Gouri and Aksha Get Introspective On Debut Single ‘Look Inside’

In just a year since they formed, Mumbai soul/pop singer-songwriter duo Gouri and Aksha have accomplished quite a bit. They’ve toured Japan, opened for Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice at house gig series Sofar Bombay and are now out with their debut pop offering, “Look Inside.”

Musicians Gouri Ranjit and Aksha Kini met on the sets of Aladdin The Musical which premiered in Mumbai last year. “During rehearsals for Aladdin, we’d sit at the keyboard and write and sing harmonies for songs we both liked,” says Kini. She adds, “When the play traveled to Delhi for a month, we got to share a hotel room where we wrote together for the first time, and we loved what we created and the whole process of it.”

That process usually begins with a musical idea by Kini before they develop a melody and jot down lyrics. She says, “I maintain a journal where I put down all my lyrical ideas — some complete, some incomplete.” Ranjit adds, “We send each other lots of voice notes and they turn into songs.”

Their new song “Look Inside” is laced with everything from crisp harmonies and pop/jazz sounds to a funky outro. On the song, Ranjit says, “It’s supposed to sound and feel like an introspective journey, navigating through all kinds of thoughts and feelings, the good and the uncomfortable, ultimately at peace because of it.” She says further, “Through all kinds of relationships, you know the most important is the one you have with yourself and you have to nurture that.”

The track includes trumpet parts by Chennai-bred Aldrin Dominic Alexander and chunky guitar by Mumbai-based Nakul Krishna, who also produced the track. Gouri and Aksha recorded their vocal parts at Mumbai’s Island City Studios while it was mixed and mastered by Ishan Naik.

The duo also released an aesthetically pleasing animated video to go with the song. In the clip – illustrated by Pune animation artist Anusha Menon – a young girl is seen sitting near a lake as the night passes her by. “Anusha got so into the track that she made this entire music video, personalized down to even featuring our cats Obito and Pakalu. It really completes the experience of the song,” says Kini.

Next, the pair has more music in the pipeline. Ranjit says about prepping their debut EP and a tour next year,  “We’re only just scratching the surface of what we can do together.”

Click here to stream the song. Watch the video below: