If it wasn’t for a laptop that was left behind by a cousin on a visit from Australia, then perhaps a young thiarajxtt wouldn’t have started a career in music that’s seen him scale fresh heights with every new release. The Punjab-born producer and sound engineer—also known as Dilmanjot Singh Thiara—discovered audio- and video-mixing software VirtualDJ on his cousin’s laptop and began to play around on it with his twin brother, Irman. That rogue laptop and music-making software sparked thiarajxtt’s lifelong love affair with sound. He would spend hours crafting tunes with Irman—and when a friend gave them a copy of a digital audio workstation, that was it. The artist started producing his own beats while Irman provided the vocals—and the rest, as they say, is history. Those early forays into music production were more of a hobby for the two brothers, who were simply having fun with it in their free time. But then serendipity struck. In Toronto, where the pair had moved for their studies, they fortuitously ran into rapper-singer Shubh, who was driving an Uber long before he hit superstardom. One thing led to another, and thiarajxtt ended up collaborating with Shubh on two of his breakout hits: 2021’s “We Rollin’” and 2022’s “No Love”. More success followed in 2023, with thiarajxtt producing most of the tracks on Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh’s album Ghost, including hit single “Kinni Kinni”. And thiarajxtt’s music career has continued to soar since then. Having established himself as a more-than-reliable hitmaker for others—with a penchant for blending traditional Punjabi songs with global contemporary sounds—thiarajxtt is now taking centre stage himself. His 2024 EP If the Sun Had a Dark Side is part of his ongoing project to promote, as he puts it, “producer empowerment”. “You look at mainstream hip-hop and everyone recognises and celebrates the producers,” says thiarajxtt. “Look at Metro Boomin or DJ Khaled—I want that to happen in the Punjabi music scene as well, where producers don’t always get recognition for their artistry and hard work.” If the Sun Had a Dark Side showcases a new facet of thiarajxtt’s music, with beats that draw from West Coast hip-hop, trap, R&B, soul and contemporary pop. In keeping with the theme of empowerment, he drafted Irman and long-time collaborator Indrr Bajwa—both part of his “support team”—for the vocals. “It was spring [when we wrote the EP],” says the thiarajxtt, “and in the springtime I love listening to West Coast hip-hop. So I made beats in that style and sent them to Irman and Indrr. Within a few hours, they’d sent me four or five songs back. I was shocked. They were really good. So I told them that we’ll do these songs, and this time we won’t get another artist to sing them. I said: ‘You guys are going to be the vocalists for this one.’” Below, thiarajxtt takes Apple Music through all five tracks on the EP—and the inspiration behind them. “Colt Buntlines” Irman has said that when he first heard the original beat for “Colt Buntlines”, his mind conjured up the image of a romantic gangster—a sort of gun-toting outlaw with a heart of gold. In fact, the lyrics are written from the perspective of a young man who is trying to court a woman by telling her not to be afraid of him or his long-barrelled guns. Fittingly, the track borrows its name from the Colt Buntline Special, a long-barrelled variant of the famous revolver that was used by the US army in the 19th century. “The song has changed quite a bit from the original beat,” thiarajxtt tells Apple Music. “Once Irman and Indrr had written the lyrics, I went back and tweaked it to fit the theme. My favourite part is the main guitar lead. I still have that melody stuck in my head. It’s got a ’90s vibe but I think it’s very unique.” “What They Doin’” A menacing, swaggering cut full of braggadocio, “What They Doin’” answers a female character asking what “Jatts”—members of the prominent Jatt community in North India, well represented in Punjabi music—actually do. The answer, according to thiarajxtt, is that they bring the noise. He says that the onomatopoeic Punjabi term they use—“taad taad”—could represent anything from the sound of a chappal sandal hitting skin to firecrackers and gunshots. The artist leaves it up to the listener to interpret what the sounds actually mean. The song’s name is also a nod to “Whatcha Doin’”, one of the tracks that thiarajxtt produced on Ghost. “The lyrics really do justice to the beat,” says the producer. “When I made the beat, I had artists like 50 Cent and G-Unit in mind. That’s the vibe I was going for. It’s a very ’90s vibe.” “Fallen Love” Originally written to a West Coast hip-hop beat, this song about love and heartbreak went through several iterations before the artist settled on its retro-futuristic sound. “This one has four producers on it,” says thiarajxtt. “It’s a proper producer collaboration. The melody came from [producer] HRMNN. Then I had a The Weeknd type of sound in my mind, something like ‘Blinding Lights’. I made the beat and then I wanted to add another twist to it. So I called up my friend from Brazil, Kiddy Luks. He did his magic and brought on another producer friend of his, Popai, to add to the song. Once they’d done their thing, I changed things up a little more.” “Kasoor” “There are three segments in this song,” says thiarajxtt, who plays with the conventions of classic romantic pop tracks here before adding experimental twists. “The hi-hats and drum patterns are completely different in each section. This one was originally a West Coast beat and we had almost finished the track when I felt like switching things up. I came up with this R&B beat that I liked very much.” “Route 66” Irman has noted that this track instantly felt like the “perfect driving song”. A romantic angle was then added to the lyrics, with the protagonist making many declarations of love while promising to take the object of his affection to California. That line, in fact, inspired the song’s title: Traditionally, Route 66 was the road you would take if travelling from Toronto to California. “The beat didn’t change much from the original idea,” says thiarajxtt. “Again, it was a very West Coast beat. But I wanted to make it even more interesting and bouncy, so I turned the lead synth into a flute.”