Rueful notes of a traveller

Mumbai-based indie musician Jishnu Guha’s music stems from his sojourn in various countries.

When it comes to giving names to things, Jishnu Guha confesses that he is terrible at it. So when it came to find a moniker for his band, after moving back to his home in Mumbai, he conveniently went back to the nickname, which he had got in college — Short Round. Explaining further about the band name he says, “Just so that I don’t have to think of another one, and because it is easy to pronounce and spell.” The musician has been loyal to the lyrical folk-rock genre that he had found much early in life. Desperate Times, is his first EP, featuring five tracks.

“I started playing the guitar, when I was about eight, picked it up in Kazakhstan where my family had moved to,” Jishnu says. Those were days when he was listening to The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. Although he has lived in the United States and England, it is Mumbai which he calls his home.

Talking about his music, he says, “With any art form, everything changes with time. My moving around may have influenced my writing.” As what we may find in these lines: This raincloud has followed me everywhere/ From London all the way to Chicago/ Down to the Indian summered streets.

Though often straightforward, his lyrics sometimes hint at subtlety or sometimes even pose the danger of misinterpreting. For instance, Ex, the first track in the EP, is about a moment, and not a person.

“All my songs are about moments in relationships but not just the romantic kind. I don’t know what I am writing, most of the time. Golden is the oldest track in the list, it was written five or six years ago, but in less than an hour. When I looked back at the song, I realised it was about a particular time in my life in 2010 when it was very difficult because I had moved to England. That song was stuffing it all out. As long as you are running you are fine. You don’t have to worry about other people. It is about you at the end of the day.”

Three Minute Record, is probably the odd one out since it was written hours before the recording. “That was written 12 hours before it was recorded. We had another song to record and in the studio I told the producer that I had written this song last night. He asked me to play it and said ‘we will do this one’,” he explains.