Name: Jay Pei aka Panelia
Nationality: Indian
Occupation: Producer, songwriter
Current release: Panelia's debut full-length album Nothing And All At Once is out November 29th 2024.
Recommendations: Music - NID tapes; Music - Ragas beyond Ages - Amjad Ali Khan

If you enjoyed this Panelia interview and would like to know more about his music, visit him on Instagram.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

When alone, quite often I listen to music with my eyes shut.

I do see objects, I see sequences like a movie scene, and I see characters.

Entering/creating new worlds through music has always exerted a strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

You pretty much said it in your question here, I feel the same. Creating an alternate world or a new world has always been my focus when I’m creating music.

I envision things that do not belong to this world. It’s fiction at its core, but I’m heavily attracted to the possibility of it.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I didn’t know about this one—that’s interesting. Now, in hindsight, as I think of it, music to me wasn’t that accessible, but it was and still is always that one thing I loved dearly.

I used to sneak out of my house to listen to music, I had a Walkman that I hid from my parents, on which I listened to so much music. Every opportunity I got to listen to music, I took. My exposure to new music was extremely limited, and I mainly discovered music through TV or friends.

I have always been obsessed with music. Now, as I get to do this every day, the obsession is still there, but focus is more on creating while active listening has taken a back seat.

Tell me about one or two of your early pieces that you're still proud of (or satisfied with) – and why you're content with them.

The track "Last of the Light" that I released back in 2022 is something I am still proud of.



It’s one of those tracks where I could find a perfect crossover of club music and cinematic music.

The track has a very interesting arrangement, and to this day, I play it as the concluding track of my live sets.

What is your current your studio or workspace like? What instruments, tools, equipment, and space do you need to make music?

My studio environment feels extremely calm and quiet, filled with daylight and surrounded by trees on all sides. It gives a positive vibe that helps me stay focused.

I use a bunch of Moog synthesizers, Dave Smith synths, and Elektron gear in my process.

Of course at the heart of it is a computer running Ableton live on it.

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, tell me about the creative process for your current release, please.

My debut album Nothing and All at Once is my most personal work to date. The album came about during a period when I was extremely inspired creatively, and the ideas were flowing naturally.

I wouldn’t say there are any earlier sketches for any of the tracks on the album as almost all tracks were written as finished pieces during the writing process. Ninety percent of the tracks are still the way I wrote them on day one, and nothing has been changed over time.

For sure, there were some re-recordings involved, along with sound design and mix revisits. But the tracks sounded almost the way they do now from the first sessions.

What role and importance do rituals have for you, both as an artist and a listener?

I don’t have a ritual as such and never thought much about it.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these?

Yes, I do. It’s mostly the rage that comes out a lot in the music.

As a person, I’m calm and wouldn’t let it out most times, but in music, it comes out a lot—heavy distortion, darker tones, eerie sounds. A lot of the anger and rage comes out in the shape of these tones and sounds.

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility [...] to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that?

I agree, the whole point is to keep pushing the boundaries and let the sounds evolve. I am sure there are thousands of sounds that we haven’t heard yet and  a million more possibilities.

lso, not all musicians can be visionaries, some could be great at playing the piano but might have limited knowledge about the expansiveness of sound, which may be limiting them.

Do you feel that your music or your work as an artist needs to have a societal purpose or a responsibility to anyone but yourself?

In all honesty, at some point, I hope I can do that.

While music has the power to change many things, I haven’t yet made music that has a societal purpose. I am not conveying any messages through my music that change people’s lives or alter a certain system. At this point, it has been about myself, and I haven’t felt strong enough yet to stand for something with my music.

But as I said, I hope to become that artist who stands for something while inspiring others to do so.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about or the impact it had on them – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I did gain some new insights, but there were no misunderstandings. I have seen people feel the same emotions I felt while writing. Some of the listeners said that they felt the music expressed my story.

A lot of the common feedback was, “I didn’t expect the album to be this intense.”

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I think the most musical non-human sound experience I have had is the interplay of the sounds of frogs, crickets, and other insects during monsoon evenings.

Both frogs and crickets croak and chirp in a periodic manner, which sounds very rhythmic.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

For me, silence is equally important as sound, it needs to be in balance. Too much of one thing doesn’t really work for me.

Too much sound can become noise, and if it is too frequent, one stops paying attention to it. It’s only meaningful when it has its pauses, and those pauses are important for me.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

While both a cup of coffee and a song can give you similar feelings, in my opinion, they are quite different. While one can draw some parallels, inherently they are completely different.

Keeping subjectivity aside, the goal of making a cup of coffee is to make a cup of coffee. You can change the process and find new ways to do it, but in the end, you’ll always get a cup of coffee, one does not wander.

In music, however, one wanders a lot. One can be cryptic in songs, one can improvise, one can extend a song, and one can create a whirlwind of emotions in a single song, and it will still work. But if you overboil your coffee, you won’t have any coffee left to drink.

What is a music related question that you would like to add to this interview for other artists to respond to – and what's your own answer to it?

Tell me a song you’ve never stopped listening to since childhood

Metallica - “Creeping Death”