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You’ re known for your focus on quality and storytelling. What did thejourney of crafting a cohesive story through this album look like?
For me, storytelling is in the arrangement, the tone, and the intention behind every sound. Even when I’ m writing instrumentals, I want each piece to say something, to mean something. I’ ve never been interested in just noodling on the guitar for the sake of showing skill. Every note, every chord, every transition on this album was carefully chosen to carry emotion and purpose.
Take Flight in the Dark, the intro of the album. It’ s not just an ambient track. It sets a mood that flows directly into Bring to Light, which then explodes with intensity. Similarly, Heart of Tomorrow was written as a bridge, a thematic and an emotional transition that would allow Kaadambari to sit naturally within the album. Kaadambari sounds unlike anything else on the record, so Heart of Tomorrow was like the thread that sews it in. These kinds of decisions are all part of the larger storytelling.
But of course, storytelling also lives in how the music is captured. I was incredibly particular about the recording quality because that’ s what gives the music weight and depth. Me and Paarth( Drummer) travelled to Wave Trap Studio in Ludhiana to track drums not just for great gear, but also because the room had the right sound. Paarth, recorded his parts with incredible attention to detail. I didn’ t want him to just“ play the parts”. I wanted him to make it his own. His style shaped the character of many of these songs.
The same goes for Aditya, who played bass and has been a key part of the live setup as well. Both of them know the music deeply, and I wanted this to be their album too and not just mine.
For guitars and bass, we built our own setup at Pracheen Kala Kendra, where I felt grounded and in control. My friend Ranbeer engineered those sessions. He’ s someone who gets my sound on a personal level and I’ ve prefered working with right from the first album.
Vocals were treated with the same care. Nandini Srikar’ s vocals were recorded at Tonic – The Sound Factory in Mumbai with full attention to sonic detail. Emma recorded her parts in a space she felt emotionally connected to, and that intimacy comes through in the takes.
The orchestration, arranged by Jashandeep, was done using top-tier sample libraries with an ear for dynamics, drama, and feel. His work added a cinematic layer to many of the songs, and he approached it with the same sense of storytelling that I had while writing.
The Score Magazine
18 highonscore. com