Pune Singer-Songwriter Himanshu Chavan Presents Folksy Acoustic Debut EP ‘Sparks’

Pune singer-songwriter Himanshu Chavan counts himself as a writer first before being called a musician. It was only a few years ago that he transitioned from penning poetry to songs. With a bank of around 30 tracks, Chavan sought advice from fellow singer-songwriter Piyush Bhisekar on how to go about performing the material. “He [Bhisekar] was kind enough to tell me about various open mics happening across Pune.” It was while performing that Chavan ran into producer Sunai Marathe, who wanted to work with the artist on an EP.

20-year-old Chavan says, “I was on the fence about the idea because I felt it was too early for an EP. But I eventually decided to give it a try and we stepped into the studio.” Earlier this month, the singer-songwriter dropped his five-track acoustic-led EP Sparks.

The record opens with the poignant “Sparks in a Jar of Snow” which is about the “irony of human life” before we hear the jangly “Again” in which Chavan sings of “little things about one person that you won’t even notice unless you’re in love.” The mid record track is the striking “Voice” that requests for patience while the emotional “They” is a song for Chavan himself. He says, “A fierce reminder of who we are and why we shouldn’t care about being anything ‘they’ want us to be.” The EP closes with the nostalgic “Through the Night,” where the singer-songwriter explains that this song “speaks of a mind who’d rather listen to the heart.”

Talking about the EP overall, Chavan says, “The mood is of a chilly winter night where you start by looking up to the stars wondering what role you have to play in such a grandiose scheme of the universe.” All the tracks stem from the artist’s personal experiences and have been backed by mellow instrumentation to allow it to blossom. The songs were recorded at Pune’s Gray Spark Audio and while Marathe produced it, Nitin M Krishna and Ronak Runwal mixed and mastered it respectively. “These guys made it sound exactly the way I envisioned it. Raw, natural, and intimate,” says Chavan.

With music videos for two of the tracks already out and one more on the way for “They,” the singer-songwriter is also readying clips of him performing the songs at prominent locations in Pune for a series called Songs From The City. Chavan also wants to tour the record across India next year if the situation around the pandemic is better. There’s also more material and possibly another EP coming out in 2021 too. Chavan says, “I want to expand on the acoustic motif and add bluesy rock and roll music into the mix.”

Stream ‘Sparks’ on Spotify below or on Apple Music.