Electronic music producer, singer and songwriter Tarana Marwah, who performs under the alias Komorebi, pours her heart out on her second album, The Fall. Its seven tracks capture her “laying her emotions bare”—something the artist has done frequently in her work since her first album Soliloquy dropped in 2017. This frank openness is reflected in the artwork of The Fall and within the pages of its accompanying manga-influenced comic, both of which draw on Marwah’s long-standing love of Japanese pop culture. (The name Komorebi, which she adopted in 2015, is a Japanese term that roughly translates to ‘sunlight leaking through the trees’.) The album’s cover depicts yet another of her alter egos, however: Extraterrestrial space traveller Kiane—who is also the protagonist in the comic book—sits at a table upon which rests her heart and a teacup filled with her blood. It’s all part of a concept record that is as ambitious as it is detailed. “I wanted the artwork to mirror the sentiments in the album,” Marwah tells Apple Music. “It’s very similar in the sense that the songs are packaged as sweet and beautiful and atmospheric, but there is this tinge of eeriness and sadness in some of them. Some of what I’m singing about is not entirely palatable.” The album and the comic both mirror similar themes of personal strife and eventual triumph. In fact, the record is essentially a musical diary of Marwah’s twenties, according to the 29-year-old. “Those years are very, very crucial to your personality development and who you are at the end is very different from who you were at the beginning,” she says. Co-produced with electronic musician and frequent collaborator Gaurav Raina, the album expands Komorebi’s sonic palette to include a fuller, more cinematic sound. To this end, Marwah enlisted Western classical musicians such as composer James Gair and string ensemble the Mavron Quartet, as well as some of the Indian independent music scene’s finest exponents like guitarists Blackstratblues, Dhruv Viswanath, Lala and Ritwik De, drummer Suyash Gabriel, bassist Johan Pais, pianist Sahil Vasudeva and members of pop-rock outfit Easy Wanderlings. Here, Marwah takes us through the inspirations that lie behind each track. “I Grew Up” “I wanted to sing about how there’s a huge age gap between my partner and me and how we’re fighting a losing battle against time—and how I’ve sort of grown up in front of his eyes. I wanted to sing about what that entails. I felt that would be relatable to people going through this transitional phase in their life, [from their] late twenties [to their] early thirties—coming into your own, trying to figure out who you are. “My character Kiane is going through the same changes. She wants to escape her home planet because she feels there are too many restrictions. She wants to find her own place in the universe and explore. It’s inspired by Björk’s song ‘Jóga’. I’ve always loved how her vocals bring in a serene, smooth bed on top of this chaos in the production. I wanted to mimic that but it’s still much more me than her.” “Watch Out” “I wrote ‘Watch Out’ about letting go of toxic attachment and how the ultimate expression of love is actually freedom. Anyone who’s been in a chokehold of a toxic dynamic will understand the value of freedom, because what’s on the other side of that is a very beautiful, serene experience and you can only gauge that once you’ve been through the depths of hell. I feel like a lot of women, specifically, don’t know that beyond these toxic attachments in relationships, whether it’s with their family or their partner, lies a world of freedom and independence that’s really amazing. I wanted to share that feeling and wanted the song to sound very open and powerful.” “The Fall” “‘The Fall’ was written about self-destructive, chaotic behaviour, although I don’t relate any more to the person I was when I wrote it. It’s a good depiction of who I was and sometimes that shadow self peeks out and calls to me and says, ‘I’m still here’—but I have to shove it down somewhere. I don’t think everyone is completely in love with who they are. There’s definitely a side to each person that they really just want to forget or pretend doesn’t exist. I’ve given that part of my personality a voice and said, ‘You sing. You talk about how you feel.’ “Sonically, it pays homage to my love of trip-hop from the ’90s [which] I think is my favourite genre. The album is named after this song and so is the comic because it depicts when Kiane falls from her spaceship on to planet Earth. There’s a cycle that happens: You fall, you rise, you fall, you rise. You can’t rise unless you fall. The entire album is about this cycle and how you grow as an individual by failing and winning. A lot of what I’m singing about right now [has to do with] my failures, my struggles. I want to share that with people because I don’t see the point of always talking about happier times. I want to be real.” “Silent War” “I always wanted to sing a song to myself, like a pick-me-up [for] my inner child when I’m feeling low. They tell you to do that in therapy. They say you should interact with your younger self. It’s about fighting depression. “What I’m trying to say is that if you look at a person, you can’t really see what’s happening on the inside. That war between the good part and the bad part of you is essentially all happening in your head and it’s silent. [Nobody else can] see it [or] hear it. Only the person experiencing it can feel it. It’s very clear in the lyrics that there’s a battle between the brightest and the darkest parts of us that we never speak about. “[In terms of its sound] it’s like a battle. Like, imagine this big field and this war happening and two sides of your brain are charging against each other on horses. I wanted it to feel like that—this epic battle in your head.” “Tangled And Familiar” “It’s about a break-up and it’s supposed to depict how two people become too close and the dissonance and the failures of both people are so visible to the other person, and how it feels to be stuck and enmeshed in a place where you don’t want to be any more. It’s a sad song. In the comic, [it relates to] when Kiane gets trapped in these roots of this big tree by [the antagonist] Luna. I wanted it to feel claustrophobic, so I brought in a lot of rock elements. It’s very Radiohead-, Incubus-inspired. It’s really fun to perform this live with the band. Everyone loves to play these parts.” “All The Things” “I’m negotiating my relationship with my mother in this song—which is about forgiveness and acceptance—but I’m also definitely targeting her and some of the things she’s done. The lyrics are self-explanatory: ‘All the things I wish you were/Come screaming at me from mirrors/I am what you’ll never be/Yet I am not your enemy.’ What I’m trying to say is you can’t be this person because you’re already so far gone. It’s too late for you to change but at the same time, I forgive you for who you are. “I wanted it to sound like a choir of young girls singing in the dark, with a lot of whispers, ticking clocks, trinkets of sounds. It’s inspired by ‘Because’ by The Beatles with lots of harmonies coming together. It’s definitely the meanest I’ve been on any of my songs to anyone. I almost regret writing it and at the same time I don’t. It’s important to express what you feel. My parents definitely appreciate the artistry more than anything else. If anything, my mom is proud. She doesn’t take it personally.” “Better Not Bitter” “It’s about bullying. I didn’t want to put this song on the record. But then I have my sounding boards and they told me you have to for that reason, because people want to see how you experience the world and what’s happening in your head, and if it’s ugly, then it’s ugly, but it’s you and it’s important to share it. The production is bare-bones. My vocals almost sound tired; I think that adds to what I’m talking about and brings what I’m saying and feeling to light. It’s a very vulnerable track about [emerging] feeling wiser, happier [and a] better person. [And it’s] the same with Kiane in the comic. You actually see her evolution. This song is about levelling up at the end of a lot of turmoil and struggle.”