Hear Tanmaya Bhatnagar’s Comforting New Single ‘I Can’t Go Back To Sleep’

After releasing her highly acclaimed melancholic debut single “Kya Tum Naraaz Ho?” earlier this year, which amassed streams in the hundreds of thousands, New Delhi singer-songwriter Tanmaya Bhatnagar is following it up with her latest song, the heartening “I Can’t Go Back To Sleep.”

Bhatnagar opens the new track by singing, “It’s 5 o’clock in the morning/Can’t seem to close my eyes again/I dreamt about you my darling/You gave me flowers and a song to sing.” She says, “Those lines basically convey how the song came to be and what the narrative is. This song literally comes from my subconscious and from the emotions that I had been holding onto for a long time.”

The track grew out of a dream the singer-songwriter had two years ago in which she experienced happy moments with a person she once loved. The artist says, “Still hazy from the dream I felt almost compelled to write about what I had just dreamt of.” Although Bhatnagar penned the song on her ukulele, the recorded version now features pleasant keyboard work from Rishabh Sanghi, guitar, bass and drum parts by Amar Pandey, cello and harmonies by Aarant Sarangi and arrangement and backing vocals by Reuksh Alagh. The singer-songwriter says, “On one hand, I wanted to preserve the rawness of this song and keep it very minimal but I also wanted it to have some warmth, layers and fullness so I decided to work with multiple instruments and have it properly produced.” “I Can’t Go Back To Sleep” has been produced by New Delhi’s Utkarsh Varma aka Shoals and mixed and mastered by Sidharth Gupta.

Over the last few months, Bhatnagar has kept herself busy performing on social and also contributed a song called “Kya Yeh Tumhe Pata Hai?” for a movie titled Comedy Couple. She says, “That was extremely exciting.” Now she’s all set to shift her focus towards working on her debut album while also staying optimistic that the situation with the pandemic eases. “I am hoping that venues and stages will start welcoming people so that artists can come and perform soon and connect with their audience,” says Bhatnagar.

Stream “I Can’t Go Back To Sleep” on Spotify below and on other platforms.