Jasleen Royal: ‘I Tend to Get Bored Doing Similar Stuff Repeatedly’

Singer-composer Jasleen Royal makes sense of newfound freedom on a solo trip after a breakup in the music video for “Assi Sajna,” her synth-pop-informed song made with beatsmith Intense and lyricist Aditya Sharma.

Shot in Thailand, the cinematic music video for the Punjabi song from Royal is out as her first song of 2024, but there’s plenty more in store. The artist tells Rolling Stone India in an email interview, “I actually have a few more songs already waiting to be released. Hopefully, you’ll be hearing back-to-back new music from me this year.”

For its part, “Assi Sajna” delivers club-friendly grooves and carefree vocals with the potential to match her chart-topping proclivities. Royal says she doesn’t exactly remember when the song was written but knows that she didn’t overthink it. She adds, “Subconsciously or consciously, I just strive to keep exploring different musical directions. I tend to get bored doing similar stuff repeatedly. I’ve done everything from an outright dance track like ‘Nach De Ne Saare’ to ‘Din Shagna Da’ to ‘Kho Gaye Hum Kahan,’ and then ‘Heeriye.’ With each song, I just get excited to try something new.”

In our interview, not overthinking comes across as a key factor in what allows Royal to make music the way she does, with the potential to be a hit. She talks about her recent projects “Dastoor” and “Mann Dhaaga” and influences for her sonic and thematic choices. Excerpts:

Rolling Stone India: Your last project ‘Dastoor’ had a music video that felt more like a short film with all these great actors. What is it like offering your music up to audiences in that sort of package that feels more familiar to Bollywood fans? Or is it not that intentional? 

Well, I’ve worked on both Bollywood films as well as independent music over the years. But honestly, for me, it’s just about the music at the core. The process of creating a song doesn’t really change much. With ‘Dastoor’ specifically, the song itself had this narrative-driven vibe that felt very cinematic. So bringing in phenomenal actors like Jackie [Shroff] sir, Neena [Gupta] ma’am and Babil [Khan] seemed like an extremely natural creative choice to elevate that storytelling aspect. I’m personally not a huge fan of run-of-the-mill, generic music videos.

‘Mann Dhaaga’ was more of a collaborative project — what do you usually seek out of a collaboration of that scale with other artists?

Oh that was a lot of fun, collaborating on ‘Mann Dhaaga’ was an absolute blast! It all started when Yashraj [Mukhate, composer] sent me that beautiful melody, and I instantly forwarded it to the incredibly talented writer Anvitaa [Dutt], with whom I’ve worked on ‘Ranjha’ before. She then wove some truly magical lyrics around it. As the song took shape, I felt [composer] Amit Trivedi‘s talent would take it to another euphoric level. So I quickly reached out to him as well, and that’s how our ensemble came together for this special song. It was an incredibly fun and creatively fulfilling experience for all of us to collaborate and shoot the music video for ‘Mann Dhaaga’ together.

What kind of themes and stories are you drawing more from these days in your music? 

[Laughs] You know, I don’t really consciously overthink or plan out specific themes when it comes to writing music. I’m someone who experiences emotions very intensely on a daily basis. So it’s quite difficult for me to predict exactly what kind of narratives, insights or feelings might ultimately serve as the inspiration and shape the stories behind my upcoming songs. The creative process is very organic and intuitive for me in that sense.

In terms of the sonic choices, what kind of ideas are you being drawn to and what kind of artists have you really been enjoying?

In terms of sonic inspirations lately, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying listening to [American singer-songwriter] Julia Michaels. Also, [Pakistani singer-composer] Ali Sethi is just mind-blowingly good. Recently, I discovered this beautiful song called ‘Sukoon’ by [Pakistani pop duo] Hassan and Roshaan, and I couldn’t stop playing it on loop. Such a brilliant piece of music.

What else is coming up in 2024?

Well, let’s just say you can expect it all from me this year! Apart from composing music for films, there will definitely be more independent solo songs and potential projects in the pipeline as well. It’s going to be a year packed with diverse musical offerings from me. But you’ll have to stay tuned for more details on those!