The Marigold Project is a set of six Punjabi tunes that focus on the various ceremonies and celebrations that make up a typical north Indian wedding, such as the mehndi, sangeet, baraat and vidaai. But the EP’s composers Akshay & IP—aka producer Akshay Raheja and singer-songwriter IP Singh—say they didn’t plan it that way. “When we started making these songs, there was no brief,” says Akshay, who once starred in Hindi pop and rock group Faridkot alongside IP. Among the tracks the pair had been working on was the EP’s eventual opener, “Kashni”, which Akshay says he pitched along with a few others to Jagjit ‘Jaggi’ Bhogal, head of A&R at Sony Music India in early 2021. Jaggi liked what he heard, says Akshay, and when they met again six months later, “Jee Aayan Nu” was the next track to be played to the label exec. “That’s when we started brainstorming and [came up with this idea of] a fully fledged [wedding-themed] experience,” Akshay says. “Every year, one or two songs released from Bollywood movies end up being part of all wedding playlists. We decided [that since there’s little] from the independent [music] side, why don’t we create a concept album?” The duo didn’t have to switch things up drastically, though. “We’ve stuck to our Indian roots in terms of melodies and lyrics,” Akshay says, “but we have tried to use them in a very contemporary, cool way. That is actually our [signature] sound.” The result is a mix of playful party tracks (“Kashni”, “Dil Di Will” and “Vibe Cute Badi”) and emotional electronic ballads (“Jee Aayaan Nu” and “Nikki Jehi Sui”), which the composers bring to life with the soulful vocals of Asees Kaur, Rashmeet Kaur and, of course, IP himself. The EP has a special significance for Akshay & IP for two reasons, they say. Not only does it mark the duo’s debut collection—their earlier releases were part of multi-composer soundtracks for web series—but IP also got married the same week The Marigold Project was released. Just a few days before IP’s honeymoon, he and Akshay take us through the making of the record, track by track. “Kashni” “I wanted to make a ‘ched-chad wallah gaana’ [a song in which a couple teases each other],” IP says. “That’s where ‘Kashni’ came from. We have always been fascinated by folk music. So we wanted to use some folk elements [such as] the tumbi [a single-stringed plucking instrument]. By the time we completed the song, it had been two years [since we composed it] and we were still fond of it. So in a way, [it has passed] the test of time.” “Jee Aayaan Nu” “‘Jee Aayaan Nu’ means ‘you are most welcome’,” IP says. “Any time you go to Punjab, [you will see] boards that say ‘Jee Aayaan Nu’ in Punjabi. I’ve always found the phrase very endearing and heart-warming and wanted to use it. The song is about welcoming another person, another soul, into your own life. It’s my favourite track on the EP. Also, because I was in the process of getting married, it’s very close to my heart. It says things that I was actually feeling at that time. It’s out-and-out emotional vulnerability, putting yourself out there and accepting another person into your life.” “Dil Di Will” “I don’t know whether it’s a guy thing [but] in today’s relationships, one thing that’s really hard to [get] or everyone is looking for or seeking is space,” IP says. “It’s a light-hearted, funny song [in which the boy tells the girl]: ‘If you give me a little space, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll do this, I’ll do that. I’ll give my heart to you.’” Like most of the tunes, the duo say, it wasn’t created keeping the wedding theme in mind. “Only one or two songs were conceptualised later,” Akshay says. “This track was going into an uptempo zone, so we decided to make it part of the EP.” “Nikki Jehi Sui” “‘Nikki Jehi Sui’ was specifically designed for this project,” Akshay says of the track that’s based on a traditional ballad from the Punjabi folk music form known as suhag, which is performed before and during a wedding. “Lyrically, it’s a conversation between a mother and daughter [through which the mother is] preparing [her daughter] to go into this new household,” he says. “The idea was to give it a complete spin in terms of the sonic space where it sounds very glitchy, very trip-hoppy.” The composers tried to “tap into [the sense of] chaos” in a bride’s mind, adds IP. “We are guys and will never be able to understand what a girl goes through when she’s leaving her house,” he says. “It’s something we can only imagine. I feel that it must be like an acid trip for the girl [where] everything that’s been [a certain] way is going to change. The song represents that uncertainty, that mixture of happy and sad.” “Vibe Cute Badi” “This could be sung by the groom’s friends, the bride’s friends, the bride herself or the groom himself,” IP says. “It’s just a celebratory song. There is no deeper emotion. Just go and have a blast. [For a part of the song] I wrote new lyrics to a [traditional] folk tune that you might have heard being sung with different words. ‘Suhe Ve Cheere Waleya’ is one version that’s very famous.” “Maaye Ni” The only track on the EP that’s not composed by the duo, “Maaye Ni” is producer Snipr and lyricist Meer’s modern interpretation of a traditional vidaai ballad. “Jaggi played it for us and [asked if] we could include it, as the song suited what we were trying to package,” IP recalls. “We heard it and everyone [started] crying so we said yes.” Akshay & IP then suggested that they get Asees Kaur to record it. “The demo was in a male voice,” says IP, “but because it’s a vidaai song, we felt we needed a female singer to bring the most out of the emotion, which [sounded much] stronger in Asees’ take.”