Kamakshi Khanna releases her new single, ‘Breathe’

Mumbai, 25^th January 2023: Singer-songwriter Kamakshi Khanna released her single, ‘Breathe’, across all platforms on Friday, 20^th January 2023. A song about anxiety and self-doubt, ‘Breathe’ was written at a time when Kamakshi felt burnt out with being a musician. It captures the pain of almost giving up on your dreams, only to relentlessly fight your way back to a place of hope each time. The animated video by Anjali Kamat portrays a mind that feels like a war-zone and narrates a story about an artist crumbling under the pressure of unrealistic expectations, uncertainty, and self doubt.

Watch the song here:

“‘Breathe is a song I’ve been carrying with me for years. I started writing it in my early 20s when I couldn’t make sense of my anxious thoughts. It helped me come to terms with my worst tendencies. Self-doubt has been one of the most exhausting battles that I’m still learning how to fight, and I hope this song can help someone who’s going through something similar like it helped me,” says Kamakshi.

The song features musicians Karun Kannampilly on drums, Apurv Isaac on guitars, Adil Kurwa on bass, Tarana Marwah on keyboards, Ajay Jayanthi on strings and Gaurav Raina on production and mixing duties. “The dynamic arc of the song captures the journey of a mental breakdown and your mind spiraling into a loop of negative self-talk. The arrangement is a reflection of that journey with a consistent loop going on on the ukulele, growing into a cinematic and orchestral piece to represent the war-like battle with anxiety. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with some of the finest musicians in the country on this one,” shares Kamakshi about the process that went into creating the song. The single is released independently and accompanied by a set of visualisers, comprised of sketches by artist Anjali Kamat and videos shot by Mohit Tiwari.

Kamakshi Khanna is a Mumbai-based singer-songwriter whose music draws inspiration from diverse influences, ranging from RnB and Soul to Pop and Indie Folk. Her journey is one of conscious reinvention as she continues to embrace new styles and experiment with her sonic identity. An overthinker and daydreamer, most of Kamakshi’s ideas come from sudden spurts of introspection inspired by her lived experiences and tendency to attach emotional depth to the mundane.

For a lot of her listeners, her music embodies strength in vulnerability, and her songs are earworms for solitude and reflection. Having established herself in the Indie music scene with numerous live performances across the country and collaborations, Kamakshi released her first Hindi single in 2020 called ‘Qareeb’, a song about a girl who grows and learns to love herself. ‘Qareeb’ received widespread critical acclaim, with over 1.8M views on YouTube and 1M+ audio streams across platforms.

In 2021, Kamakshi released her single ‘Duur’, a collaboration with composer and producer Kabeer Kathpalia, a.k.a OAFF. The song captures the struggles of a surface-level existence and personifies the feeling of detachment from the world both inside and out. The Indie hit recently also got placed on the soundtrack of Madhuri Dixit’s much awaited digital debut, ‘The Fame Game’ on Netflix India. Her other notable stints in the OTT/film world include ‘Chhan Chhan’, a soundtrack in collaboration with composer duo Parekh & Singh part of the Zee 5 series, Kaun Banega Shikharwati starring Naseerudin Shah, Soha Ali Khan & Lara Dutta and ‘Tere Jaisa’, a collaboration with Vaibhav Bundoo heard in the Netflix Series, Kota Factory.

Apart from her major releases, Kamakshi also runs a unique series on Instagram & YouTube called Green Room Sessions, where she shares the most initial, and stripped down versions of her unreleased music. The series has gone on to receive a lot of love from her fans with 300K+ views across all platforms.

Kamakshi’s music draws inspiration from diverse influences ranging from RnB and Soul to Pop and Indie Folk. However, her journey is one of conscious reinvention as she continues to embrace new styles, and experiment with her sonic identity. An overthinker and daydreamer, most of Kamakshi’s ideas come from sudden spurts of introspection inspired by her lived experiences and her tendency to attach emotional depth to the mundane. For a lot of her listeners, her music embodies strength in vulnerability and her songs are earworms for solitude and reflection. Her noteworthy performances include major festivals (NH7 Weekender & Vh1 Supersonic) as well as intimate concerts (House Concerts, Sofar Sounds). In 2018, she performed a solo US tour across cities like New York, LA and Austin. She also appeared on Season 1 of India’s first English singing reality TV show, The Stage, and finished as one of the top 6 contestants.