Hear Water & Rum Pair Bliss with Laments on New Single ‘silly boi’

After dropping their wistful single “Sticky” in April 2020, Mumbai dream-pop duo Water & Rum – comprising vocalist-guitarist Ramya Pothuri and singer Tanya Shah – returned last month with a brand-new release. Their latest offering is the delightful and acoustic-led “silly boi.”

While the band have been trying to navigate how to work in a post-COVID-19 world, they’ve somewhat succeeded with writing sessions over Skype. Pothuri says, “We haven’t been able to be as productive as we’d like, we’re taking our time to understand how we can make this work.”

Pothuri tell us that the new song was born as a result of several rant sessions that took place. She says, “We were both probably fighting with our then partners.” The musician adds, “Conversations about how silly bois can be and how annoying they can be culminated into a song about people’s silly ways and a desire to be with them regardless, cause we’re all silly and annoying in our own ways.”

With “silly boi” Water & Rum have presented a more upbeat and pop vibe as compared to their previous material. However, the song does retain the pair’s acoustic and organic approach that rests upon subtle guitar percussiveness and strains as well as Pothuri and Shah’s effervescent vocals. The track builds towards the end with a fluid groove and more melodious moments.

“The song follows a light-hearted longing. A fun passive-aggressive attack on how people will do idiotic things and how despite it all we’ll still dream of sweet summer escapes with them,” says Pothuri. She adds, “It’s about rolling your eyes at the mention of someone but still wanting to be with them because of their charming yet silly ways.”

Water & Rum recorded the track at sound engineer Ayan De’s Mumbai studio and also at alt-rockers Spud in the Box’s drummer Joshua Singh’s studio. It was produced by Pothuri and De and also mixed by De. Although Shah and Pothuri have been able to figure out a system to make music virtually, they do miss the efficiency of working together in person. With that said, the pair do have more music on the way, including an EP they plan on releasing later this year.

Stream “silly boi” on Spotify below and on other platforms.