Exclusive Premiere: Kanishk Seth Journeys Through Consciousness in Trippy ‘Saacha Sahib’ Video

Producer and singer Kanishk Seth continues to draw from the timeless poetry of India’s mystic saints on his latest EP project Surmayi. The first single from the record arrives with his powerful interpretation of Saint Kabir’s words on “Saacha Sahib,” joined by sublime, classically-steeped vocalists Kavita Seth and Javed Bashir.

The song and new three-track EP comes on the back of his 2021 single “Ki Jaana” and his remix of singer-composer Subhi’s track “Wake Me Up,” among several other commissioned projects. On the personal front, Seth completed his masters in music production, technology and innovation from Berklee College of Music in Valencia last year. Surmayi was conceived during his time in Spain. “I knew that I needed to make a collection of work that had synergy, both musically and visually,” he says.

The goal seems almost immediately realized with “Saacha Sahib,” whose animated music video is directed by Shikha Sharma and Adarsh Panicker, with animation artist Anisha Panicker. Over buoyant fusion arrangements, the monochrome animated story plays out with a protagonist (modeled after Seth) journeying inward through a vortex of mind-expanding visuals. Bashir and Kavita Seth sing the main hook through their weathered yet wise harmonies, “Saacha sahib ek tu, banda ashiq tera.” Although there are several interpretations of these two lines alone, it concerns itself with the notion of devotion to the almighty. By the end of the protagonist’s sojourn, we see tears of enlightenment.

Watch the video for “Saacha Sahib” below.

In addition to having his mother Kavita on “Saacha Sahib,” Seth also brings in his brother Kavish Seth on duitara and acoustic guitar. The song also features Marco Pisani helming the burst of electric guitar riffs, violinist Wei Xiao and tabla artist Chaitanya Natu. Below, Seth speaks with Rolling Stone India about the track, bringing on board a veteran vocalist like Javed Bashir from across the border, and more. Excerpts:

What kind of work has gone into readying a collection of songs for Surmayi, compared to moving from single to single?

While studying at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, this idea came to me that each track from my EP should be accompanied by a video with a unique theme and visual concept, but in black and white. That’s where the name Surmayi came from—[it’s] a play on words because it means “grayish” in Urdu, which is a metaphor for the amalgamations. [It’s] a blend of the black and white theme, as well as the fusing of the musical two genres—Indian Classical and electronic.

What led to having Javed Bashir on the song? What were your inputs for him like? And with Kavita Seth, were these lyrics something she’s performed before and now it’s taken on a different interpretation for her?

Javed Bashir came to our studio almost eight years ago with the intention of just meeting us. But when we hummed “Saacha Sahib” to him, he immediately jumped in to record it and we all made sure he interpreted the song in his own style.

Even though the composition was almost a decade old, my mother had never recorded or performed this song. But when she did, after recording Javed ji, she could see both their voices complementing each other and left everything else (music production and the entire vision of the song) to me.

“Saacha Sahib” pulls in different directions sonically but also stays true to your signature sound. What did you want to introduce with this song?

For this particular song, I chose to depart from my conventional music production approach by creating more dynamics, including the use of synth arps, konnakol, tabla fills and violin fills and also introducing a drum and bass section in the end. I wanted the song to be intricately produced without limiting either singer to a grid, and give room to sing in their style.

What can we expect from the next two songs from Surmayi?

In the next two songs, I’ll be singing a beautiful ghazal written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and a spiritual song written by Baba Bullehshah. Both videos will maintain the black and white theme, but they’ll explore an 8mm camera-look and face-projection mapping. Fun fact, both the videos are directed by me.

Listen to “Saacha Sahib” below. Stream on more platforms here.