‘Yethetho’ is a song for the ache you can’t name

Yethetho, a new single released by MS Krsna and Sublahshini, is what it sounds like when two souls collide. This one isn’t for the charts, it’s for the hearts.

When composer and producer MS Krsna began working on the song, he wasn’t chasing trends. “It’s based on personal experiences I went through over the last six months,” he says. The result? A track soaked in longing, shaped by late-night thoughts, analogue instincts, and an intuitive collaboration with singer Sublahshini, whose voice he had admired since 2022. “In a couple of sessions, the track was done. She brought in not just her voice but also a shared emotional understanding,” he shares.

Sublahshini calls Yethetho “a very honest song”, one that wasn’t constructed for social media virality. “We didn’t think about fitting into a trend or ‘making it for the gram’. It just came from a raw place.” Her recording process for the track was itself unconventional. Rather than singing whole lines, she recorded word by word to create the impression that the voice was coming from multiple places at once. “That was new for me, but it sounded great in the end.”

The track was built without a click track, using a single guitar take as its backbone, which all the musicians, including violinist Ritu Vysakh and flautist Lalit Talluri, responded to live. “It was almost like how music was made in the old days, with everyone playing together,” Krsna says.

The sonic choices were deliberate. “We wanted the vocals to blend into the overall texture, creating an immersive, unified sound rather than having any element stand out. It was inspired by AR Rahman sir’s approach, where each listen reveals something new depending on the system or setting.”

If the song were a painting, they both imagine something dark and melancholic. “There’s a lot of push and pull in the narrative,” says Sublahshini. “Two people trying to find light but never quite reaching it. They’re drawn to each other but ultimately pulled apart, and that melancholy is the emotional undertone of the track.”

Krsna experiences music through synaesthesia, a sensory condition where sounds manifest as colours. “For me, this song was always red, black, and night. I surrounded myself with those colours while producing this.”

That melancholic tone isn’t a burden. It’s a timestamp. “Whatever I was going through at the time, you can hear it in how the song is sung and written,” says Krsna. “It’s like a diary entry. When I listen to this 10 years later, I’ll know exactly what I was feeling.”

This release marks a turning point in both artistes’ trajectories. For Sublahshini, it’s her first independent release in years. “I haven’t released an indie track in a while. I mean, I’ve worked on independent music, but nothing that came out in the last two to three years. If I’m not wrong, my last was in 2023 — something I created independently for a movie. Before that, in 2022, there was just one song that came out in Mismatched 2. So, with no indie releases in 2024, Yethetho really feels like me returning to independent music after a long time. It’s definitely a notable moment in my musical journey.”

Krsna shares, “I’m branching into larger arrangements and new sonic palettes. It feels like an evolution.” Yethetho also came together quicker than Krshna’s usual projects, two months from start to release. “Usually I tweak a lot, but this time, I trusted when it felt emotionally right. That was the moment to let it go.”

Letting go also means accepting that listeners may find their own meaning in the song, which might be far from what the creators intended. “That’s the fascinating part,” Krshna says. “But Yethetho seems to be landing exactly where I hoped, in people who have felt the same emotions.”

Speaking about what she hopes the track offers listeners, Sublahshini shares, "All I hope is that Yethetho becomes a song someone can fall back on when they’re feeling sad or alone. Personally, I’ve always turned to music during lonely times — it felt like a tight hug, like someone was there with me even when no one was. I hope Yethetho becomes that kind of comforting presence for someone else."

Both artistes have more projects coming up. Sublahshini is re-entering the indie space with this song and is currently working on an independent English EP, set to release track by track in the coming months, and MS Krsna is also gearing up for the release of the movie Kaagangal, which he has worked in.

But for now, they’re quietly proud of a song that feels like a new chapter in an old diary.

Yethetho is out on all streaming platforms.