Exclusive Premiere: Mihir Lunia Sings About Resilience on Debut EP ‘In a Boy’s Dream’

At the start of this decade, Mumbai vocalist-guitarist Mihir Lunia was fronting rock outfit E for Elephant and went on to perform a bunch of gigs in the city as well as release a pop-rock single called “Girl” in 2015. However, since then, the group called it quits due to schedules and other commitments. With no band anymore, Lunia says, “I figured it would be logistically easier to get things going as a solo act.” The musician is now out with his debut four-track EP titled In a Boy’s Dream.

Lunia, who cites the likes of rock outfits Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple as influences, says, “There was a certain rawness to the music that immediately pulled me in.” Those sounds definitely crept into the musician’s new record which he began putting together this past May. He says, “A constant complaint I have had with rock music coming out of India is just a little effort to make the music ‘listenable’ to get the song to focus on melodies, which is what I’ve tried to do.”

In a Boy’s Dream kicks off with the shiny “Road to Unawatuna” which is Lunia’s take on having to study for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and attain a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He says, “These years were some of the hardest of my life. I took a trip to Sri Lanka and went diving with a few of my best buds at the time and this song kind of came out on an acoustic guitar on the beach on that holiday.” Lunia also gives a nod to his old band when he sings “I never seem to find the end/ I’m rolling round with elephants.” The EP moves to the cheerful “I (Don’t) Want To Talk About It” that according to the musician is “just another and fairly extreme stance on how to deal with a problem and break out of it in a positive way.”

On the power ballad “Straight Lines” which was an old E for Elephant track co-written with vocalist-guitarist Zubin Narielwala, Lunia pours his heart out singing about life’s expectations for oneself. “It’s about the decision of not pursuing music full time — at the time I got a job in finance and I was pissed off with myself about this.” He adds, “Everyone thinks stupid things like, ‘I’m going to be a millionaire at 25 or be married by 30 with babies’ and that doesn’t happen, so the song kind of questions why that may be the case, even though you may be doing everything to achieve what you set out to do.” The record closes with the emotional breakup song “6:8” which includes interesting orchestral arrangements and a power-driven guitar solo.

Overall Lunia tells us that In a Boy’s Dream is about growing up and everything that may come with doing so. He says, “Keep plugging away at your dreams even though things may not be going the way you’d necessarily want. It’s about my thoughts to get myself to persevere and ‘not give up’ and hopefully inspire other people.”

The vocalist-guitarist tracked the EP at Mumbai’s 24Fret Productions Studio and it includes bass parts by musician Jivesh D’Souza. The record was produced and engineered by Mumbai-based Rahul Popawala. “Rahul was instrumental in putting this together. He is the only other producer I found who was obsessed with Alter Bridge and Myles Kennedy so that’s how we started off.”

In the pipeline is a music video for “I (Don’t) Want To Talk About It” and also to hit the stage more often. Lunia says, “The entire idea behind the record was to start playing live again and this time with more original music.” The musician is already readying his next release which is going to be a folk single followed by a full-length album.

Stream the EP on Spotify below and also hear it on Apple Music and YouTube.