Today we’d like to introduce you to Prisha Mehta.
Hi Prisha, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
This is a difficult one because to answer because “my story” is kind of all over the place. I make music, write songs, and perform, but I’m also a committed student who enjoys learning and serving my community. I guess if you were to slap a title on me, you could say I’m an “artist-advocate”? I don’t really know. Much of the past few years of my life has been me trying to find a way to balance and accommodate what many would consider incompatible passions for music, academics, advocacy, and public service.
My love for music, however, started out much earlier than my love for the latter two. I don’t come from a very musical family, but when I was really young, I remember listening to a lot of Bollywood music, Boney M, and Michael Jackson. I took piano lessons, voice lessons for several years, took part in a lot of school musicals. At some point along the way, when I was around twelve, I started thinking of music as a career. One summer in middle school, my dad encouraged me to audition for this year-long music program down in Dallas and that really shifted my attitude about music and what a career in music might look like. I started performing cover songs by some of my early favorites – Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Jessie J, basically all the other 2010s pop stars you could think of – at venues and contests around town. I sang at restaurants, sports games, local festivals, and at the end of the program, at the House of Blues in Dallas, where, to my surprise, I won Best Overall Entertainer in my cohort. At the same time, as I was becoming increasingly committed to performing and singing, I found my commitment to my studies and to community service growing as well.
The same year I took part in the music program, I was elected President of the National Junior Honor Society at my middle school and spent the year juggling performances and organizing and participating in community service activities. During this time, I not only grew as a performer, singer, and songwriter, but I also started developing opinions about things happening in our country and around the world. On social media and in conversation, I often tried to separate one side of myself from the other and became known among my peers and family either as “the girl who sings and stuff” or “try-hard NJHS president.” I actually had two separate Instagram accounts for a while. While I was going through all this identity crisis stuff, I picked up songwriting. I think now would be a good time to plug in the fact that I was (and still am) a big Swiftie. Taylor Swift’s songwriting style played a huge role not only in my decision to start writing songs but in the way I started writing them as well. The first song I wrote was in fact a country-pop song that I think I titled “Starlit Night,” about some girl laying down on the grass under, you guessed it, a starlit night. A lot of my early songs were tweeny love stories or frustrated monologues about my inner confusion and conflict set to acoustic guitar.
A couple of months or so after I started songwriting, I released my first song, “Gloves no Makeup,” which was sort of my attempt at metaphorically saying the “I’m going to be myself and stand up to haters” thing. I started working with a local producer and since then, I’ve probably written or drafted a couple hundred song ideas, five of which have made their way onto streaming platforms: “Movie Scene,” “Plans,” “In the End,” my most recent “Chosen,” and my personal favorite “Lose it All.” When I first started writing, I didn’t really have a clear idea of the kind of music I wanted to make. I did a lot of experimentation, and that’s evident in my songs if you listen to them: one is a sort of EDM track, the other is a jazz-infused pop song, Movie Scene is a mid-tempo acoustic track. My music taste has evolved drastically from when I was twelve, and I guess I’m in a place now where I finally feel like I know where I would want my songs to fit on the genre spectrum. Of course, I still love Taylor Swift, but I’ve been absolutely in love with The Strokes, HAIM, Arctic Monkeys, Phoebe Bridgers, The Police, and a lot of other indie-rock-alternative stuff for the past few months. I recently got the coolest electric guitar, which is also having a big influence on the songs I’ve been writing for an EP that I’m starting to work on.
Over the past year, I’ve become a lot more focused and confident not only musically but as a person too, I guess. I’ve really been trying to find a way to bring my passion for advocacy, community service, and music together with everything I do. As a junior in high school last year, in addition to writing songs, I was super busy with school and dedicated a lot of time to working on service projects as a National Honor Society officer and preparing as captain of my mock trial team for the Texas High School Mock Trial Tournament. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I can do with my passions, but I definitely believe that there is a way to fuse music and advocacy together to make something wonderful.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with an amazingly supportive family and stable home life. A lot of the challenges I’ve faced have to do with juggling music, school, community service, mock trial, and other political clubs and organizations. I definitely have a lot on my plate and balancing everything while finding time for family and friends has definitely gotten overwhelming at times. A lot of the songs I write end up being about those challenges. I’ve realized that while it is important to be ambitious, it is even more crucial to make time for yourself and stay focused on the things that matter to you the most.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work lies in both music and advocacy. When I’m not listening to music, doing schoolwork, or performing, I’m most likely volunteering, working with my mock trial team, or helping out on a political campaign. This past year I led my mock trial team to the state championships. I’m super proud of our work despite everything being virtual. I won Best Advocate at our regional tournament and also won some smaller awards and nominations at later tournaments. In regards to music, over the past year, with everything closed down, I didn’t do many live performances and spent a lot of time writing when I got a break from school. Now that things are slowly opening up, I’ve started performing again and have a couple of fun gigs and festivals coming up, which I plan to announce soon. In addition to the original music I’ve released on streaming platforms, I post covers of my favorite songs on my YouTube channel and often post clips of originals on my social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok. Some of my most recent covers are of Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license,” Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?”, and Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.”
My most recent original release is a song called “Chosen,” which is a fun, upbeat pop song. Like I mentioned before, the music I’ve been starting to work on recently is different and more cohesive than the individual singles I’ve put out earlier. I don’t want to spoil too much but it will definitely be more me; the lyrics will talk more about things that I really care about, and the sound will be a lot more in line with my matured musical taste. Another project I’ve been working on that brings my passions together is a community service project called Project Kind Packs, which is an initiative I started last summer with a school friend to support kids in Title 1 schools in Dallas ISD. This fall, we’re going to be working with a school in Dallas to provide books and school supplies for students in need and are working on hopefully organizing a benefit concert to help us raise funds. We’ve currently reached around $400 of our $5,000 goal and really appreciate any contribution. Finally, I guess what sets me apart as an artist is my commitment to my education and community service. I really do think it’s important as artists to be educated, give back, and use our platforms to speak about important things. An artist that I’m really inspired by in that regard is Rina Sawayama. She makes awesome music, but she also studied Politics and Psychology at Cambridge and continues to use her platform to speak about things like equal rights. How brilliant is that?
What does success mean to you?
Success to me is knowing I made a mark on my community and that I did so while being the best and most authentic version of myself. Sometimes it’s easy to lose yourself when the world is so competitive and expects you to be moving so fast. With technology and social media these days, there are a lot of tools at our disposal to “fake it till you make it,” but I think you really have to make sure that you aren’t putting the cart ahead of the horse. I would rather take it slow, go at my own pace, and make sure I’m being honest with myself and the people around me.
Contact Info:
- Email: epicartist007@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.prishamehtamusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prisha.mehta/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prishamehtaofficial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/prishamehta8
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PrishaMehta/videos
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3yjiXc8IV0xxzUFi2Xum3t?si=AyE3wzs9QpieQnJHz5DNcw&dl_branch=1
Image Credits
Eric Van Brunt, Dharmin Mehta
