RUUH And JOH On Composing For The Royals: 'We Wrote The Music Before...'

News18

30-05-2025

Last Updated:
RUUH and JOH talk to News18 Showsha about composing The Royals soundtrack before filming, reimagining RD Burman, and their creative process.
When music becomes mood, and sound becomes story, you're likely listening to RUUH and JOH. The dynamic composer duo—rising fast through the ranks of India's musical avant-garde—have just delivered what they call their 'most ambitious soundtrack yet" with The Royals, a sonic tapestry rich in retro glam, cinematic grandeur, and unapologetic emotion. In an industry often ruled by formulas, their instinctive approach to songwriting—rooted in honesty, experimentation, and sheer passion—feels refreshingly radical.
Known for weaving pop sensibilities with textured orchestration, RUUH and JOH aren't just riding the wave of OTT music's golden age—they're shaping it. From the dark, intoxicating charm of Aadayein Teri to the euphoric high of Ecstasy, their latest project pulses with emotional range and technical polish. And in a bold move, they've even reimagined the RD Burman classic Tu Tu Hai Wahi, infusing it with modern finesse while preserving its nostalgic soul—a balancing act that few could pull off with such elegance.
But the story behind the music is just as compelling. Composed before the show was even shot, their tracks served as the emotional scaffolding for The Royals' most pivotal scenes. Featuring powerhouse vocalists like Jubin Nautiyal, Jonita Gandhi, Neeti Mohan, and Sukriti Kakkar, the soundtrack is not only a celebration of genre-bending creativity but a testament to collaboration and trust—one that allowed two relatively new voices to dream big and deliver bigger.
In this exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha, RUUH and JOH take us inside their candle-lit studio sessions, the sonic references behind their regal soundscape, and how love, legacy, and late-night jam sessions shaped the music of The Royals.
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Here are the excerpts:
How did the narrative of 'The Royals" influence your sonic choices for each track? Did you compose with the characters in mind?
We wrote the music. We were given a script to write and that's actually how we understood the mood of the sounds and the sonics of everything. For Dil Diwana, it's a very grand ballroom sort of sound. That's what we try to work around. When it comes to Adaiyen Teri, it starts a bit dark. If you see the show, it's a little tense at that moment. We did the exact same thing again. Even with Ecstasy and our rendition of Tu Tu Hai Wahi, it's a very lively and upbeat vibe. That's actually how we decided what the sonics of the music should sound like. It's by the script. We wrote all of this music before it was shot. Fortunately for us, they shot to our music, which was great. We did not compose any tracks for the characters in mind. It was just for the scene.
You've called this your most ambitious soundtrack yet. What was the most challenging moment during the making—and what was the most magical?
The first challenging thing is that we were actually working on Call Me Bae simultaneously while we worked on The Royals. When you're working on a project of this magnitude, these are some of the biggest OTT shows over the past year. To be able to deliver quality is a very challenging part. I think it's a good practice and somehow we managed to have bangers on Call Me Bae and to have it on The Royals.
Another challenging part is when we always want to push the envelope. When we wrote these songs, we knew that we wanted to go bigger with our sound. We knew that we wanted to have these legendary vocalists on this album. For two artists that are maybe very new to this industry, to have names of that magnitude is difficult to get. We didn't know where to start. I guess it was just a dream. The magical part is when it actually became a reality for us to have some of the most iconic voices on our soundtrack.
Each track has a different emotional temperature—how did you calibrate the shift from the intoxicating 'Aadayein Teri" to the melancholic 'Ecstasy"?
It was mainly on the scene. We were given the script to write the music to. And that's actually how we composed the music. We had some help from the team for The Royals. They gave us some ideas on how the sets are going to look. We also did go to one of the set visits while they were shooting that was very grand and that's actually when we realised that we need to amp up our music more to match what they came up with, which is absolutely beautiful.
From Adaiyein Teri to Ecstasy. Ecstasy was a terrace party kind of vibe. So, it was more energetic. Adaiyein Teri actually was a little darker, it had a choreographed sequence which was absolutely beautiful done by Nora and Ishan. The switch for us was actually done in a week because we wrote everything in about two weeks. Also, there's a marriage between the music director, showrunners of the show and the directors of the series. When you have a great team that puts everything together like we did with Pritish Nandy Communications. They're verybsupportive. They let us do our thing, which is the reason why the music sounds so different from anything else that you've heard of is because of that immense trust that we received from an incredible team. That kind of helps bring the music and the film together, that perfect synergy.
The ballroom vibe and disco grooves are such a refreshing shift—how did you strike that balance between retro glam and modern polish?
This comes from a combination of disco legacy from the 80s and contemporary sounds that we have been working on for over a decade. It's in our DNA and it's tough to explain, but I guess that's what art is. It just comes to you.
You've remade RD Burman's iconic 'Tu Tu Hai Wahi"—what was your emotional approach to reimagining a classic without diluting its nostalgia?
Tu Tu Hai Wahi is like a very iconic song. And normally it's very difficult to touch iconic songs because they're already at a very different level. However, our approach to doing this song is that we just wanted to introduce this song to a new generation of listeners, or maybe a younger generation that haven't heard this song before and package it in a way where it is accessible to them. This was our take on the song. We're very proud of what we managed to put together with Jubin Nautiyal and Jonita Gandhi. It's got nostalgia and then it's got also a very expensive sound attached to it, which is what we normally do with all our music.
Were there any specific sonic references you both shared while building the mood for 'The Royals"? Any old-school Bollywood or global disco influences?
When we write music, I don't think we're thinking about getting influenced by an artist or a song or anything as such. We're just trying to do what's best according to our ears. We definitely did take Fattu Tu Hai Wahi. We listened to what the track actually sound like. And a lot of the disco form. The 80's really influenced us. We try to mix our genres from disco of old school and some new sonics from the West. It's just a really beautiful amalgamation for us. If I had to give you stuff that we were inspired by songs like I'm abDisco Dancer or Zindagi Meri Dance. When I said earlier that for this particular soundtrack, it is a combination of our disco legacy from the 80s, which is a lot of music that our dad sang, coupled with our contemporary sound. If we had to give you that, it is like an ode to the disco music of the 80s in Bollywood with a contemporary twist.
You brought in powerhouse voices like Jubin Nautiyal, Jonita Gandhi, Sukriti Kakkar and Neeti Mohan—how do you tailor your compositions to fit such distinct vocal textures?
All the demos were sung by us. We actually just wrote good music. What was interesting is that when you have these iconic voices and you think that they're known for a certain sound but then when they sang our songs, they sounded completely different. That was the beauty for us and for all our amazing collaborators that they sounded so different on these songs. We were speaking with Neeti Mohan and she was like a couple of people called us and they said that our voice sounds so different on this song. That for us is a win when we have all these incredible artists at the top of their game. Then they have a voice that they can reinvent with our music. That is a huge win for us.
When you work on romantic tracks, how do you keep reinventing love through sound, rather than repeating a formula?
Reinventing love through sound. To be honest, at least from our perspective, we draw a lot from our own personal life. Let's just say it's the Taylor Swift model of writing music. But we think that is also the most honest way of writing music. That's how you get a very honest melody when it means something to you. We don't think formulas really could work here. They work up to a certain point and then your music and sound becomes generic. When you're writing from a very personal place in your heart, that's how you create magic. We would say that for us personally, every song and every melody that I've written is like a piece of my life in that song.
You've moved from indie hits to massive soundtracks. How do you stay grounded creatively as your music gets bigger in scale?
JOH – I think it's a dream to be able to do music as your job because then you're never working a single day. Creatively it's not a task. It is never a task because it's something that we're fuelled by. We enjoy music. We enjoy listening to music, making music, and singing in general. I think for us, it's not as difficult as I think people perceive it because this is literally our whole lives. Creatively, you get inspired by sounds from the world and sounds from the past. You're just trying to make the best song according to you.
Reuel – I feel like my whole life, I have worked towards this moment and I've envisioned this moment for years and years to be at this place. I know that it is just the start. Together, we're going to do way bigger things. When you prep for success in anything, one of the major parts of your preparation is also to stay grounded because once you lose the plot, it will affect your art. Along with me prepping for this moment of doing these very big songs and big projects, one thing that's very important is to continue to stay grounded. Not only just for yourself but also for your music. The prep work has helped and we continue to move forward with our music.
What do your studio sessions usually look like—moodboards, instruments, playlists, candlelight? Paint us a picture.
It's us in a room with a piano, a couple of guitars, a Joe Malone candle lit and a lot of fun. Our approach to music is not like whenever we have somebody in the studio, I think we will spend maybe 2-3 hours just talking to them, having a good time, eating and just doing stuff that has nothing related to the project. In the last hours when we actually create the magic, we get that sound. A relationship is very important between anyone that you work with, which is the reason why every artist that we've collaborated with, they're all really close friends of ours. We share a lot more than just the music. I think when you hear the songs, you'll feel that. It is a very personal experience. The most important thing about creating music is just having fun first and then the music will just come to you.
Is there a dream collaborator—artist or filmmaker—you both would love to work with in the future?
JOH – I come from an electronic background, so I'm going to talk about an artist called Skrillex. I'd love to have him.
RUUH – My dream collaborator would be Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan. If I could get on that bill, I'm made because they're a huge inspiration to my music. So yeah, that would definitely be it.
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