It is rare to find an artist who moves seamlessly between the DJ booth, the cinema screen, and the world of sound creation. At just 25, Ann Aarat —born Anju Sreekanth in Delhi and now based in New York—has been steadily building that kind of career. She is a singer, songwriter, producer, DJ, filmmaker, and sound designer, but those titles only scratch the surface. What really defines her is the way she listens to the world, breaking sound apart and reassembling it into something entirely her own.
Most listeners were introduced to Ann Aarat through her song “Red”, her debut single as Ann Aarat and then came “Wake Up”, the single she released earlier this year. “Wake up” was made without traditional instruments. Instead, Ann recorded over twenty different people and bent their voices into every element of the song—drums, guitars, basslines, synth textures. Her own vocal floats above it, fragile at times, commanding at others. The piece plays less like a pop single and more like an experience: communal, layered, urgent. It also sets the tone for her upcoming EP, a project composed entirely of vocal samples.
But music production is only one side of her work. Ann has also built a reputation as a DJ, performing at local venues in New York such as Mood Ring, Pianos, and the LYRA Rooftop Party in Manhattan. Her sets reflect her fascination with texture—more about journeys than predictable drops, full of sudden shifts that keep the floor on edge.
Then there is her growing footprint in film. Ann directs her own music videos and earlier this year had a private premiere for her first short film, “why her?”. A psychological drama, it was built in reverse: she wrote the score first, then allowed the story to emerge from the music. That process gave the film an unusual rhythm, moving like a piece of sound design rather than a conventional script. Thematically, it dealt with the unpredictability of thought, the way the human mind can slip into strange, dark turns.
Her connection to cinema is more than creative—it is professional as well. Alongside her projects, Ann works as an Artistic Metadata Auditor at Output Inc., a respected music technology company. The role may sound technical, but it requires the same sensitivity that runs through her artistic work. She listens to thousands of sounds created for Output’s software instruments—such as Arcade and the new AI-powered tool Co-Producer—and tags them with metadata that captures not just the function of a sound, but its emotional weight and creative potential. It is meticulous work, bridging the gap between art and technology, and it has sharpened her ear even further.
Taken together, these different roles—artist, DJ, filmmaker, sound designer, auditor—reveal a portrait of someone constantly listening. Ann doesn’t treat sound as background or decoration; she treats it as story. Whether she’s layering reversed vocals into an electronic track, shaping a film around a score, or combing through samples in her professional work, she is always asking the same question: what does this sound mean, and how can it move someone?
Looking ahead, Ann wants to spend more time on sound design for film and series, meanwhile she is working towards getting ‘why her?’ into film festivals. It is a natural extension of her interests, allowing her to use sound not only as music but as narrative. “Even silence can carry meaning,” she has said, a reminder of how deeply she thinks about the spaces between notes.
For now, though, “Wake Up” remains her boldest statement. It is music that doesn’t sit quietly, music that asks to be felt as much as heard. It also makes clear that Ann Aarat is not chasing trends. She is building her own world—one where DJing, sound design, filmmaking and scoring are all part of the same creative path.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann.aarat/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaratann/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnnAarat
