“It has been long due,” said The Yellow Diary in a 2025 social media post revealing the tracklist for their much-awaited debut album. The pop-rock band from Mumbai had already teased the title of the November 2025 release in an earlier post, labelling the record “a reflection of who we are today and everything that defines us, like a checkpoint in time, and now that it’s ready, we want to put it out into the world—In Case We Forget.” The quintet—comprising singer-songwriter Rajan Batra, keyboardist and producer Himonshu Parikh, guitarist Harshvardhan Gadhvi, drummer Sahil Shah and bassist Stuart DaCosta—have given their legions of fans a whole host of memorable moments over the course of their decade-long career. In Case We Forget—which contains relatable odes to family, friendship and fans, as well as romantic duets with vocalists Lisa Mishra and Shilpa Rao—surely adds to that list. “This is a culmination of everything that we’ve felt this year,” Batra tells Apple Music about the LP, which comes filled with the act’s signature synth-driven anthems and serenades. “We really, really hope that these songs about everything we’ve lived make you feel what we felt.” Here, Parikh and Batra take us through the making of the album, track by track... “Sheher” Batra: “It’s a song about people who’ve lived away from home. The idea of living away from home, probably in a different city, is very exciting right in the beginning. You feel so happy and excited about the independence and freedom that comes with it. Then you live that for another couple of years, and you realise that you have to become a part of the race that life is. And you start running. You run and you run, and there comes a point that you realise that you’ve been running for a while—and you feel exhausted. It’s in these moments when you feel exhausted that you start to miss home—the home that you’ve not been to in a while. The home that you’ve not found anywhere [else].” “Yours Always, Dad” Batra: “It’s a letter from a dad to his son. We’ve always seen how dads are so full of emotions but have such few words to express them. I wanted to write a song that becomes that letter from a dad to his son. Everything that my dad had or has said to me that has stayed with me, I put it down in the song. I hope it reaches out to everybody who needs to hear something from their dad. This should become like a support system of sorts.” “Yun Hi Kahin” Batra: “I remember Himonshu playing this magical riff in the studio and telling him, ‘Dude, this sounds like friendship’. I was talking about how there are these moments that I remember from my childhood when my friends would shout and call me, and then I would look at them from the balcony and give [my parents] random reasons to get out of the house and play. That’s the essence that we wanted to catch. Even in the lyrics, we kept it as descriptive as possible to make sure that people see themselves in the song.” “Chasing” Batra: “‘Chasing’ is a song about a purpose that we’ve been chasing. Back in 2015 when we started, the goal was to find a stage that would allow us to perform. Once that happened, the next goal was to find people who would listen to our music. Every time we get on stage, we get to see our people—and it feels so special. I can vouch for the fact that this is something we’ll be chasing forever.” Parikh: “One of my favourite parts is the drop. Every time I hear the track, I realise that whole drop, and that groove—it’s like a gallop. Because you feel like the song is falling over on itself and going forward in some way, synonymous to the whole ‘chasing’ aspect of it.” “Dastoor” Batra: “I read somewhere that when things end, you can look back and actually analyse the good you lived. ‘Dastoor’ is about the journey of a relationship, from the start to the end.” Parikh: “The entire song built itself around the synth riff, which is so haunting and so dark and such an interesting sound.” “Tere Siva Re” Batra: “I decided to write a song for anybody who’s attempted to flirt with their partner, and as much as the partner enjoys the attention, they [the flirter] end up getting ignored. It’s inspired by true events involving my wife and me. It’s got a fun energy.” Parikh: “The vibe was so nice and playful—it was the most natural thought to have [singer-songwriter] Lisa [Mishra] on board. We had a ball recording it. I think we laughed throughout the entire making of the song.” “Dil Challeya Ve” Parikh: “‘Dil Challeya Ve’ is the one song on this album we wrote at [bassist Stu DaCosta’s] house. I don’t know what it is, but Stu’s piano always makes me play stuff that I would never play, and this riff came out of that. I feel like his piano wrote it more than I did. As we kept building the track, at some point, Stu was like, ‘Guys, shall I rap on this tune?’ We were like, ‘Hell yeah!’ We had the semblance of the song ready structurally, and then Stu’s rap part came in and was so cool that we didn’t want to change it at all. At the same time, we really struggled to make it feel seamless. We cut out a lot of parts [and] brought a lot of parts back. When we finally got it down, it was the most satisfying day for all of us.” “Saaye” Parikh: “The day we did the production for ‘Saaye’, the ideas were just flowing off people’s brains. It was just so natural and everything was just sounding beautiful—I remember us thinking, it’s done, and then playing it to Sahil. He was sitting with his eyes closed, and we were expecting him to get up and hug us or something, but he was like, ‘It’s monotonous. We need to add a lot more energy’. We were like, ‘He’s right’, and went back into the studio and got this whole other magical session, which just gave it another level of goodness.” “Tham - Bonus” Batra: “‘Tham’ is a song we started writing in the [Covid] lockdown. I was going through one of the lowest periods at that time. When I closed my eyes and I thought about the good things that I had lived, there were very few that I could remember. I realised that the next time you’re happy, take a breath, let it sink in. Because life, when you look back, is all the moments that you absorb.”