Photo: Rolling Stone India / Mass Appeal
Rishi Roy’s music begins in the places people often try to hide: loneliness, grief, doubt, the memory of a relationship that will not quite leave. His songs do not treat vulnerability as a marketing angle. They make room for it, then let the production stay close enough that the listener can recognise their own late-night thoughts inside the track.
That approach has taken him from a bedroom-floor relationship with music to an independent catalogue with real reach. An early song that cost roughly ₹1,500 to distribute went viral. But the more revealing part of Rishi’s story is what he did after: kept writing songs that sound like a conversation rather than a campaign, and built a creative partnership with Dabzee around instinct, trust, and shared emotional weight.
Key takeaways
- Rishi Roy is an independent singer-songwriter, lyricist, producer, and sound engineer whose work moves through melancholic indie, emo hip-hop, pop-rock, and spiritual reflection. Rolling Stone India
- A friend covered his first studio session in tenth grade; Rishi later distributed an early track for about ₹1,500, and its viral response became a turning point. Rolling Stone India
- “Agle Janam,” released in 2021, helped establish his intimate songwriting voice. Rolling Stone India
- His creative partnership with Dabzee includes the reflective album Delkochi and the 2024 single “NISHANI.” Rolling Stone India
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Music as an escape hatch
Before Rishi had a release plan or a public identity, music was private relief. In his Future 25 profile for Rolling Stone India, he recalls listening alone as a kid, rewinding cassettes and finding in music a place where he did not need to explain himself. School did not feel like a natural fit; songs did.
That is a useful starting point for understanding his writing. It is not built around a persona that has all the answers. The emotional charge comes from the opposite: the sense that a song can sit beside uncertainty without trying to tidy it up. His first performance, singing Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69” in tenth grade after being handed a microphone, gave him a first glimpse that this private attachment could become a craft.
The next step required help. A friend paid ₹2,000 for his first studio session. That detail is small, but it matters: early careers often begin through one person taking the work seriously before the industry does. Rishi’s later independence did not arrive in isolation; it grew from a chain of people, rooms, and small acts of faith.
The ₹1,500 release that changed the equation
Rishi’s breakout did not arrive through a label launch. One of his early releases cost him about ₹1,500 to distribute, then went viral. He has described it as validation — not because an institution approved it, but because a song he made and put into the world found its own listeners.
The lesson is not that every small release budget becomes a viral moment. It is that distribution is now a practical decision an independent artist can make without waiting for a larger machine to say yes. A strong song still needs an audience, metadata, assets, persistence, and luck. But access to release has changed the starting line.
Rishi Roy on the independent moment: “There was a time when you had to go through Bollywood or a label to get anywhere. Now, you just need a song. You need your own voice.” — Rolling Stone India
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“Agle Janam” and the value of not over-explaining
“Agle Janam” is a key track in Rishi’s early story because it lets restraint do much of the work. Rolling Stone India describes it as melancholic and sparse, centred on the ache of love that has ended but still lingers. That kind of song can be easy to flatten into “sad indie.” Rishi instead gives it patience: the feeling stays present without being shouted into a climax.
His 2023 single “Azaad Hai” widened the palette. Rolling Stone India described the release, made with guitarist Prashant Shekhar, as an emo hip-hop and pop-rock blend. The genre movement makes sense. Rishi’s core strength is not staying within one sonic label; it is keeping the emotional temperature of the writing intact as the instruments shift.
Delkochi: a shared diary with Dabzee
Rishi’s collaboration with Dabzee is not a feature-for-feature arrangement. Their album Delkochi came from time spent in an Airbnb in Delhi, making music from grief, hope, and the things that are easier to admit when the room is quiet. Rishi described the project to Rolling Stone India as unplanned: two artists pouring out what they had lost and what they still believed in.
The title sounds like a place, but Rishi’s explanation is more intimate. Delkochi is for people who cannot sleep — a warm late-night listen, a form of medicine. That is not a claim that music replaces care. It is a description of the everyday companionship a song can offer when a listener needs to feel less alone.
Their 2024 song “NISHANI” continued the partnership, released through Mass Appeal India. It shows the advantage of a long-running creative relationship: the work can move forward without restarting the conversation about trust each time.
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Building a catalogue instead of manufacturing hits
Rishi is direct about not approaching music like a factory. “We don’t sit down to make hits,” he told Rolling Stone India about his work with Dabzee. “We sit down to feel, and then the music follows.” That line is less a rejection of ambition than a production principle: make the song honest first, then build the strategy around something worth carrying.
His stated plans point toward range rather than repetition. Rolling Stone India reported that he was working on two EPs and an album, with new moods, genres, and collaborators — including artists who were not yet known alongside names listeners would recognise. That is the healthiest use of a growing profile: not narrowing the gate, but bringing more people through it.
A strong profile can hold your back catalogue and make the next collaboration feel like a natural continuation. kredl →
What independent artists can take from Rishi Roy
Release before you feel fully authorised. Rishi’s early distribution decision was modest, practical, and self-directed. The song did the talking after it was out.
Let the catalogue show a point of view, not just a genre. “Agle Janam,” “Azaad Hai,” and Delkochi move across textures, but they share a willingness to stay with complicated feeling.
Choose collaborators who change the work. Dabzee is not a decorative credit in Rishi’s story. The partnership produced a shared language and projects that neither artist would have made alone.
Treat music as a long conversation. The songs people return to are rarely only about release-day noise. They make a listener feel accompanied after the campaign has disappeared.
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Rishi Roy?
Rishi Roy is an Indian independent singer-songwriter, lyricist, producer, and sound engineer. His work blends intimate indie songwriting with emo hip-hop, pop-rock, and reflective, sometimes spiritual, themes. He is known for songs including “Agle Janam” and “Azaad Hai,” plus his collaborations with Dabzee.
What is Rishi Roy’s breakthrough story?
Rishi Roy has said that one early track cost him roughly ₹1,500 to distribute and then went viral. For him, the moment was validation that an artist could release independently, find listeners directly, and build without first waiting for a label or Bollywood route.
What is Delkochi?
Delkochi is Rishi Roy’s collaborative album with Dabzee. The pair created it while working together in Delhi, using the project as a shared diary for grief, hope, and late-night reflection. Rishi has described it as music for people who cannot sleep.
What is Rishi Roy’s approach to making music?
Rishi Roy prioritises emotional alignment over trends. He has said that he does not make music for mood boards or viral moments; he looks for the feeling that a song sounds like him. That approach lets his sound change while the writing stays recognisable.
Rishi Roy’s path is not a story about waiting for a perfect introduction. It is about building from private feeling, releasing when the work is ready, and trusting that somewhere a listener needs the same kind of song. The result is an independent career with a simple but demanding standard: make something honest enough to keep.
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