Sanjith Hegde’s new EP, titled Sunjuice, glides right through you. A 5 song, 18 minute long record, it has the artist switching languages, maintaining a uniform, clear, pleasing cadence that stands up to its luminescent name. Hegde states, “With this EP, I go back to the summers as a child, playing cricket with my friends and then rush to Ganesh Fruit Juice Centre for some Mango-Guava juice I like to look at all my influences as different fruits, and here’s me tinkering and combining them in exciting ways like Ganesh with his Mango and Guava experiment. This analogy keeps me excited and eager to experiment and that’s all that I need.
I hope everyone that listens to this finds something unique and personal that they can call their own and enjoy as I did my Mango Guava Juice.”
The record sees Hegde utilize his soaring vocals, combining it with his Indian Classical, pop and R&B influences. He does not fail the execution, as a seasoned producer, his EP is light, beautiful, and tender. It starts out with Mandahaasa, and it is an elegant opener. As Hedge intersperses Kannada and English, one hears his resigned honesty seep in through the lyrics — while he croons about someone who could not put up with who he “needed to be”. One of the best things about Hegde is that he enunciates almost every word, which compounds his vocals – and that tied, with the synthy production that has Indian classical instrumentalization helps it achieve the overall sonic identity that Hegde is trying to establish in the whole project.
Gulaabo, the second track off the record, begins with the muted vocals of a chorus. Hegde gets really playful with sound on here, distorting and pitching up his voice while using a bass-heavy backing track. Hegde follows it up with Nange Allava, released as a single – which has now spanned into a hit. Describing the song, he writes, “Making this song changed my life. I’m so nervous and excited to share this with you all. Nange Allava helped me express my rollercoaster of a love life. I’m so grateful to everyone who’s been part of this journey. With this release I feel a lot lighter”. This number has Hegde at his most personal, traversing his relationship – reassuring his partner, and almost paying homage to it. It is sweet, just like the accompanying music video, — not saccharinely so, but just enough for you to be pleased at its earnestness.
BAADAL, the fourth track, released almost a year ago and the one I am the most partial to on the project — has the artist at his vocal best. The tabla is the binding thread on this song, and in his ode to freedom of childlike wonder, Hegde’s layered delivery of “Saanwariya ghar main dhoondhu haan/kaise main jaanu naa/par aaya jaya re”, shows that his interactions with music are not one-dimensional, but instead shaped by proper investment and training.
Manzilein, the last track off the EP, has an Ankur Tewari feature, who has also written the track. It effectively functions as the Hindi version of Nange Allava – with a lyrical callback to it in the outro. Tewari delivers on the lyrics, as he writes, “Behti nadi ko dekha hai kabhi/Tumne kissi kinaare ruka/Behta jaana usko/Aage jaana uska/Likha hua kab se”.
Sunjuice is a good, strong project that has its brilliant moments, and leaves you optimistic, thrilled, even for the artist and his own discography. It is impressive, switching between Hindi, Kannada, and English – and still maintaining a uniform, coherent cadence which many artists fail to create. It is easy to predict that if Hegde does decide to release a full-fledged album, will have one of the most anticipated projects in the country’s musicscape at his hands.
