Songs from life: Singer, song-writer Mohit talks about his first album

Mohit didn’t pick up a guitar till he was 22 or 23. Not that he didn’t listen to his favourites all the time — it was guys like Jimi Hendrix that made him want to learn the instrument. In college, he had aspired to be a filmmaker. Initially, he’d tell you, he has always wanted to be a writer.

So when he did pick up a guitar, he also continued his writing, this time as songs written from life and the stories he read or heard about. Running Shoes and a Thousand Dreams is his first album, comprising seven country folk songs that he has written, composed and sang over the past five years.

“Some of the songs go back to as far as 2011 and there are stories behind each one of them,” Mohit says. Once he realised filmmaking was not working out, and music was his calling, he went to the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London. It is perhaps there — he says he’s not sure — that he read an article about an old couple who were married for 75 years, that made him write the song Until We Fade.

“The first line was about how the man thought their marriage wouldn’t last seven days but it’s lasted 75 years. It dawned on me that every relationship, old or new, has its share of insecurities. There are good days and bad days. You will never know what will happen tomorrow, so enjoy what you have now. I related it to my life too.”

A similar philosophy comes in his title song —Running Shoes And A Thousand Dreams. “I was just so busy chasing my dreams, that I pretty much ignored the world. You want everything to work out for you. It struck me I was neglecting what I had, living for the future and not in the present. The song was my way of telling myself to enjoy what I have and be okay with not doing anything for sometime.”

His favourite track in the list is Let Me In. It took him an hour to pen that one. Another song, Maybe This Time, comes as two parts — August and September. “It is funny because the music is happy but if you pay attention to the words, it is pretty sad. It is about a guy who is lost in life, he is around people but still feels numb. Then, he meets someone who brings out his emotions. And yes, it based on his life,” he signs off.