'Exciting to travel overseas with music'

22-year-old singer-songwriter – Evan Sinton popularly known as MAALA – shares his journey from being a teenager making it to the top three in 'New Zealand's got Talent', to being one of the most sought after singers in the country. On his maiden journey to India, he is performing in Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi on June 7, 8 and 9 respectively. The award winning singer is best known for his romantic songs 'Touch' and 'Kind of Love.'

Excerpts from an interview over the phone with Evan:

Well, I practiced piano as a kid and started songwriting during high school. Then I happened to participate in the reality show 'New Zealand's Got Talent' during my final year in high school and came third, that kind of opened the door for me into the industry and brought me closer to like-minded people. After that, I started working on the Maala project.

It was a very quick decision. I did not think of it for long, I just wrote down the alphabets and thought that it looked cool on paper! It was completely

random. (laughs)

Musically speaking, the kind of music that I grew up listening to and which motivated me the most, have been songs of Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan, and Robert Plant. These were the voices that I was really into. Even though my parents aren't very musical themselves, I had an incredible amount of support from them. I have some good friends around me and I make them listen to my songs to get some honest feedback.

There was an invitation to come over and play, the idea was introduced through an email. There I was, in my room writing songs, and then I got a call from my manager asking me whether I wanted to come to India, and I was like 'of course I do!' India had been on my travel list for a while and I'm really looking forward to my visit but I'm also terribly nervous. It is so exciting to go overseas with music.

There is a guy who I worked closely with at Sony, who's been a mentor of a sort to me. The people in my team as well have been working with me for about five years, and it is a lovely feeling to know that it's not just me... there are these people who are committed to making it happen and taking my music out there.

It changes constantly... I'm really happy with the ones which haven't released. At the moment I like 'forget about you' from my recent songs. I write about the things I see around me, it is hard to pinpoint the things which exactly inspire me. The last song I wrote is about a girl I had a crush on, haven't told her yet! I might just show her the song. (chuckles)