Versatility has always been a hallmark of composer and vocalist Shekhar Ravjiani. We’ve heard it in his work as one half of Hindi film music director duo Vishal-Shekhar, who were among the first to infuse rock and hip-hop in Bollywood soundtracks. We’ve also heard it in his earliest solo releases, which include devotional tracks and regional-language tunes. More recently, he’s finally crafting the kind of songs he’s always wanted to make: melodic pop with a whole lot of heart and soul. And for his Apple Music Home Session, Ravjiani takes the mic and gives us a rare chance to hear what the hits sound like in their creator’s voice. Appropriately, he opens with “Fly Fly Away”, a transportive tune that he wrote to reflect his current state of mind. “It describes every single day of my life since I launched my label,” Ravjiani says. “It’s a feeling of being high on life creatively…of being elevated and touching the sky with my music. If you want to hear what my happiness sounds like, listen to this song.” The stripped-down iteration here is the aural equivalent of floating on a cloud. Ravjiani goes back to the very beginning with his Home Session cover, remaking a classic that’s arguably one of the most romantic English pop hits of all time. “‘Hello’ was the first English song that I learned to sing and play on the piano when I was just eight years old,” he says. “And I can never forget the joy I saw on my parents’ faces…how proud and happy they looked when I performed it for them. For my very first English cover, I could think of no better song than this…the one that defined what the word ‘love’ meant to me.” Expectedly, Ravjiani gives his version of Lionel Richie’s hit a distinctly Indian touch by seamlessly blending in Punjabi verses sung by Akasa. There’s more love in the air on “Yaad”, where the uptempo electro-pop original is turned into a gentle acoustic ballad redolent of the ’90s—which only amplifies the sentiment behind it. Ravjiani says: “You know when you are going on a long drive in the rain by yourself, you feel this cool breeze of memories that makes you smile [and] you lose yourself in countless beautiful moments spent in the past with that someone special. It’s this bittersweet reminiscence that defines ‘Yaad’.”