Name: Sijya Gupta
Nationality: Indian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, producer, composer
Recent release: Sijya's new EP Leather & Brass is out September 12th 2025 now via One Little Independent.
Recommendations for Delhi, India: I’d recommend getting parathas at Moolchand. Sit on the road and eat parathas. Feel and consume Delhi in its full form.
Topics I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: My cats! Though I talk about them all the time with close friends (too much). But yeah I suppose it’s good to have something that’s important to you that has nothing to do with work and music. I don’t have the tendency to have ‘hobbies’ and things so it’s great these fuckers forced themselves into my life. A litter of kittens was abandoned (by their mom) outside my studio. That’s how.
Also, I’m a trained graphic artist (designer). I designed the sleeve for Leather & Brass myself. I could talk about that for a whole interview. I used a lot of old photos from my family archive, there’s a whole story there. I make most of my flyers and stuff myself too.  

If you enjoyed this Sijya interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, bandcamp, and Facebook.



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

I actually hated writing lyrics. It’s the bit I was least comfortable doing. I’m not good with words – writing or talking. So it is always the last piece of the puzzle for me.

Good lyrics of course are everything. They have impact and I did want to be able to write them.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

Deeper thoughts exposed, that feels exciting. I’m chasing that these days.

Leather & Brass is a lot of simple words but not simple thoughts.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

I really enjoyed Black Moth Super Rainbow and Tobaxxo lyrics. Really build a world that’s quite weird and sweet in a very American way. Stuff like bubble gum, cotton candy, paper cuts, tooth decay, healing. Very lovely and interesting palette.



But yeah, it’s the simple stuff that really hits. In the middle of this world.  

Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, leant them that power?

Can a song change the world? As much as I would like to believe it could, I’m very suspicious of that.

I think it’s also self preservation for me in that I don’t want to take what I’m doing so seriously. That kind of self seriousness is also something I find off putting. Some people need to relax a little bit. Haha.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

I don’t know about that but it’s great that words are just a part and they can take on new meaning.

The sounds that make up the words, the syllables, they have to fit the song, before meaning can. There’s an odd beauty to that.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

A lot of Leather and Brass lyrics are quite existential. The song “Tabla” is about forcing yourself to believe in yourself.

Trick yourself into starting something and then finding a way to finish. To make a work of art takes a whole lot of faith.

It’s difficult. An endless number of decisions. You don’t maybe get it by empowering yourself but more by getting lost in the puzzle. But yeah sometimes it’s a lot to start. And it’s easy to take help but it isn’t always the best way to express.

It also hints at people trying to help, I tell them to ‘get over it’. Helping others finish their work can be self-aggrandising.

On the basis of a piece off your most recent release, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

The song “Do I Know” is so existential that it literally says ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I’ve had enough’ and so on.

Do you tend to start writing with what will be the first line of the finished lyrics? The chorus? At a random point? What are the words that set the process in motion?

It’s different for everything.

I do everything except the lyrics and arrangement first, figure out all the parts I mean. Then lyrics. Sometimes they start from the top, sometimes the middle. I can point to a peak moment in all tracks which one would call the ‘chorus’, but apart from that I don’t know or care about the verse-chorus whatever structure.

I’m sure my natural lyric writing tendency is similar and not radical. But I’m not thinking about the structure is all. I cut and piece it together intuitively.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

With Leather & Brass I think the thematic cohesiveness is me. And the fact of me.

My deeper thoughts and feelings already feel to me like a very particular world. There’s tiredness, confusion, ambiguity in life and relationships. So Leather & Brass felt thematically aligned without me trying too hard. I’m writing the album now, and I think that feels to be spilling out the same way.

But yeah songs within a context add a lot. I think the song “Tabla” should be the last song, it needs to a build up, to be properly felt. So it’s the last track.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Yeah I think very very simple words feel authentic to me. Anything wordy or even slightly complicated doesn’t feel like me. I think I’m truer when I am simple.

It’s the way that music is abstract. I think I’m stringing simple words together. The thoughts bring to surface deeper thoughts which might be contradictory or complex or convoluted, but the language is easy.

I would never sing the word ‘convoluted’ for instance haha. It just feels wrong to me, in my voice.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I’ve often heard the world ‘atmospheric’ that’s often by people who don’t maybe have the genre-vocabulary to say ambient.

Funnily enough I thought only some songs were ambient and not everything but feedback’s definitely made me realise that’s a big component of my music.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I think my music or lyrics are actually quite a lot about the mundane.

I am interested in the mundane. The mundane is hellish and existential. It’s nice in spots. It’s our whole life. Life is rarely thrilling.