walking upstream…
Anuv Jain
Anuv Jain is an Indian indie singer-songwriter from Ludhiana, Punjab, who taught himself guitar as a teenager and turned diary-like reflections on love and loss into hushed, unadorned acoustic songs. He broke through with his 2016 debut single "Baarishein" and became one of India's biggest streaming artists on the strength of plainspoken Hindi-English ballads like "Husn" and "Jo Tum Mere Ho," almost always just his voice, a guitar or ukulele, and no band. He describes himself first as a storyteller, writing every song from lived personal experience rather than technique.
the sound in question
2023
HusnAnuv Jain
walk the tributaries ↓
Joji2010s–20s · Alternative R&B / Lo-fi / Trip hop
Anuv has named Joji his "main musical inspiration," and it shows up in the hushed, lo-fi bedroom-pop intimacy of his slower songs — a close-mic'd, unguarded vocal sitting right against sparse, unhurried production instead of a polished studio sheen.
listen: upstream & heresource: Anuv Jain — Wikipedia (biography, career timeline, Joji/Novo Amor influence citation) ↗
2018
Slow Dancing in the DarkJoji
2016
Baarishein (Studio)Anuv Jain
listen forListen for the way Anuv lets his voice go soft and slightly frayed at the edges of a line in "Baarishein," the same diary-entry closeness that defines Joji's "Slow Dancing in the Dark."
Novo Amor2010s · Indie folk / Ambient folk / Folk
Wikipedia (sourced to a 2022 Lifestyle Asia India interview) describes Anuv as "an avid listener of" Novo Amor, and Anuv has separately said he'd love to collaborate with him. It surfaces in the reverb-soaked, unhurried atmosphere of Anuv's slower acoustic tracks, where the guitar and voice are left open space to breathe rather than filled in with extra instrumentation.
listen: upstream & heresource: Anuv Jain — Wikipedia (biography, career timeline, Joji/Novo Amor influence citation) ↗
2015
AnchorNovo Amor
2020
Alag AasmaanAnuv Jain
listen forListen for the patient, almost ambient hush framing the guitar on Anuv's "Alag Aasmaan" — the same spacious, slow-build quality that makes Novo Amor's "Anchor" feel more like a soundscape than a straightforward folk song.
Arijit Singh2010s · Filmi / Bollywood playback / Indian pop
In a 2023 interview Anuv named Arijit Singh alongside A.R. Rahman, Atif Aslam and Sonu Nigam as an inspiration — a group citation rather than a song-specific one, so treat the exact influence as generic rather than pinned to a technique. What comes through in Anuv's Hindi ballads is a similarly soft, unforced, conversational melodic delivery rather than showy vocal runs, in the tradition Arijit Singh made ubiquitous on Bollywood soundtracks.
listen: upstream & heresource: Cosmopolitan India (2023) — Anuv names A.R. Rahman, Atif Aslam, Sonu Nigam and Arijit Singh as inspirations ↗
2013
Tum Hi HoArijit Singh
2024
Jo Tum Mere HoAnuv Jain
listen forCompare the gentle, almost-spoken melodic climb of Arijit's "Tum Hi Ho" to Anuv's "Jo Tum Mere Ho" — both build a love song around a plain, restrained vocal line rather than melisma.