Yash Raj Mishra Interview: The Art of Sound, Freedom, and Creativity
Yash Raj Mishra is an artist who refuses to be boxed in—his music is a fusion of philosophy, raw emotion, and sonic exploration.
In this conversation, Yash Raj opens up about artistic freedom, the tension between commerce and expression, and the deeper purpose driving his music.
Q) Your music defies traditional boundaries, both in sound and philosophy. When you create, do you feel like you’re leading the music—or is the music leading you?
Yash Raj: Thank you for letting me express myself freely.
‘Defiance’ sounds like an angsty teenage phenomenon. I wouldn’t think of it that way. It’s just creativity—I try to find unique voices, weird combinations of things that move me emotionally. People often struggle to accept something new to their palate because humans relate to things through memory. But I do not serve my audience’s memory; I serve the ever-changing, ever-evolving energy of sound.
Q) Super Shakti and Super Shakti 2 feel like deeply personal and experimental projects. What inspired them, and how do they reflect your philosophy?
Yash Raj: It took me years to gain enough confidence and break out of my cocoon. I had doubts—about production quality, about my composition style, about honing a sound that felt true to me. But I was blessed to be around people who enhanced the musical trance of my studio.
The closest way I can describe it? Meditating on drugs.
The albums made themselves. I just pushed some buttons and strings.
Q) Art and commerce have always been at odds, but do you think capitalism has pushed music further away from true creativity? What do you see as the biggest way the industry forces artists to compromise their vision?
Yash Raj: True creativity is a facade. What we perceive as creativity is often just a well-built narrative. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed—it only transforms. Music is magic, an energy that shifts moods and influences thought.
To be truly creative, you must surrender your ego and remove the lens of perception. Nothing you learn in this life will make you creative. Letting go of everything you’ve learned just might.
As for the industry—if you work for someone else or towards a specific goal, you’re in the ‘art business.’ Soon, we’ll have a ‘Love business,’ a ‘Compassion business’—all traits that don’t generate profit will be labeled as a waste of time. It’s strange how so many of us have abandoned the idea of God in our daily lives.
Q) Your music demands full presence from the listener, something rare in an age of TikTok loops and algorithm-driven hits. Do you feel like your art is resisting this system, or is it carving out its own space? Can true listening still thrive, or are we conditioning ourselves to treat music like fast food?
Yash Raj: I have zero expectations. Let the chips fall where they may.
It’s delusional to think ‘MY MUSIC’ will make an impact. But when the world falls apart—and it already has—some people will settle into their new, shit-stained reality, while others will fight for something better.
Soon, people will kill for the Idea of freedom, just to experience any magic at all.
If you can truly learn to listen, you don’t need music. Music is like training wheels for the conscious mind. Great minds don’t need it—if they do, they channel it at will.
Q) There’s a track called “The Tribal Awakening” on Super Shakti 2 that feels like it’s designed to pull the listener into a flow state. Was that intentional? Were you yourself in a deep flow state when creating it?
Yash Raj: Good ears! It’s based on a very masculine raag, Ahir Bhairav.
It’s meant to entrance you and cleanse your energies. Special love to my brother, Ahon Toham from Arunachal Pradesh, who blessed us with his ancestral tribal language.
It’s magical—how something we don’t understand verbally still connects with us emotionally. Music is magic. He says, roughly translated:
“I am everything I experience, I am the universe, I am creation itself.”
Q) Do you think India’s music scene is evolving on its own terms, or are we still chasing Western validation—like the obsession with Grammys? How do you see this affecting the art itself?
Yash Raj: India has more pressing needs than art and music.
I’d rather not go too deep—I’d have to write a book or two to address this properly.
But start with the right education. The British oppressed us in many ways, but the most severe was through education. When we became ‘independent,’ we accepted their oppressive education as the right way. Real change won’t happen until we fix that.
Most artists die in schools and colleges. The ones who survive are already outcasts.
Q) Many artists wrestle with the challenge of staying independent while still making a living from their art. How do you personally navigate this balance? And is that why you started Shakti Sound Studios—to create a space where true artistic freedom can thrive?
Yash Raj: You say staying independent, as if there’s another choice.
I use my engineering skills to earn. I do film scores, intern with a studio for a few bucks, perform at heavily underpaid gigs. But I have big plans—an independent artists’ union, where we don’t need excuses to help each other. It’s time.
I will put everything I have into it—money, favour’s, love. And if it creates a spark, may there be light for all of us.
Shakti Sound Studios is that place. Ask anyone who has worked with us—they are never the same afterward. It’s not something I do. It’s energy conservation. It diffuses into you.
Q) With Super Shakti, Super Shakti 2, and everything you’ve created so far, you’ve crafted a world of sound that feels uncompromising. Looking ahead, what excites you most about your future as an artist?
Yash Raj: I focus only on what I can control—my time, my craft, what’s in front of me.
It helps me stay unbiased, free from the unnecessary pressure of performance. I seldom write before I sit down to make music. No matter what mindset I’m in, it flows and translates. Improvisation helps, I suppose.
I need to find answers to the questions I’m discovering through this process. There’s something bigger at play. Our collective consciousness has taken a hit.
Artists and philosophers have always been responsible for nurturing society. But philosophy is dead—at least to the masses. Our hope now lies in vague interpretations of unbiased art and music.
That is my calling. And in an ideal world, perhaps that is what my future holds.
As Yash Raj Mishra continues to carve his own path, one thing is certain—his art will not be confined, and neither will the minds it awakens.
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