Janisht Joshi releases his first EP — Talkhiyan — turning discomfort into art

I wanted to do Talkhiyan for a while, but I first wanted to get through 15 or 16 releases and see what people connected with. Those songs also helped me find who I am artistically. When I wrote these five songs with the intention of them being a project, I realised it was the right time. I never wanted to just put out songs and then call them an album. I wanted it to have intention from start to finish. I sat with some of my closest friends, wrote these songs and everything just clicked.

Talkhiyan is actually my favourite collection of poems by Sahir Ludhianvi. I read it when I was 20 and was blown to bits. I knew immediately that my first project would be called this. The emotion of it, the bitterness of it — it says something terrible in such a sweet way. It sounds beautiful but means bitterness. The EP also tells the story of a bitter person coming to terms with who they are, so it felt right from the beginning.

Honestly, the EP is all over the place. There’s a romantic side of me that didn’t exist in the music before and there’s also a more outspoken political side. I don’t think listeners are seeing one particular version of me; they’re seeing a more accurate representation of who I am. These songs are very honest. There’s not a line in them that isn’t representative of how I feel.

About a year ago, I was slowly realising how much I disliked myself and how uncomfortable I was with who I was. That’s where the journey started. I realised I couldn’t feel like that forever. The EP became a journey of coming to terms with myself. I’ve had to accept that I’m not always cool and that I can be a horrible person sometimes, but every day is an opportunity to do better and be kinder.

Every song was written differently. Some happened incredibly quickly, while others took multiple sessions. What’s precious about the experience is that I wrote them with some of my closest friends. Over the past year, beyond the work itself, it was just really cool to spend time with people I love and create something together.

I hear a lot of my favourite artistes in it. There’s definitely The Strokes. I hear Bleachers, Nirvana, Sahir Ludhianvi’s writing and the music from Guru Dutt’s films. At the same time, all the artistes who worked on these songs brought their own influences, and I think that’s awesome because I respect them so much.

Not creating the music — promoting it. I’m horrible at marketing. I feel like I’m boring people by telling them to listen to me. It feels like selling something I’ve made, and that’s not enjoyable for me. The creative part is great. I’ve been lucky to have amazing support from my incredible team.

Me. I think I’ve become a better person over the course of making this project. Not substantially — I’m still a work in progress — but I think the process made me kinder, more perseverant and more patient. I genuinely feel better about who I am today than I did when I started.

Apart from some rage, chaos and maybe a little love, I hope people take away the feeling that life is worth living fully. Everything around us feels broken sometimes and can seem overwhelming. But being alive every day is a miracle. We should try to have fun and make the most of it while we can.

Honestly, I don’t completely know what the song is about. To me, it’s about obsession — a feeling you chase almost like an addiction. It could be a person, a substance or some kind of activity. It’s about becoming so attached to something that everything else feels bleak without it. When something cures your loneliness to that extent, maybe you’re already in too deep.