Druv Kent’s music doesn’t just sit in a genre, it travels. With Beyond It All (Sayi), the Singapore based, India rooted artist crafts a cinematic indie folk sound that feels both intimate and expansive. Blending Western songwriting with North Indian influences, the track explores questions of faith, identity, and the quiet search for something greater than what we see.

In this conversation, Drruv opens up about building sonic worlds, balancing cultures, and why sometimes, the most powerful moments in music come from stillness.

Beyond It All (Sayi) feels deeply cinematic. Did you approach it like scoring a film, or did the story naturally unfold that way?

The song emerged from a North Indian folk song… which led me down an exploratory journey in a few directions. The cinematic production was a conscious choice for the song to find that transportive element I felt it had along with its inner resonance. It all eventually centered around a Indian-Western rhythm that pulsed like a gravitational heartbeat and held the diverging parts of the song together.

Your music blends Western folk with North Indian influences. How do you decide which elements lead and which ones follow in a track?

As I compose and write, a song comes to life and becomes an entity of its own. Through this journey I tend to imagine the many sonics that can enhance and enrich the song. The challenge is paring these back to allow the song clarity, surprise and space. For “Beyond It All (Sayi)”, this was about how “desi” or Western to make the rhythm, how to use the chiming guitars and how to have both Western and Indian backup vocals in different sections of the song – and still have them feel right.

The title suggests something bigger than the present moment. What does “beyond it all” personally mean to you?

The song is about the age-old question of wondering if there’s something more. Is there more – are we more – than what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch. My logical mind says maybe not. But, the hope in me says… just, maybe. 

Loss and resilience are central to this song. Was there a specific moment or experience that shaped its emotional direction?

Growing up, I found listening to “kirtans” in Gurudwaras particularly soothing. I wanted to create that experience for a listener using my own musical grammar and language.

Being based in Singapore but rooted in India, how does that duality influence your songwriting and sound?

Living outside India may offer me some distance and allowance to not be distracted by the latest market trend. But, global influences aside, the heart that created this song is Indian.

Why did you create a second song, which is called the “Beyond It All (Sayi) Desi Mix”?

There are multiple vocalists on the song, mostly singing the refrains. This includes my mother, who helped me write the Punjabi lyrics to the song, and four other artists introduced to me by my friend the Hindustani singer Siddhant Bhatia. When I recorded each of their vocals in Delhi, I asked them to sing alaaps. These takes were so beautiful that I decided to release a second version of the song called the Desi Mix, which is also lovely.

The upcoming album Indian Spirit hints at a larger narrative. How does this single fit into the emotional or conceptual arc of the album?

There are 5 songs on the EP – dealing with hope, faith, love, compassion and our desires. To me, these are all core cultural and spiritual aspects of our tradition.

Folk music is often about storytelling. What kind of stories are you most drawn to telling right now?

We are, after all, greatly influenced by the stories we tell ourselves and we share. In a world increasingly filled with aggression and negativity, my music is always about sharing stories of peace, joy, celebration and positivity.

There’s a sense of stillness and space in your music. How intentional is silence and minimalism in your compositions?

Silences and quietness in music allow for volume and momentum to have impact. I utilise these all the time, starting with “Glitter & Dynamite” and “Back Home”, where there are long pauses in the song. And, of course, more recently with “Hope” and “Beyond It All (Sayi)” which are minimalist in production style.

In a world that’s constantly loud and fast, your music feels like a pause. Do you see your sound as a form of escape or reflection?

It’s really the audience that decides how they experience the sound. From what they tell me it varies by song… some tell me my songs are in their “drive playlist”, like “High Time” and “Higher Ground”, some of the poppier stuff, like “Magaresa”, “Long When We’re Gone” and “Glitter” is in their gym playlist, and some, like “I’m Still Riding”, “Little Bit of God” and “In Your Name” are in their reflective playlist. From my side, if people find the song has found its way to their heart, consider me delighted.

For someone discovering your music through this track, what’s the one feeling you hope stays with them after listening?

I recently had a private pre-release listening session of “Beyond It All (Sayi)”. They asked to play the song 5 times. That overwhelmed me.