Swati Bhatt in concert in Hyderabad earlier this month.
Credit: Special arrangement
When singer-songwriter Swati Bhatt adapted Rabindranath Tagore’s poem ‘Paper boats’ for her second EP, it wasn’t just because the verse was iconic — it was because it felt personal. ‘Day by day I float my paper boats... I hope that someone in some strange land will find them and know who I am.’ For Swati, these lines capture what music means to her: a way to share her raw, heartfelt emotions and hope they “connect with someone, somewhere”.
Originally from Raipur and now based in New Delhi, the 29-year-old gravitates toward introspection and lived experiences in her songwriting. Her upcoming Hindi single — her first outside her English discography — carries that same inward gaze, though this time through a lens of social commentary.
Her sound, rooted in jazz and contemporary alt-pop, has an atmospheric feel and is layered with elements of folk, a cappella, and scatting (think shoo-bee-doo-wah–style improvisation). Her approach to arrangement is instinctive. “It’s about what best serves the emotion of the song,” she explains.
Music wasn’t always the plan. Swati once aspired to be an IAS officer before falling in love with the music of artistes like Pink Floyd, Green Day, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift, and world music — Brazilian in particular. Her first single, ‘Land of gold’, released after graduating from music school in 2019, was “experimental, fun, and kind of cinematic”. “I threw in some things I had learned in college,” she says with a laugh. Her debut EP ‘Rebuild’ followed in 2020 but, she admits, it wasn’t her best. It was in 2024 that she found her artistic voice, with her second EP ‘Embrace’. And this year, she formed a five-piece band and did her first multi-city tour across India.
Talking about the three-track ‘Embrace’, she says, “These songs aren’t overproduced. They have an earthy, organic feel because of original instruments we recorded live. Every song has harmonies — I love harmonies.”
Storytelling anchors her music, and this EP was conceptualised like a three-part narrative. The title track, ‘Embrace’, featuring 11 percussion instruments, explores self-love and acceptance. ‘Night queen’, inspired by parijata flowers that bloom at her home, marks a shift from acceptance to resilience. In the song, the flowers, also known as ‘Queen of the night’, appear in the dreams of people and empathise with their inner struggles. Finally, ‘Paper boats’ is a quest for belonging.
Like the paper boats that drift afar, the EP took her into new territory. It became a venture involving 10 artistes from three countries. She co-produced it with New York-based Bob Lanzetti, guitarist and one of the founders of the Grammy-winning band Snarky Puppy. A songwriting course she took helped them connect. She says, as a true collaborator, Lanzetti retained the spirit of her songs while elevating them.