Exclusive Stream: Suraj Mani’s Optimistic Ballad ‘I’m Fine’

It was only recently that veteran singer-songwriter Suraj Mani – formerly frontman of rock band Motherjane – decided to go fully solo and not depend on his band, The Tattva Trip. He had been on a house gig tour last year and came away forming stronger connections with fans he never knew he had.

Mani says, “The thing I’ve noticed in the last six months is that I’ve developed a bunch of fans who relate to me much more personally than the ones who were following The Tattva Trip.” Of course, a national lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic means Mani is also adequately prepped to take on solo shows from his own room. He says with a laugh, “I’ve gone from being a guy with a guitar in a room to a guy with a guitar and his phone reaching across the globe.”

He regrets he doesn’t have a home studio setup, but earlier this year, Mani recorded his four-track EP Rinse and Repeat with guitarist-producer Keshav Dhar at Illusion Audio in Mumbai. Prior to releasing the EP, Mani has a new song called “I’m Fine,” which is releasing on April 17th (stream it exclusively below). The gentle acoustic tune was born out of a conversation that Mani had whilst he was catching up with a close friend. “I’d dropped in at his place after many long years and I still cannot forget the memory of him sitting in the middle of a big house and telling me about how his wife and he had decided to separate. For the next few days, I remember I kept thinking about him and I finally ended up writing down pieces of our conversation, adding to it, and re-framing the situation to capture what I hoped, would come to be.”

The song is minimal in its arrangement and Mani says his material is “a different animal” compared to Motherjane and even his 2012 album The Tattva Trip. To retain the poignant feeling of “I’m Fine,” Mani says he didn’t feel the need any more sonic elements, but he does hint that Rinse and Repeat isn’t at all quiet and slow. “All four songs are in all four different directions. I think it’ll surprise everyone,” he says about the EP, which will release in May.

Listen to “I’m Fine” below.