You mentioned that ‘ Raani ’ is minimally produced to mimic a lullaby or a soundtrack to monsoons . Could you elaborate on the production plan for the track and how you achieved that desired effect ?
So when I started producing it , I made a map of sorts to guide the process and define the boundaries of the process . Even before the recording started I had taken a call to not add drums or a bass to the song which allows the song to have a lot of breathing room and that in turn makes the guitars the solitary rhythmic element in the song . I wanted to retain some of the lo-fi tones from the past versions so I had to retain a lot of the sound of the room I was recording in . The guitar was made slightly jangly for it to feel like someone is playing in the same room as the listener . The vocals were recorded along with the guitars so that it sounds like a cohesive performance and in that way any errors would add character . The harmonies were added so that the song had a graph . I added the keys last because I felt that the song needed some element as movement between sections .
In your letter to fans , you discussed the often uneven relationship musicians have with their creations . Could you expand on this and how it relates to your personal journey with ‘ Raani ’?
We often make things that reflects us who we are when we made it . ‘ Raani ’ is like that . It reflects a 17-year-old . I had written about something that I never experienced and I was always aware of that . When people started listening to the song and shared messages of their relation with the song I felt a bit lost since I was privy to how I wrote the song . With time I outgrew the song since it stopped reflecting me and
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28 highonscore . com this lead to disdain for the song for a very long time . I never anticipated the love the song would receive and to this day I don ’ t have a complete understanding of it but now I have learnt to accept it and respect people ’ s emotions towards the song . In some ways releasing the song also helps in officially closing this chapter .
Can you provide some insights into your upcoming projects , particularly Hindi EP you mentioned ? What can listeners expect from it ?
The new Hindi EP was recorded over an year . It started as a songwriting practice and one day it also started making sense as a body of work . It is the sound of 80s Bollywood Nihilism . Because it was part of a songwriting exercise , I ended up playing each and every instrument on the record , from the drums to the trumpets . I am proud of what I ’ ve written and produced . It is meant to be dark and funny .
As an artist navigating the indie scene , what are your views on the current state of the independent music industry and its impact on emerging artists like yourself ?
To be honest , I haven ’ t been able to have a grasp on what is happening with the industry . I think we ’ re in a stage where everyone is trying to keep up with all the different platforms that are available to share music . However , we ’ re also at a point where multiple Indian acts are levelling up and doing large scale Indian and international tours . This if not anything else , helps make headways for the rest . I think barring the process of how
the music is released and touring cycles we also really need to spend more time to come up with better quality writing . Everyone has the potential to really up their game and be honest in our writing .
How do you balance your roles as a singersongwriter , producer , and visual artist ? Do these different artistic endeavours influence each other in any way ?
For me all these roles are selfserving . My visual arts are fairly limited to my own music now . I look at my body of work as a coming together of all these elements and it allows me to think of it as a whole as opposed to just music or just visuals . I can ’ t compartmentalise these things that well . Production is the only role that I offer to other artists as well . It allows me to explore sounds and techniques that I might not particularly use with my own music . It ’ s also a great way to understand how different people write and think . All of this eventually helps my own music practice as well .