Bhumi, Aksomaniac and Mohammed Hussain Rahman on creating Amsham and pushing indie music forward

I think we all just had our own perspectives to speak about, you know? It really wasn’t something we forced. The three of us organically met in the middle with our own narratives while still sticking to the story behind the record. I think that’s how you know this song was really meant to be made. We didn’t really have to try too hard and force something out of the collaboration.

My approach with Amsham was to just make it mine. Melodically, I love creating what defines a Bhumi verse, so I just started there. I have so much fun playing with all these different emotions that I feel when I listen to music. So, that was my main focus — to just have fun with it and make it me. It’s like a painting, the record — I don’t usually go with the idea of what it should be, I let the music tell me what I think it should be and follow.

For me to love a record enough to make it mine, it needs to bleed emotion. I want to feel every single thing that the production is pushing me to feel. This goes past the point of something being technically good, because if the music doesn’t move me, I don’t really feel like adding to it. I love working on music that leaks, music that is too much, music that doesn’t need to be defined for it to be great. Post making a record, it can be explained in any way, but the process of me making it or me loving it has to be pure and intense.

I grew up around carnatic music, so those instincts stayed with me even without deep formal training. R&B and hip-hop, on the other hand, are genres I chose and explored intentionally. So, carnatic is something I inherited, while R&B is something I gravitated towards. That blend happens naturally. With Amsham, Bhumi brings in her classical training — and while we experiment with elements like konnakol, I still see it primarily as a pop R&B track.

At its core, Amsham is about the hesitation to fall in love, the quiet awareness that to open yourself up is to invite pain and yet choosing to do it anyway. Through Manmadhan (the character in the song), that hesitation takes on a different weight. His fear isn’t just emotional, it comes from something far greater, something almost otherworldly in its consequences. But what draws me to the song is how it holds both truths at once. In the end, no matter the scale of the stakes, he surrenders to love.

I think Malayalam indie is at a really interesting point right now. Independent artistes are gaining traction and that traction is being validated by films, which is opening up space for them within a much larger pop culture ecosystem. At the same time, indie isn’t just feeding into film, it’s also pushing beyond it, experimenting and moving the sound forward in its own way. For me, that makes it an exciting place to be as an artiste, because it allows me the freedom to explore and shape my sound the way I want.

Songwriting has always been a form of journalling for me, so it starts very personal and stays that way through the entire creation process. I don’t really hold back while writing. That shift only happens later, once the song is finished, when I start thinking about how it will be received or packaged for listeners. I’m also still finding my voice as a Malayalam writer, so, right now it’s more about being honest and discovering my space rather than filtering myself.

For Amsham, I consciously stepped away from my usual approach. I typically work within 3/4 or 4/4 time signatures, but this track explores a completely different time signature. I changed my portion to a track beat to align with that shift, focusing more on a hip-hop-driven sound. I wouldn’t classify it as EDM — it’s primarily a blended hip-hop beat.

Blending the different styles was definitely a big effort. The whole credit goes to Akso, who invested a lot of effort into shaping that cohesion. To complement that, I experimented with variations in my composition style so that my sections would seamlessly align with the overall blend.

For me, it comes down to the strength of the production. Once I’m confident that the production quality is solid, the lyrics are complete and the arrangement is ready, I feel assured that the track is ready. It’s about ensuring every element comes together tightly before making the final call to release.