Hear Guitarist-Producer Mayur Koli’s R&B Laced Debut EP ‘Unspoken’

Mumbai-based Mayur Koli is quick to admit that the only reason he picked up the guitar in 2016 was to “look cool and impress people.” However, once he heard Guns N’ Roses magnum opus “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” Koli dug deeper into the world of guitar. He uncovered gems including legendary axemen such as Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and BB King. “I slowly started becoming serious towards the music,” he says. Koli grew in his experience as a guitarist winning college fests in Mumbai with his band and soon also began learning production simultaneously. He says, “I started exploring other genres like hip-hop, R&B, trap, pop and I really started liking them.”

During the lockdown, the artist started producing his own music and those sessions led to him releasing his six-track debut EP Unspoken.  

The record’s title comes from Koli bottling up things that he’d kept unsaid. He says, “This is a conceptual EP keeping in mind those days that really hit me hard and was one of the reasons for my anxiety and insecurities.” The producer adds, “Each track narrates a story and also answers the questions on why I was lost and disengaged with the world.”

The EP opens with a spoken word intro before it slips neatly into the contemporary “House of Cards” aided by silky vocals from Harsh Vaibhav. The moody hip-hop track “Heartfelt” features verses from rapper J while vocalist Trisha Gaitonde adds to the dynamics. The penultimate track is the R&B pop offering with singer Dwain Willis showing off his insane range while the EP closer “Last Time” featuring Anoushka Sivasankar behind the mic levels up in terms of her delivery and vocal variety.

On the collaborations, Koli says, “I approached musicians around me with the concept, keeping in mind their capabilities and dedication towards music.” Unspoken was produced entirely at the artist’s home studio while Mumbai-based sound engineer Hanish Taneja mixed and mastered it. “He is the one who helped me to achieve my sound,” says Koli. The producer plans on continuing to keep the collabs as his main focus as he grows as an artist. He says, “I want to experiment on different genres of music by adding my own flavor to it.”

Stream ‘Unspoken’ on Spotify below and on other platforms.