some compositions sent to me. And then I heard a beat and I just kind of put the two of them together and it just it just worked. It just worked. With the Billow song, for example, I was in BC and we were working on Ajahone Aja, and we were working on another song that I have with Mirza, who's the same artist as on Ajah Huney Aja. And then after we finished that up, I was like, hey, I heard like I just I just feel like creating something else. And then that's how Billow happened. And I I literally we recorded like wrote, composed lyrics, everything just within that hour or two, and just it was done.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

In an hour or two.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

It just came through you. Something just came down through you. And the thing is, it's not that's not that's not something that it's like I'm trying to break about it. It's not, it's really not because there are masterpieces that can be done in an hour, and there are great music that takes really long. I think it's just sometimes you have to my my point in saying that is that you have to really follow through on that inkling of just doing the thing that you need to do. Don't, don't, don't second guess it. Yeah, don't second guess it.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Don't let it slide. Yeah. But just get like dive into it, commit to it 100%. Yeah. See it through. Follow that inkling, see that inkling through. Is it gonna lead you to this like fun, wonderful place that you get with that?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yes. And as well, yeah. So as you keep creating it, you have to just keep listening to that that feeling that okay, I need I I I like this, and just finish it, follow through, like you said. Follow through.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So it's almost like a muscle, like you're saying. Like you're like, you have to use creativity in a way.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Absolutely. You have to give yourself that time to express yourself freely. And yeah, when you get scared or when you like in in my earlier stages of creating, I would second guess and I would kind of stop my own creativity because I was like, oh, I don't know if I like this, I don't know if other people are gonna like this. And as soon as that that curtain was gone, it just allowed me to express myself. Like I don't care what anybody thinks or feels like.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Do you think there's yeah, if you like it, it's good. Do you think there's something or someone or some wisdom that got you over that piece of like self-judgment and stopping yourself in this journey when you were it's opening it?

SPEAKER_00 6:37

It's honestly time and just giving yourself like flexing the muscle, you said, giving yourself enough time to sit there with only yourself. As soon as you stop um worrying about, okay, it's like I would show my stuff to people and sometimes they get it, sometimes they wouldn't, right? But without thinking about creating so that other people would like it, I sat with myself more and kept like refining what I liked. That's how that's how I created my own sound because I don't need other people to tell me that they like it. I need to

Impulsive Creation And Following The Itch

SPEAKER_00 7:15

like it. You need to like it. I need to like it. And the more I created, the more I liked, right? Not right away, but the as time passed on, I was like, oh, I don't need so-and-so-and-so to tell me this is good. I don't care what they think. I like this. I'm gonna keep doing this.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I'm gonna keep doing this. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So it's like you're it's almost like the more you create, the more you have a sense of like, um, what's the word for it? Um precision of like what you want to create, and this like idea of like, okay, this works, this doesn't. I like this, this doesn't. And that like helps you follow this process into creating a product. So you say sometimes you get lyrics, and I know like sometimes you get a beat. I know you also write some of your stuff. Yeah. And you write in Punjabi and English.

unknown 8:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Where do you write? How does that like where do you where does that come from for you?

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Like, do you have a sense of that? It usually starts with like a a composition or like a melody. Like if I uh hear the beat, like with Bello, for example, um, we were sitting there, he started the beat, and then me and Mir Mirza were just kind of like writing, and it's like, okay, what do I hear? And I hear compositions first. So then I I'll just do like composition. And then I'm like, okay, does this fit more Punjabi? Does this fit more English? And then I'll usually just freestyle on top of a beat, and the English kind of flows to me a lot more naturally than the Punjabi. The Punjabi will take me a little bit of time, but that entire second verse, I think I freestyled majority of it, and then no way, yeah. I'm I I freestyled majority of it and like fixed a little bit, fixed a little bit. Some editing, some editing, yeah, yeah, a little bit of freestyle. Punjabi and English. Yeah, and then it just like we just kind of put it together. So it's really just the compositions come to me first, and then whatever I feel, think like what feel or think sounds better in each of those compositions.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Yeah, legitimate. I think it's so so cool that you say that, like, so I feel like as a kid in the diaspora as well, kid slash, you know, not whatever, but like there's a part, you know, you're a child with a grown child, yeah. My inner child, there's all these like um, you know, that there's all these like inner workings that you have when you're like translating or working in two languages. How do you find that as an artist, as like a person with some say dual identity, some say it's one identity? Like, how do you navigate that as an artist?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

If there's things that I am questioning whether it sounds good or makes sense, I do have people like Mirza, he's one of the writers I work with. Um, and then I have other friends in the industry that'll kind of run it by them, like, hey, does this make sense? Should I use this word? Should I use this line? Should I do that? Because I have those moments as well. Um, my Punjabi isn't the strongest, but I also think that using a little bit of the simpler Punjabi, and this is the feedback that I've heard from a lot of people. I get two sides of the feedback. Some people say that my Punjabi is not paid enough. They say that I don't use enough like hard-hitting Punjabi. And then there's others that are like, thank you for writing this because I understand what you're saying. And so there's two, there's the the two sides of it, you know. And um yeah, I mean, I I know a lot. There's a lot of people that think my Punjabi is not the strongest, which I I again, I don't care. I don't care. I'm doing I'm doing what I can and I have the resources to ask people for their feedback. But the the majority of people tell me that they enjoy the fact that they can understand my lyrics because they are a little bit simpler.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

A little bit, and I feel like it is something that is you are creating for a unique, I mean not for, but like you're creating for people that are probably of the same generation as you in a way. Because like we've we relate to music that is coming from someone who understands where we come from as second gen, first gen, or 1.5, like whoever is here, maybe you speak more English in your day-to-day life and the Punjabi you've been able to hold on to because of like family circumstances, et cetera, is is maybe simpler, but it at the end of the day, you are still creating a connection, a bridge for that person to become more interested into this. And it's like a diaspora music movement that I think we're seeing is like uh the the music of our generation is gonna be different from those before us, and this is part of it. This is part of it is is seeing the way that language changes with migration and art changes with my migration. And it's like it's I I would say it's even a new genre.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Would you would you agree? I I I think so. I think it's also just um how do we bridge that gap between um Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Gudrati, um, Urdu, and English. And it's because that again, that's other feedback that I get. I have a lot of people who don't speak Punjabi who can still pick up on what I'm saying. And it has a global sound. It is a way of bringing people of different cultures together because it sounds good, you know, especially with a song, especially with a song like Billow switching back and forth between the Punjabi and English. Um, a lot of people think like, oh, it's done so seamlessly. You can't it is you can't even tell when the English kicked in and when the Punjabi kicked back in. Yeah. And that is, I think, whether you want to call it a John a genre of its own, or if it's just like a it's an it's a movement that it is a movement.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

It's almost like I want a linguist to look into this because I feel like even in the conversations I have with friends of our generation, family, cousins, etc., I feel like that switch between Punjabi and English or Hindi English, Punjabi English is like seamless because that's just the way you speak. Even that way I was in India earlier this year, even there, like especially in this places where people are more comfortable speaking English or other languages, they're like constantly switching between Hindi, Punjabi, English. Like it's just always it's it's how we talk. And it's like a linguistic, there's almost like an interesting linguistic question there. Like, how is language changing? Okay, I love, I love this. I also want to talk about you, where you grew up, how that influences the music you make. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

So I grew up in Brampton, born and raised in Brampton. Um, I started off doing kirtan when I was like five or six years old. So, me, my brother, and my sister, we took uh uh Vajja tabla kirtan lessons at the Goldara. And uh we had our own jatha and we would do kirtan competitions, and then we would do really well. We would win medals and and trophies, and then my dad got us private lessons. So we did we did the classical training and vajah lessons for like five, six years, I would say. Yeah. Started really young being trained. What did you play? I played the harmonium vaja. Yeah. And um uh yeah, my sister played the Vajra, my brother, brother played the dubla. And uh yeah, as my my growing up, my pua, she's a uh a great singer. Um, she was never able to pursue it professionally, but she was a great, great singer. And she had told my dad, like, hey, I think your girls like have a voice like that. My sister can sing as well. She doesn't, but she can sing. Um, and so like we she's like, put them in some lessons, and that's where it started. And then my brother is seven years older than me. So by the time I was like 11 or 12 years old, he had to go to your off to university. He wasn't really into Ethan anymore. And same with my sister, she was in high school.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

She's like, Life changes, yeah. Yeah. So you're the youngest?

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I'm the youngest. Okay, I love it. Okay. And then um, from there, I like I always loved music. I always loved listening to like Brandi and Monica and Joseph Mariah Carey, grew up with the Spice Girls,

Punjabi English Writing And Diaspora Sound

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Christina Aguilera, that whole era of music. And so when we stopped doing Geethan, I kind of leaned more into the English music. Um yeah, the pop, the RB, the hip hop, Missy Elliott, Aliyah, all of that music. And then after hearing a lot of women's names, I hear, yeah. I mean, yeah. I like it, I like it.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

I like it.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

I know I love the hip hop. I love yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just I love it. And then and then um, yeah, and then from there, I I kind of stopped singing, but I still enjoyed music for years and years until like people kind of knew that I sang. So then I started connecting with DJs and producers, and they're like, Oh, can you just like record this line or something for me? Can you do this for me? And I was like, sure, why not? And back then we didn't have like mics like we have now. It was like the very just oh my god, it was like it was a mic like this. It was like a this tiny little mic that you could connect to computer and I would record off of there. And then as time went on, just connected with more people through the industry. I started making music when I was 18, 19 years old, and then I stopped for quite a while, but then picked it back up again later on. What got you to pick it back up again? So, music, it was always there. And I I finished school, had a job in project management and compliance at the bank. I got married, I had my first daughter, and through it all, there were the people that I had connected with previously were like, Hey, are you ever gonna like sing again? Are you ever gonna do this? Are you ever gonna do that? So I had started posting videos of me singing online. And from there, like a lot of people, like that was how I met Fate. He he saw me singing, he's like, Hey, do you you want to work on this song with me? I'm like, sure. And I had done, I had done music with um like twin beats, XD Pro music. We all would make songs together, and then from there, it just expanded into me meeting different people. From through them, I met uh Gary Sandhu, and then through other artists and other producers, I met Siddhum Seara, and and it was just that's like it just grew from there. Yeah, I just grew from there.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

It seems like it's very organic and it was like very much just like you're it was always there, it was always present, life was going on. You had a different professional career. Um, I feel I find it so interesting because um, you know, it's almost like a career shift that you had. Do you think you use any of those project management skills or uh those skills that you'd had in your corporate world in this in this job that you have?

SPEAKER_00 17:57

I mean, I I I do, but I have to say, my team has really just taken my entire career by the reins and just they are doing your team. Honestly, shout out to them. Bob, Drove, Lucky, and um uh Mohit, they're all just like at it. They're all constantly at it, like the the the gears are always turning. And it really allows for me to be creative and to focus on the areas that I need to focus on, which is making the music, which is creating the content, doing the visual stuff, and then also like taking care of my life at the same time because I have a very busy life. How do you balance all of that in your day-to-day life? You know, that question is so funny to me because the reality is if there's something that you you want to do, like I I wanted to pursue this, you know, it wasn't just something that's there. And at times it was. It was something that was just there, but not anymore. This has become my full-time career. So I think balancing it is it's an obligation. Like I have to, I'm, I'm obliged to make sure that I am giving focus to all the areas of my life. It's not like uh, you know, but again, shout out to my team because they really allow for me to be able to to balance it and having that support. Yeah, having that support, and then family members who will watch my kids whenever I am busy, you know, and just having the right people do all of the things that are necessary in order for everything to just flow smoothly. So I would say I honestly think the balance comes with having all of the support.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

I think that's having all of the support and being able to rely on people, letting yourself rely on people, I feel like also is a skill that is underrated, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah, but it's hard to trust people, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:45

I feel like it is hard. It is hard. I feel like a lot of um families I or people that we talk to, we think are in our I think I'm I'm thinking about like the Punjabi community, South Asians in general. There is like this huge pressure to like pursue certain careers and not go into the creative industry. Did you face any of that or did you find it relatively like safe for you to pursue the artistic world?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

I think when I was younger, I always knew that I had to have some sort of formal education under my belt. I knew that I had to. Um, and pursuing something creative was not really an option for me. It wasn't something that I could say openly and loudly and proudly to my father, like, hey, I'm not gonna do this. I'm gonna be a singer.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Think that was influenced by family, like economics?

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Like, what do you think were the major family culture, you know? Because everybody's like, ha midi, miri tita flam, not dia, mira mgaflam. And I'm just like, hey, I'm gonna be finished. Let me singer, you know, like and so no, and and then and that

Brampton Roots And Early Kirtan Training

SPEAKER_00 20:55

even goes for um like having a partner that's supportive too, right? My partner is so supportive to like I like I couldn't have asked for someone to be any more supportive than and how much he supports me. And so I think it's it's just a combination of all of those things. You know, we have these expectations on us as women, and we're told that we need to do X, Y, and Z. Men are not told as often that they need to do all of these things. They, you know, and from a very young age, like I know so many producers and DJs and and and even artists that from a very young age, they've been in studios since they were 16 with like five of their boys till four in the morning. And nobody stops them. Nobody, yeah, you know, and but that really contributes to being able to create freely when you have that support too, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:44

You have that support when you're also when it's like one safe, comfortable for you to be out at night in a room full of men in an industry that is majority, you know, dominated, yeah. Food male dominated. Yeah. So So that is definitely, do you have like any any advice or anything, any like piece for like young women that are pursuing a creative career in a male-dominated industry?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

I feel like I could go on for hours about this. Um I think the sub the the the biggest piece of the puzzle for me was when I started creating on my own. I think that's when I got my power back. It's when you stop relying on other people to um help you with the ideas. You know, once you tap into your own creativity and you just you keep it going and flowing, then all of the other pieces will fall in place. You know, like the team that I have now, I could not imagine doing everything that I did now five years ago. Now is the time because I I had to develop it, I had to flex the muscle, I had to build myself up to be the person that I am now. And I would not have been able to do that had I not taken that time alone by myself. So for the guys, they can do all of that character building or whatever you want to call it with their boys because they're putting it at a very young age and they're allowed, they're allowed. They're allowed to leave the house. That's literally a thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And for me, I I did it, I have I'm I'm much older now doing it, and it's not that I'm not allowed, but I think I had to go through that. Yeah. And so, and so if you're finding it as a woman in this industry, if you're finding it difficult to be able to get all of those pieces together, but the main piece is that the music is not, the music's not there, or you're not able to express yourself freely, that is the first piece that you need to work on. And it can take years for all of the other pieces to fall into place because it's taken me years. It could take six months, which would be great. I would in an ideal world, it would be great. But for me, it took years. So everything that people are seeing now was not it's not something that just came. It has been building over time, over the last, I'd say, six years, and only in the last like two years, I would say is has really set the foundation for a billow. For billow.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

So it's and and like little, I'm just imagining like little six-year-old simmer who's like starting here classes and is like, I'm a pop star now. Like, that's so cool. Yeah, singing JLo. I used to watch her videos, watching like the British. Watching, looking at all the outfits you're wearing, all the style, all the fun, the creativity that goes into your work. It is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah, like I'm I am that that I used to watch, and I think that's so cool. That's so sweet. Thank you for saying that. Yeah, really sweet. I haven't thought I haven't actually even sat and thought about that. You know, because my daughters now, they will sit and watch my videos and they'll they'll be like, oh, like show me that again or show me that again. Like waiting for certain things.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah, it's so sweet. What is so you have you have you said you had daughters. How have they, two girls? How has that been as an artist with like I don't know, them seeing you as an artist or performing or your videos?

SPEAKER_00 25:15

It's it's it's funny because they just it's second nature to them. Like it's not out of the ordinary for them because they're just now. Yeah, it's really all they know. And so people will be like, do they do they think you're like so cool? I'm like, no, they don't know how cool I am. They don't even know. They don't even know. Yeah, just tell them how cool I am because they don't believe me, they don't care. They're just like, it's just modern.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

It's like it's just mom. Oh, you have no idea how cool I am. Okay, that's so I feel like that's the joy of having children is that you'll you'll always be in check with 100%. They'll always keep you in check.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Yeah. Yeah. Like there was there was this one time we were out, we were eating dinner, and and someone came up to me and they're like, Is this this you? And I was like, Yeah. And um, and they were like, Oh, I love your music, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And then you walked away. And then my my daughter goes to me, like, you know, you're kind of famous, but not as famous as like some of the YouTubers, YouTubers. I was like, girl, YouTubers I watch, she's like comparing you. Thank you. Thank you for putting me right in my place. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

It's it's but still, it's a support in itself. Like it is so special that you get to share this with your family as well. And it's yeah, that is really fun. Definitely love. That's so beautiful. Do we have any exciting upcoming things for Simmer for Bidlow in the next little while that we can look forward to?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I mean, there's there's always things happening, but um, I mean, there's things that I I can't really talk about because there's times when you think something's gonna happen. It's like, yes, it's gonna happen, then it doesn't happen, or whatever it may be. It's we're just going with the flow and whatever happens happens.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

But maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll keep an eye out on your socials at Simmers World. Simmer World?

Support Systems And Women In Music

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Simmers World. Simmers World. Yeah, I would like a flight, one flight, one ticket to go to Simmers World, please. That'd be great. Can I get uh just thinking of like getting a passport that says Simmers World? That would be so funny. Oh my god, that would have been great. That would have been great for the launch party, have little passports. That's cool. Next one, we'll do it. Yeah, this is so exciting, Zimmer. It's been so wonderful to have this conversation with you and hear all about Billow, which is out now everywhere, especially in my head. So it's been great. Anything else you want to chat about this morning, this afternoon for you, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Um, I mean, just go stream Billow. Go stream Billow, everyone. I want to know what what uh vibes everybody likes, which one everybody's enjoying. What's your favorite? I know you said you listened to to Billow a lot.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

I listened to Billow. I've been listening to Rolda as well, like a lot. Um, and then Aja, is it Aja Niyaja? Aja Hurnyaja. Aja Hur Aja. That one is also I like I like how it's like a little bit of this change from the other one. So those ones are the first three that like stick out to me. But I always find because I've been listening to the whole thing, I always find that like my preferences change as I like continue to listen. So I'm yeah, I'll keep you updated, Phylvy.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, let me know. Let me know. And uh let me know what everybody else in the office is enjoying. I always love the feedback. And um, yeah, I just I I really just created this project for the women to feel like they are seen and they are represented. Uh, not just for being um a trophy, not just for being uh good at being loving or being romantic. Yeah, and yeah, not just good at being that, but for being who they are, boldly expressing themselves, being confident, walking into any room, head held high, because you are that billow. And you are that billow. You are that billow.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

What a tagline. I like that. Oh, that's I I think that's really special. So needed in an industry, like you're saying. Like, even when we hear women's voices, it's usually from the perspective of a man, which is a fun kind of like thing that we get to hear.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

That's another thing, actually. I wrote Bab Jak the, which is a which is a song from a man's perspective.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

From a man's perspective. And wait, tell me about that actually. Because I I was listening to it and thinking the same thing. I was like, this is from a man's perspective.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Tell me about it. And so that I I I love the idea of that because women don't do it, we don't write songs from their perspective. So that was my mission with that song. I really wanted to find a way to to you know express adoration for women through the eyes of a man, but also through the eyes of a woman. Because if if I'm looking out at my girls, I could be like to another woman, you know, like and and and it it fits both fits both of that. And I thought that that was truly something special because you don't hear that.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

I a hundred percent agree. I like it was one of those things I was I was listening to, and I had the same thought where I was like, Oh, this is so beautiful. Because, like you said, you are um, so I I have a gender studies background, so I'm gonna get really nerdy for a second. There's always like the male gaze, the female gaze. And then when you look at things um through when you are flipping perspectives like that, you are singing as a woman from a man's perspective, you are seeing through both in a way that I think is so so profound because it one flips the narrative to kind of the objectification of a woman is it's difficult to do when you are a woman, like it can happen, but when you are, it it doesn't allow that to really fully be the narrative that you're carrying. And I also feel like in a in a world where there's like like there is, I want to say a queerness to it in a way that's like the way that and I say that in like the queerness of the I use that word because of how it's used in academia as like it is flipping the narrative when you talk about it. It is flipping the narrative, it is talking about how

Flipping Perspective With Pab Chakdi

SPEAKER_01 31:05

the normal gendered kind of ideations of people that we have, the gendered understanding of the world that we have is a performance. It is something that we ourselves participate in. And through this, you're able to kind of be like, haha, it's actually we can do it from so many different angles. How we view this is up to us. And we, and like it doesn't have to be always a male-dominant narrative that is taking over. There is so many others that are there, and I I feel like Bob Jackti does that for us. So thank you. Thank you for creating that.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Music in general, there's just this as I I find in Punjabi music, you know, there's a lot of um guns, drugs, violence, and and that is so accepted. It's so, it's so celebrated and and you know, great, cool. It sounds good, cool, cool, but it's just not something that I want to do, but I still want to try to do something different. Yeah, and that's that's what I'm always gonna push. I'm always gonna try to push doing something different. Oh wow, you're balancing it all, hey. Yeah, I was trying to just do something a little bit different is is where my head is. It is.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

You're pushing those boundaries, and I really appreciate that. So thank you so much, Simmer. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Y'all, I don't know how I didn't fangirl. That was my conversation with Simmer. My name is Ravia, and thank you so much for listening in to the Universal Radio Networks podcast. I am so grateful for you hanging out with me, and you can keep turning it up with us

What’s Next And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_01 32:45

at 97.9 fm every day from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Edmonton area or at www.theuniversal radio.com. And you can follow us across socials at the Universal Radio.