Hershawn Arora is learning how to pave his own way in music. The Canadian rapper has been writing music for years, and he is finally ready to release his debut album Hopeless Romantic.
“[As a kid] I started watching the music videos of Eminem and trying to transcribe the lyrics on my computer,” Arora said. “I was just so obsessed with how he made the words work with each other.”
His fascination with lyrics and rhythm was the beginning of Arora’s interest in music. He would watch and rewatch videos of Eminem rapping until he knew it by memory.
“I wrote my first rap song shortly after for like a poetry class in fourth grade and ever since then it was just something that I stuck with and kept trying to get better at,” Arora said. “Needless to say, I was the coolest kid in fourth grade.”
After finishing university, Arora had an important decision to make: continue his education and earn a master's degree, or pursue his passion. This was an internal battle he found himself facing regularly. There was an expectation he would go to medical school, study hard, and become a doctor. However, after getting his bachelor’s in Medical Sciences from the University of Westen Ontario, Arora had an opportunity to step back and contemplate whether or not he had what it took to build a career as a rapper.
“I thought to myself do I really want to do a master's or am I just really trying to prolong two years of not doing what I really want to do,” Arora said. “I remember thinking well I really like to make music... so why don't I just go full throttle into that?”
What followed was a five-track EP called Flyin’ Away with themes that encapsulated Arora as an artist at that time. He laughs as he reminisces about making the EP with his childhood friend Jahlee as a producer and Dionysius French as a producer/sound engineer. They were all relatively new to making music which is what made the project so special. Arora describes this time as innocent and freeing. All they had was a laptop and their own creativity. There were no limits to what they could create.
“We were like we're here, we have absolutely nothing to lose, so let's just have fun and do whatever comes to us,” Arora said. “It was not like we wanted to craft a specific sound, it was like yo let's craft a sound.”
They started by recording in Arora’s closet in his childhood home, but now have graduated to a makeshift studio in the basement.
“I wish people could see where I record. I took two mattresses and I stood them up, then I put one thing behind the microphone that's like covered in blankets,” Arora said. “It looks like a 12-year-old made a fort but the sound is really nice.”
As nostalgic as this time made Arora, this was also when he began doubting himself as a musician. He would go on social media and could not help but compare his success to that of his peers.
“We have so much accessibility, we can see everyone else,” Arora said. “I can see people that I look up to and I'm like ‘wow they're so much further ahead of me’ and I just want to be there.”
He began wondering if this was a realistic career, so much so that he began applying to medical schools again. Suddenly, the wide-eyed kid fresh out of college became cynical. This was a low for him, a time where he was miserable and lost, but one that he insisted was necessary to go through.
“That's probably the biggest lesson here in these early stages of your career is when you’re gonna build that character, that confidence, that resolve that it's gonna take to be successful at that level,” Arora said. “It was something that when you get through that low you realize there is something on the other side. And because of that low, I got a lot of the really good songs on my next album.”
He took a second and sat back in his chair. Even through the little box on Zoom, I could tell he was thinking back on the hardships he faced, and how difficult it was to pick himself back up. Arora speaks a lot about the grit and grind that goes along with building a career in the music industry. If you did not know any better you would think he was a veteran instead of being in the early years of his career. This self-awareness is what makes it possible for him to not feel this overwhelming pressure to constantly churn out new content to keep his numbers high.
“Today I was writing a song in the morning and I looked in the mirror and I was like ‘look at how happy this shit makes you’,” Arora said. “You can't deny that this is what you wanna do, you just gotta work hard to make it a reality.”
As an independent artist, Arora often has to do more than just write music. He has to help produce it, publish it, and market it.
“There are some times where I feel a creative burnout,” Arora said. “It's like there are 20 things to do because all the hats are on me and I'm like ‘okay I have to find a way to manage this…’”
One of those hats is special to Arora, it is the weight he carries trying to be one of the first people that look like him to make it in rap. It is not something you really think about when you are young, but once you start telling people about your aspirations, you realize there is no one that looks like you doing the things you want to do, he said.
“There is definitely that barrier to get over to try to be the first person of my demographic to try to [become a rapper],” Arora said. “That's the main thing that keeps me going is trying to be a voice for people like me. I can't be the only Indian kid who doesn't want to be a doctor and wants to do something creative... so for me to be one of the firsts and be able to pave that road and set that standard, that's something that is my main motivation.“
From his first release Tell Me in 2020 to his most recent work, you can hear the evolution of his sound as he and his team evolve as artists. Something that remains a top priority in Arora’s creative process? Being as transparent as possible. He shows me a giant stack of papers full of lyrics that may or may not eventually make it into a song. You have to really love your craft to spend every waking hour writing new music that you know may never see the light of day.
We talk about musicians like James Morrison and Stevie Nicks who are known to write thousands of poems that never make it into songs. “It’s never a waste,” Arora said. Even if it is a terrible song at least you are writing, and who knows maybe a single line could turn into a whole song he said.
His respect for rap and the artists that have influenced him is what keeps Arora grounded. He does not talk about growing up in a culture of violence because that was not his reality, and pretending that it was would be disrespectful to artists that have lived through it.
"I'm a nice, kind-hearted dude, I like making love songs, I like rapping about my life and everything that I have seen so everything that you see coming from me is just a reflection of my reality."
He grew into his first album. He learned a lot creating his EP and was ready to craft the piece of work he has been dreaming of since he was a fourth-grader rapping about a library card. The album has an R&B influence and was created with his previous producers and in collaboration with fellow Canadian musician Sarah Catharine providing vocals to three of the tracks.
“I made a conscious effort to order the songs in such a way that it really takes you through a narrative of what's happening to me in these moments of my life, Arora said. “A lot of my favorite albums, especially hip hop albums... they’re cohesive. And then you listen to them from the front to the back and you're like oh I don't want to skip a single song because it's so captivating. That's my goal. To make that cohesive piece of work where you listen to it and you feel like you've been moved.”
The creation of the album took roughly 15 months. This time was spent going over every lyric, instrumental, and vocal to get it just right. After its completion, it left room for Arora to envision a future for his music.
“I just want to get better at what I'm doing, enjoy every step of the way and connect with as many people as possible,” Arora said. “I think that's all I can hope for. I have to really take a step back, get some perspective, write the best songs I can write, be the best person I can be, and then have faith that somewhere down the line the work that I'm doing now is gonna pay off.
Hopeless Romantic is out now. Listen here.