When Indian festivities, like a wedding, are the subject of exploration in art, the occurrence of magic is inevitable. That was also what music producer/DJ duo Lost Stories — Prayag Mehta and Rishab Joshi — intended to sonically capture when they first set out to explore the myriad of emotions that Indian love stories make us feel with their 2025 EP Marigold Soundsystem II. Now, the folk-influenced electro-pop sound of the tracks — Khayal (The Promise), Jahaan (The Connection), Hoor (The Anticipation) and Sunehra (The Celebration) that blended Indian classical instruments — is being traded for a more stripped-back acoustic take. The duo’s prominence is no secret — Leja had a defining role in Netflix’s Mismatched Season 3 and Taaj, alongside Leja, also found a spot in the Khushi Kapoor and Junaid Khan-starrer Loveyapa.
While the popular duo are not new to producing popular earworms with exciting collaborations — case in point, their collaborative mega hit single with Anuv Jain — Arz Kiya Hai — for Coke Studio, this stripped-back version of Marigold Soundsystem II was a result of a particularly interesting collaboration with Jai Dhir, another promising artist who also worked on the lyrics for the original EP. The trio of musicians took a trip to Pondicherry to write and document new music and this became a path to exploring how beautiful this celebration of Indian love stories can be in their intimate renditions. The attempt by Lost Stories for this version was to highlight celebrations and emotions within love more intimately — a notion echoed by Jai. “These songs are about the in-between moments, the glances, the anticipation, the emotions you feel but don’t always express. That’s where this project really lives,” he adds. With the release just a few days old, Rishab joins us in a chat to further delve into why this range of releases is so special to them, how the reception to the original EP prompted deeper exploration of such intimate sounds and lots more.
You are globally recognised for high-energy yet soulful tracks. How does the process of ‘stripping back’ a song for an acoustic release compare to the complete original arrangement?
Like you said, the process consists of literally stripping the original song down to its bare bones. It almost takes us back to the first demo of the song. No layers to hide behind. No effects to run anything through. From there, we try to make the acoustic version sound as cozy and warm as a living room jam. As Rick Rubin would say, we assume the role of a ‘reducer’ rather than a producer for these acoustic EPs.
Why was it important for this specific collection of songs for you and Jai to be presented in an acoustic format right away?
We released the acoustic versions of Marigold Soundsystem 1 tracks — Taaj, Leja & Dori — and much to our surprise, we found the songs instantly resonating with a comparable, if not wider, audience than the originals. So many heartwarming stories, experiences and memories were being shared by our fans in our DMs — in fact, we still receive them. It’s only fair to give our audience an acoustic for this one, too.
What was the most challenging emotion to translate into a musical arrangement for this project and its original version?
Believe it or not, there were no emotional challenges; there actually have never been any working with Jai. If I had to stipulate a challenge, it would be to understand when our work was done and the songs were ready for the world to hear, since there was no single reference point while composing the Marigold Soundsystem sound.
You’ve recently worked on everything from Coke Studio remixes to Bollywood scores. In the current landscape of the Indian indie scene, do you feel there is more freedom now to be genre-agnostic than when you began your journey?
We’ve never felt the pressure to be pigeonholed into any one genre. The entire Lost Stories discography to date is an amalgamation of what we’re feeling in that moment and sharing it with our people. That’s why instead of waiting for the scene to warm up to our sounds, we kind of just assumed that they would work right from the time we started making music. And for the most part, they did.
Marigold Soundsystem II (acoustic) is streaming on all platforms