Before starting work on this EP, I was yet to decide what musical direction to take for the next EP because my preferences as a listener were changing. I also found it to be at odds with the trend I generally saw in music production. I was more and more drawn to European classical music and contemporary artists who kept their music very acoustic, like Natalia Lafourcade and Rita Payes. Such music encouraged me to explore a more barebones and intimate sound for this EP, especially this song.

---

Lyrics:

Moulding arms and moulding minds
The tears on clay cheeks have long since dried
And his eyes are closed while his heart is mending
Hanging by a string

His hands still are holding on to dance
His feet still remember all the steps
Falling in and out of time
Love seeps through his hands, some left behind
He's holding on to search her eyes
For traces of hope

Drenched in water, her hands run over
Erasing creases and tiny craters
She draws new rivers with her fingers
And traces a smile

Her hands still are holding on to dance
Her feet still remember all the steps
Falling in and out of time
Love seeps through her hands, some left behind
She's holding on to search his eyes
For traces of hope

Ember

Traces

Stay was the first song I wrote for the EP. It's also the song that took me the longest to figure out, mainly because of the drums. The rhythm was a bit of an experiment for me. And following the plan to keep the recording process as simple as possible, I decided to program the drums. It didn't end up being quite so simple because it went through many iterations until it came to this barebones version, and it finally received the approval of my trusted critics.

---

Lyrics:

They hold inside their minds
A swarm of fireflies
That trail the starlit skies
While they sleep tight
They sing new melodies
To ragged poetry
They taste how their love
Has changed with time

See it burn
See it hurt
See the sweetness and warmth
Colours fade into gloom
Until they dream anew
And they taste every drop
And they stay
They stay for more

Days in summer sweat
The sun in copper hair
The autumn surprises
They make their guesses
Spring tells them stories
Of new beginnings
And cold winter nights
When they long for touch

Roses turn to dust
The shade of drying blood
They melt and fall to earth
And wait to be whole
They reach for their weapons
They take their knowing aim
They know how to tear
What's built with their hands

And they taste every drop
And they stay
They stay for more

Stay

So many of us went through loss during the pandemic, including myself. I spent a fair amount of time trying to make sense of it. It was hard for me to believe that it's not reversible, that there's no way for me to fix it. I learnt what it is to deeply long for someone and to have no option but to live with that feeling. This song was a way for me to fabricate a visual that could comfort me and help me find some kind of a resolution.

---

Lyrics:

She opens her eyes deep inside the sea
Like she dreamt
She finds on the floor a place to call her own
Like she dreamt
She swims over to the corners
Before she nests in
She's going about doing everything
That she dreamt

Piece by piece she built
With all her favourite things
A garden to play in
With every fish she ever knew
And tree she ever climbed
And moth she ever chased in the sun

The stars on the sea she watches from her bed
She's wide awake
A life beyond the brim with tales of joy and grief
She's peering in
She held their love through the storm
And it's safe still with her
Some love she has left for them to stay afloat
Above the brim

Piece by piece she built
With all her favourite things
A garden to play in
With every fish she ever knew
And tree she ever climbed
And moth she ever chased in the sun

Piece By Piece

Before the pandemic hit, I had the chance to play with Nikhil Mawkin and Nathalie Ramirez as part of Los Cuenta Cuentos, where we played a collection of Latin songs. They also introduced me to Son Jarocho which is folk music from Veracruz, Nathalie's hometown in Mexico. Playing that music always felt very uplifting to me.

One of the instruments used in that music is Jarana, which I absolutely loved exploring. Nikhil and Nathalie let me keep one while they were in Mexico. Then came the lockdowns, and I had to be away from my flat for a long time. When I returned I saw there was a seepage problem in the house and the Jarana was damaged beyond repair. 

When the song Lines was written, I remember trying to choose between two arrangements. In one of them I imagined using the Jarana and a strumming style influenced by Son Jarocho. Eventually that's the arrangement I went for, but going with what was now available to me, I played a Guitalele in the style of a Jarana.

---

Lyrics:

The winds gather pace underneath her skin
She calls on a storm with her fingertips
Entwined in the battles that rage within
She longs to be free from the cage she's in

Her eyes flushed with photographs soaked in red
Of her licking her fingers as she bled
Of lines that they drew so she stays within
Did they know the taste of it like she did?

And she's walking out
Of the lines smeared across the floor
And the mouths are gagged
Of the ones that she's known so long
Pretences dropped
That she doesn't enjoy the taste
And she's searching for more

The face she's smearing all over with ash in hands
Is a face she guarded all her life
The name she's wearing all over her skin and mind
Is a name she fought with all her might
When she played inside the lines

A smoke of their voices engulfs her eyes
They're mourning the loss of a long-known child
She knew there's no reason to shed a tear
When insane masqueraded in spotless white

She crawled to the edge of the tame
Where her heart and her brain
Can't tell the play from pain
So close to the touch is her shame
That she could finally face
When she had the words
That never were said

Lines

Akash Vincent Band live at Depot48, Delhi on March 31st 2023. 'Anyway' is a song from Akash Vincent's second EP Polaris.

Belén Ojeda - clarinet
Chie Nishikori - trombone
Vatsal Bakhda - keys
Tanisha Bhatnagar - bass
Ritesh Thapa - drums
Akash Vincent - voice and guitar

Mixed by Akash Vincent
Photo by Ajitesh Bohra

Anyway - Akash Vincent Band live at Depot48

Akash Vincent Band live at Depot48, Delhi on March 31st 2023. 'Seasons' is a song from Akash Vincent's first EP Postcards.

Belén Ojeda - clarinet
Chie Nishikori - trombone
Vatsal Bakhda - keys
Tanisha Bhatnagar - bass
Ritesh Thapa - drums
Akash Vincent - voice and guitar

Mixed by Akash Vincent
Photo by Ajitesh Bohra

Seasons - Akash Vincent Band live at Depot48

Akash Vincent Band live at Depot48, Delhi on March 31st 2023. 'Troublesome' is a song from Akash Vincent's second EP Polaris.

Belén Ojeda - clarinet
Chie Nishikori - trombone
Vatsal Bakhda - keys
Tanisha Bhatnagar - bass
Ritesh Thapa - drums
Akash Vincent - voice and guitar

Mixed by Akash Vincent
Photo by Ajitesh Bohra

Troublesome - Akash Vincent Band live at Depot48

“Taking Over”

It’s silence that asks for a sound
It’s chains that ask you what it’s to be free
Now tell me what do your lies ask of you

I thought you’d be there to see me end
I guess it’s time for us to move along
So for now it’s goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

And it’s funny this song you liked is now about you
And I hope it seeps right in like they always do
I’ll carry on doing what I do the best
Despite you who came along with your short-lived stay

So sit back and watch me
Take over this world we see
Enjoy the show with who it is in place of me
There’s things left to be said and to be done
They won’t mend on their own
So don’t waste your time waiting for me

Choose your facade or to come clean
I well see the choice you made finally
So go bask in the cheers of the ones that don’t know you best

Leaving was easy wasn’t it?
You saw no need in exchanging words
And words you cannot expect when you try to return

So don’t waste your time waiting


CREDITS

Drums: Nikhil Mawkin
Bass: Abhinav Khokhar
Trumpet: Rohit Gupta

Recorded, mixed and mastered at Red Mawkin's Studio

Photographs: Tarun Sharma

Taking Over

When you stand in front of me
with your head low
Oh there's nothing I'd want more
than to hold you up and love you so
And these eyes that speak so much to me, now tell me
Do I not answer your questions? Do I not show you
what it is I see?
Ask me why I don't ask for you
Ask me why I don't plead with you
You're a picture I've fallen in love with
Though troublesome it might sound to you

I will not change your smile, your joy, your laugh
So mischievous
Even if it means not taking you by your hand
Not if it's away from this world so dear to you
This world that makes you who you are

In all your childish ways, in all your womanly grace
In all that you dream so strong
You're a picture I've fallen in love with
Though troublesome it might sound to you

And my hands might not hold you the same
And my heart might not love you the same
As what you had known for so long
But they are only some of the things I can do
to make you uncover parts of you
And know you're even more beautiful
When you're bare and I see the world through you

Oh now lay out all your cards to me
Show me all as flaws you see
And I will kiss them and tell you
That they’re a part of what makes one in love with you

In all your childish ways, in all your womanly grace
In all that you dream so strong
You're a picture I've fallen in love with
Though troublesome it might sound to you

www.akashvincent.com

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Polaris EP credits:

Fabio Carlucci - trumpet
Rie Ona - saxophone
Utsav Lal - piano
Aman Mahajan- keyboard
Nawahineokala'i Lanzilotti - cello
Abhinav Khokhar - bass
Nikhil Mawkin - drums
Chayan Adhikari - backing voice

Produced by Akash Vincent
Co-produced by Nikhil Mawkin
Mixed and co-produced by Gaurav Chintamani
Mastered by Steve Nagasaki, Nagasaki sound
Trumpet, guitars and cello recorded at The Piano Man Jazz Club by Ananddev Banerjee
Vocals recorded at Quarter Note Studios by Gaurav Chintamani

Artwork by Nandini Bansal

All songs written by Akash Vincent

Polaris

Troublesome

Lyrics:

I’m changing mask after mask
All I feel at home with
is my skin, as far from the celebrated
it may seem to be
I am young, it’s a long way to go
before I have weathered the storms
To see the fruit that my own heart bears for me

Melodies and words
On a paper could you tell me who I am?
I'll send off these songs
To the world as bottled letters
But do they speak for me?

There are so many faces in frames
from which I may choose to be
So many lives
from which I may choose to lead
I will keep myself
from getting lost
If I remember what my chase is all about
It's not to be for them
But to find out who I am

It's only now that my hands
know to tell the anatomy of me
from the words that made their way in ink in front of me
It's time and time again
I find myself realizing I
cannot judge my own book
by the chapters unfolded to me

So my heart, you need to speak to me
We need to be in this together you see
Show me what hopes you are made up of
And show me what scars you need to heal of
And I will find for you
a life you may find redemption through
Where I will always remember
Where I will always remember
Yes I will always remember
That it's not to be for them
But to find out who I am

www.akashvincent.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Polaris EP credits:

Fabio Carlucci - trumpet
Rie Ona - saxophone
Utsav Lal - piano
Aman Mahajan- keyboard
Nawahineokala'i Lanzilotti - cello
Abhinav Khokhar - bass
Nikhil Mawkin - drums
Chayan Adhikari - backing voice

Produced by Akash Vincent
Co-produced by Nikhil Mawkin
Mixed and co-produced by Gaurav Chintamani
Mastered by Steve Nagasaki, Nagasaki sound
Trumpet, guitars and cello recorded at The Piano Man Jazz Club by Ananddev Banerjee
Vocals recorded at Quarter Note Studios by Gaurav Chintamani

Artwork by Nandini Bansal

All songs written by Akash Vincent

Who I Am

Akash Vincent is a singer-songwriter living in New Delhi.

Akash Vincent

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