Talwiinder on Taking Punjabi Music In a New Direction and His Persona

An experimentalist in Punjabi music who started out in 2018 and scored big hits like “Gaah” and “Gallan 4” during the pandemic, Talwiinder maintains a deft balancing act between intimate bedroom pop and roaring, larger-than-life bangers. Among the San Francisco, Bay Area artist’s latest tracks is “Someone Like Me,” produced by his go-to beatsmith NDS and featuring lyrics co-written by Rippy Grewal. The thumping, tribal drum-informed track comes with a surreal video, all courtesy of being released via Sony Music.

“Ever since my first release, it’s been only experimental. There’s no restrictions on what genre to do,” Talwiinder says over a Zoom audio call. From lo-fi to trap, boom bap, drill and synthpop, they’ve all been sonic playgrounds for Talwiinder’s releases. Part of the allure, according to the artist, is to treat it like “research to see how people react to certain things.” He adds, “There’s no way to predict what the next song will sound like.”

The effort to stand out is heard on collaborations as well, like “Dhundhala” with Mumbai’s Yashraj and producer Dropped Out. Talwiinder’s EP Nasha also built a mystique-heavy, enigmatic persona – one that extends to his stage performances and visual aesthetic. Talwiinder spent some part of 2022 finally hitting stages in India after being a studio artist for the longest time. He flew down to India to perform at festivals like Zomaland in Pune and Mumbai, donned in what looked like face paint inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead. It was the first time audiences were seeing him live and not everyone was aware of who he was. “I got messages saying, ‘Hey man, our mind is blown.’ As long as five to 10 people get moved, I’m done,” he says with a laugh. The intention is to always hide the face and dress up as a “different character or a certain personality” for Talwiinder shows.

A watershed moment for the artist to release more music, interestingly, came after Spotify launched in India in 2019. “For me that was the happiest thing. I was like, ‘Let’s fucking go!’ It’s no more about just YouTube. Plus I would look at stats for artists like Diljit (Dosanjh), Gurdas Maan or Amrinder Gill – that was eye-opening for me to see how many people in a specific town were listening to them. That showed how fully accepted things were getting,” he says.

In the midst of the ever-changing Punjabi and Indian music space, Talwiinder’s intent is to “do it better than anybody has done anything” in terms of songs and music videos. “The goal is to be the reference that other people use,” he adds. To that end, he has two more songs coming up with Sony Music, apart from his independent releases. “One has a cool underground vibe, like being in a pub and basement. The other is a club banger. It’s a love story. If you played it on the dance floor, the couple don’t even have to talk, this song will do everything for them,” Talwiinder says with a laugh.

Watch the video for “Someone Like Me” below.