#BehindTheLens: In conversation with RUUH and JOH about The Royals and more!

In this behind the scenes interview, sibling composers RUUH and JOH talk to us about what it was like to make music for The Royals, creating music for Gen Z to vibe to, and more! 

Music, to many of us, is a quiet companion present even in silence. There’s something about how lyrics wrap themselves around rhythm, forming a sound that comforts, energizes, or simply mirrors whatever we’re feeling in the moment. Good music doesn’t just play in the background; it becomes part of our bloodstream, something we turn to when we need to let go or when we’re simply trying to stay afloat in our little corners of the world. But making that kind of music is becoming increasingly difficult. Today’s generation wants music they can vibe to, dance to, listen to on loop; they want music that makes them feel something. And that’s where RUUH and JOH come in.

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From Gumshuda in Mismatched Season 3 to Baatein and Yara Tere Bin in Call Me Bae, their music has struck a chord with a generation constantly chasing that “good vibe” but craving emotional depth too. Their latest, Tu Tu Hai Wohi, is regarded as a groovy reimagination of a beloved classic. How do they do this though, strike that delicate balance between creating music that vibes and stays with you? More importantly, what do they make of today’s fast-scrolling world, where listeners jump from one 30-second beat to the next without pausing for a full track? We sat down with RUUH and JOH to talk about creating music for this new-age audience, working on cinematic universes like The Royals to crafting songs that hold meaning even in a fleeting world.

Here's what they had to say!

Since the release of the first song from The Royals, how have you been feeling, and what’s the early response to the music been like?

It all kicked off on April 21st when the first song Tu Tu Hai Wahi from the series dropped in and it’s been non-stop since. We’ve been promoting it pretty hard. We were there for the YouTube Creators event, sharing the music of The Royals, and online there’s been a lot of buzz as Nora Fatehi's got a massive fan base, and we’re seeing a lot of love for the track with her and Ishaan Khatter dancing. So in all it’s been kind of crazy, and honestly in the best way possible.

What was the brief like for The Royals? How is composing an album for a series different from making singles or an independent album?

Oh, it’s very different. With a series you have to add a lot of thematic value to it and especially with a show like The Royals; you immediately know it has to feel big, like cinematically larger than life. Grand! Expensive! That was the word we kept circling back to "expensive". We wanted big, lush sounds, something that feels royal, but also fun. Another thing we leaned into was retro disco vibes and we blended that with our usual contemporary touch. The larger idea was to make it royal and a banger and that's precisely why people approach us! Having said that, for The Royals, the music had to match the choreography and the visuals too, like Nora and Ishaan’s dancing scene there’s more of that so, it’s all very interconnected.

Speaking of iconic tracks, when you took on Tu Tu Hai Wahi, were you nervous about touching a classic that is so beloved and recreate it? Is that something you’re consciously doing- reinterpreting old tracks for new audiences like you’ve done with Madhaniyan too?

Absolutely but also, we weren’t trying to recreate it. It’s more like we did our take or our interpretation of a beloved song. We get it that 'Wada Raha Sanam' is inconic and legendary like some classics are but we just wanted to present it to a new generation in our style, in a way that made sense for the show. Once you see the scene it’s used in, you’ll get it, it’s deeply connected to the narrative. Yeah, we did Madhaniyan with Kanika but honestly, we don't know about reinvention being our forte. We’re just down to making good music because we enjoy all parts of it. Whether that includes creating originals from scratch, reinterpretations, dance numbers, emotional ballads or anything else, as long as it feels good to create, we're up for that because we love what we do!

When I spoke to Mithoon, we talked about how composers are like behind-the-scenes directors, while singers are like actors the face of the track. Do you agree?

Sort of but not completely. See, we’re involved in every part - writing, composing, singing, even producing. Most of our tracks we sing them ourselves and the lyrics are done by us. Even for The Royals, we brought in some legendary vocalists but the sound and the soul, that is totally us. So we’re not really just behind the scenes, we’re kind of everywhere in that sense! 

How has your journey been so far? Working on a full album for a series like this, working with each other; how does that dynamic work creatively?

Somehow, it works! No, we’re very happy to have this journey and super grateful to have a couple of shows under our belt given that we only started composing for film about a year and a half ago. It's not a long period of time but we’ve gotten to work on some amazing stuff like Call Me Bae with Dharma Productions, Mismatched Season 3, and now The Royals. It feels good to have a few projects under our belt. And as for the sibling thing it’s naturally chaotic sometimes but it’s also kind of perfect in a way just as being siblings is!

Your music really connects with the Gen Z whether it's Mismatched's Gumshudah, Call Me Bae's Baatein and Yaara Tere Bin. You've also worked with talents like Taaruk Raina, and Gaurav Adarsh. In your opinion, what works for the Gen Z?

Newness. Straight up. They want to hear something they haven’t heard before. It's like when we are looking to make music, we are not looking into what our peers are doing; we want to do something that no one has heard before. We’re always experimenting with unexpected sounds. So if you've listened to our songs, you might notice that while you are vibing to a beat, instantly there’s this weird little sound or a switch-up that makes you go “wait, what was that?” That’s how we work! And we guess that's what the Gen Z love too. Keeping it fresh is what matters to us because even the Gen Z's are listening to Western music, indie, hip-hop and more so we try to blend different cultures, sounds and genres in a way that makes sense in India and becomes relatable.

You mentioned that you haven’t really worked on a proper emotional ballad but your songs have this gravitational pull, like an emotional echo even in the upbeat tracks. How do you define your sound which also sounds quite similar to Savera? Is there a connection?

Gravitational pull is such a good way to put it, thanks for that! But we always use one word for our songs and that is expensive which is not to say that we charge too much but it's about how our song feels like when you hear it. At best we could describe our sound like 'big' and 'grand' because everything is part of huge piece and that's why it sounds 'expensive' which is different from most of the songs you hear.Also, our melodies are everything for us as they carry the emotion. Like in Gumshudah, both the main and love versions have the same melody, but totally different moods. And that's the thing! When you have a good melody you make a sad or happy song or do anything you want with it. So strong melodies, rich contemporary production, and a vibe that feels full that is us. And we’re friends with Savera, known him since our college days, played the same gigs, did ads together. I think we've all had similar sensilibities growing up and a similar vision to bring a fresh sound to Indian music. Maybe that’s why it resonates similarly!

There’s a lot of talk about how today’s music “has no meaning”. What’s your take on that? Would you say music today has evolved with the generation rather than having lost its meaning entirely?

Maybe they haven't heard our music! On the other hand, they’re not totally wrong because these days everybody is focused on having 30 seconds of great music in a song but they are not really telling a story with that song. That's also because of the way social media functions and the way reels use music these days making the hook matter more than the journey of the song. But we’re kind of old school in that way, we care a lot about melody. That’s the heart of a song! If more composers took melody seriously, maybe we’d bridge that gap with the old-school era. So, we don't make music keeping in mind the audience rather we are making it because music is something fun for us so we kept it that way for the audience too, something fun, light and lively. We do add in a good hook so that if people want to use it for reels, in a car, listen to in a party with friends it's great but we do not create music specifically for that. So in that case one can say that over the years music has re-invented itself rather than changed altogether because today everything is just different! There is fast fashion, new ways of consuming visual content, no cinemas and with that everything has become faster to consume for people. This necessarily doesn't mean it's bad it's just that pace which used to have its slow rythm has become quick fast and so has music! 

Are there any big misconceptions about your work that annoy you? Has there been been any recent project or song you heard that made you wanted to be a part of it?

That it’s easy to make music. People think, “Oh you’ve got the tools, you can make music.” But having access doesn’t mean you’ve got the skill. Aslo making one good song is hard and you can't expect one song to last a lieftime so doing it again and again that’s the real challenge but consistency is key. Something that we'd wanted to be part of would be Dune definitely. Even though Hans Zimmer did that soundtrack, but it was something out of this world altogether and we’d love to work on something like that someday!

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What song is your favorite from RUUH and JOH's playlist? Let us know in the comments below!

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