Exclusive Premiere: Sanjeev T Offers Empathetic New Song ‘Bure Khayaal’

Continuing the spate of songs written during lockdown, guitarist-composer Sanjeev Thomas‘ in-progress album Future addresses mental health and sensitivity on the latest release “Bure Khayaal.” Calling in singer-composer Keya Pothen and rapper Kartikay, the Hindi song is the third release off Future and carries forward Thomas’ love for lo-fi chill-hop leaning production.

In terms of picking out collaborators for the songs, the guitarist says he usually hones in on a “feeling and space” for the track’s intent and has been scouring social media to look for interesting voices. “I’ve been choosing fairly new artists for this album, describing my feelings of the song to them. The thing that is common in all these songs are that they are on emotions which were born during this pandemic,” Thomas says.

Over nimble percussive and electronic elements, Kartikay lays down a pop and hip-hop hook and Pothen’s vocal melodies are wandering in layers throughout the song. There’s a sweeping string section as well, showcasing a part of Thomas that most would be familiar with, given his previous releases like St. [2018] and Epic Shit [2013]. The artist points to Kartikay’s seemingly easygoing flow that’s reminiscent of Canadian star Drake as something he wanted on “Bure Khayaal,” while Thomas’ mixing and mastering engineer Rahul Ramachandran recommended they call on Pothen, a friend from before, as “a constant blanket over the song.”

While there’s been a handful of singles already out for Thomas this year, he says the next release off Future was written outside of the lockdown [releasing in December] and moves in a different direction. “The new tracks will be slowly moving out of downtempo, showing some kind of positivity and pace. I hope to release a video for ‘Bure Khayaal’ soon first, directed by my brother Rajeev Thomas.”

Listen to “Bure Khayaal” below. The song releases on all platforms on October 29th.