It is never easy to break free. Raman Negi (in pic, below) knows it better than most. Having founded one of the more successful rock groups in the last decade, Local Train, the singer-songwriter parted ways with the band officially in December last year. Since then, he has been on a journey to discover his own musical self.

In 2022, Negi released Gaayab, Mehroom, Koyla, Ek din and the latest, Lullaby for the anxious bones under his name. “I wanted to create something. These songs started happening naturally. I wrote 14 to 15 songs which were the juice for this album,” he tells us over the phone from Delhi. The album, Shakhsiyat, will drop on November 18, and marks his first composite release since the split. The 10 songs, Negi tells us, represent the many experiences he has gone through as an artiste and person. These include the fun Mastani, a rock ballad in Mehroom and an experiment with blues in Shagird blues. “Shakhsiyat means personality, and it refers to where I am as an artiste, what my musical influences are and how I have projected them,” he adds.