The New Delhi singer-songwriter adds an enchanting touch to his brother’s carefree rap
Anurag Tagat
Jan 09, 2021
Siblings JVish and Dhruv Visvanath team up for the new song “Lie Awake.” Photos: Nikhil Raj (JVish), Aryaman Dixit (Visvanath)
Following his aptly regal debut single “King” in November, Mumbai/New Delhi hip-hop artist JVish aka Jay Visvanath clearly had more on his mind. While that song portrayed a sense of conviction, there’s another side, a picture of procrastination, painted on his second song “Lie Awake.”
While “King” was produced by JVish’s brother — singer-songwriter Dhruv Visvanath — the siblings took the opportunity to fully collaborate on “Lie Awake.” It bears an unmistakably charming sonic touch from Visvanath in terms of percussive guitar work and swelling string arrangements (plus his vocals and ad-libs) over JVish’s rap verses about wanting to do better when you truly feel like it. The rapper says, “The essence is to capture the feeling lying awake and thinking ‘I can conquer anything,’ basically saying, ‘If I really wanted to try, I know I could do it better than anyone else.’”
The adventurous blend of hip-hop and folk-pop arose after the brothers found themselves relating to being “big procrastinators.” JVish says, “I struggle with building up the courage to get myself to work and create, and with ‘Lie Awake,’ I took it on as a challenge to build a world and sound where I felt like I was an immovable object. Building a unique sound with the way that I play became an adventure. So I have to thank him [Dhruv] for allowing me to explore my own creativity through his music.”
Visvanath says about the collaboration, “Working with Jay is ridiculously simple. I worked off of his energy, and his enthusiasm would drive me to create fun layers on the music in order to bring out the best of what he has to say.”
Listen to “Lie Awake” below. Stream on more platforms here.
