'I OFTEN VISIT HOME, IT'S EVERYTHING TO ME'

Delhi-based musician Mansa Jimmy is set to release her most 'truthful' album. Much in demand and constantly on the move, the Nainital-born artiste discusses nostalgia, finding quality listenership and why home is her creative sanctuary.

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Unruly hair, a hat on top and dressed often in a pantsuit, as much as Mansa Jimmy’s style is fluid and androgynous, her music too cannot be boxed in a genre — she sings it all from Sufi, Kumaoni, rajasthani and Gujarati folk to retro Bollywood. In between, her raw yet timbre-touch voice drops notes that glide between nostalgia and melancholia — from her recent song, ‘Mera yaar Purana’ that speaks of nostalgia of age-old relationships, ‘Kuch Baat Karni Thi’ that delves into unspoken emotions, to ‘Tu na Aaya’ that capture the longing for love. For Jimmy, she cannot separate herself from melancholia. “I remember telling my friend a week back during a minor breakdown that I am sick of being melancholic. I have carried this persona since I was little. It’s not something that the worldly experiences have put in me, but I was born with it,” she opens our conversation adding that melancholia is the central theme in her upcoming ‘untitled’ album. “Melancholy is not triggered by any particular incident but is a general mood of my life. It’s something that is truthful to me. The upcoming album explores it as an emotion that does not necessarily saddens us, but is a part of us.”