Gazing out at the water and vast landscape of trees and mountains, Armaan Damani (‘24) stands in a relaxed pose, in solitude and prophetic thought; the ripples from his presence making their way from the lake’s edge to greater depths. 

This is the cover art of Armaan’s new album, “Lost in the Process,” set to be released in late May. Armaan is the definition of a well-rounded student. In addition to playing Varsity basketball for Bishop’s, he avidly creates music—a blend of Electronic and Hip-Hop for his record label, Damani Records. Most notably, on April 8th, he released his newest single, “Didn’t Know Why,” featuring platinum recording artist, 24 hrs, who has garnered upwards of 200 million streams on Spotify. 

Armaan’s previous single, “In The End” features Abstract, an artist who has also established a significant following on Spotify. The weekend after its release on February 11th, the single, “In the End,” peaked at number 66 on the global iTunes Pop charts.

Armaan comes from a musically passionate family and began developing a musical foundation from a young age.“It started with violin lessons at age five,” he gestured. “Later on, I added piano and voice as well. My sister took up playing piano so I gravitated to playing and started improvising. Then I started taking voice lessons so I could become more musically versatile when creating tracks,” Armaan explained. Writing lyrics, he said, came naturally to him. “I started writing poetry when I was in the fifth grade, which is when I found my passion for songwriting. 

While Armaan has always been passionate about music, he said that during the 2020 pandemic, he became even more driven to produce new tracks.. “I was already a musician, of course, but when the lockdown happened, I needed something to work on in my free time.” Armaan buckled down in his home studio and made his first ten songs in which he plays the piano, violin, sings, writes, and produces everything.

That led Armaan to take a studious approach to music production and the music industry itself. Armaan says, “I studied Billboard hit singles from the last 50 years, all the way back to the Beatles. Through that process, it was eye-opening to see the potential areas for improvement. Armaan explains that through Ableton, a software for creating tracks, he was able to improve his music production and improvisation skills. He explains that his goal in the process was striving to develop a “radio quality” sound.

He explains that “Didn’t Know Why” is about a rough relationship that one of his close friends went through. The story details his friend’s heartache in dating a girl. The two had grown up together their whole lives and eventually began dating after he built up the courage to ask her out. However, after months together he caught her cheating on him with a different guy. He tried to move on but he couldn’t get over what they had. It was an agonizing situation for him. The lyrics detail the progression of this relationship.

“Lost In The Process” also holds great meaning to Armaan. He explains that, “it is a huge milestone in my career regardless of how people receive the message, because I’ve spent all of last year crafting my own new and unique sound. All of what I was doing was to develop this new mature sound. ‘Lost in the process’  is my debut album release, and all of the songs are strategically structured and promoted by established artists, producers and songwriters with impressive followings in the music industry.” He explained how balancing his life this year has been particularly difficult with the amount of time he dedicated to honing his craft. “It was crazy,” Armaan exclaimed. “It’s extremely difficult to consistently work on anything for that many hours. I created over 30 songs and I only ended up choosing five of them. I had to explore  different sounds to build a foundation that I can grow from.” He explained that professionalism is what he has been working to establish in his music. “I wanted to separate myself from the common stereotype that many kids my age who produce music don’t necessarily take it seriously,” he explained.

Certainly there is more to come from this young star with his admirable work ethic. Fans of his novel work will anxiously await “Lost In the Process” in May. But for now, “Didn’t Know Why”, is available on all platforms for streaming.