In a world where everything is a race against time, Brijesh Sarin refuses to succumb to the pressure of working against the clock. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter’s debut album End of Teenage, a coming-of-age record, captures his journey into adulthood. A project that has been years in the making, it even features songs he wrote on the back of his notebook at 12 years old. For the Ahmedabad-based artiste, vulnerability comes naturally. Unafraid of honest lyrics, he puts storytelling above all else, turning the album into an archive of his youth. In this conversation with Indulge, Brijesh opens up about his latest release, his songwriting process and the journey ahead.
Excerpts:
Your debut album archives your youth. What inspired you to chronologically structure the record?
I think most albums are a collection of songs which are sonically similar but don’t really tell listeners a story. So I wanted my album to flow. When I looked at my archives — the songs that I had written and the songs that I loved— all of them automatically fell into a chronological order. The timeline is almost similar to their order in the album. That’s how the record turned into a beautiful story from the first to the last song.
What were the toughest parts of the entire creative process?
The toughest part of my creative process would be the voice in my head telling me that I need to get it right, because I can only do this once. I’m not going to get any redos or re-releases, so I want to get it right. The biggest challenge for me is to convince myself that the songs have reached their optimum level.
Walk us through your songwriting process.
I like to write songs which narrate a story. So there’s no process to my songwriting, but sometimes I come up with a line, and think, ‘What would the story that came before this line be?’ Or, ‘What did I feel before and after the line?’
Do you have a favourite lyric you’ve written?
I have a favourite lyric from my song Toota, which is - subah mein meri na dhang hain, shaamo mein bhi na koi rang hain, karwaton mein meri na sukoon hain.
Cataloguing your youth is a mammoth task, especially with End of Teenage being your debut album. After establishing a precedent such as this, what comes next
This album took me nearly seven years to finish. During this time, I've grown as an artiste, as a songwriter, and as a musician. I’m really excited about what’s coming next because End of Teenage is just the beginning of something beautiful in my career. So I’m excited about my next releases, and I hope that they’re going to be as good as this one, if not better.
End of Teenage is out on all music platforms.
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