In a time dominated by rapid automation, digital trends, and transient relationships, 22-year old singer/songwriter and pianist Akhil Sahni is writing music that’s made to last. 

Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Sahni spent the last four years studying finance in London, England, while also pursuing music. But his life as a musician truly started at eight years old, when he first began playing the piano.  

“I completed my education in classical piano and realized that I want to score, I want to make my own music,” says Sahni. “I was inspired by Hans Zimmer, and I really wanted to make my own film scores and compositions at that point because I never thought I would sing. I never imagined myself singing or writing songs. I was always at the back of the stage playing for other people.”  

Sahni went on to discover his talent for singing, when asked to perform alongside a friend.       

“I had to sing this male vocal bit, which [my friend] pushed me to do, and she’s like, ‘Okay, you’re not so bad,’” says Sahni. “And that’s the day I realized that maybe I could sing my own compositions and maybe I could sing my own songs.”  

While Sahni has spent most of his life playing and writing music, inspiration was something he found outside of his day-to-day environment. 

“I don’t have any musical influence in my family,” explains Sahni. “My grandfathers were in the army and a government company, my parents are finance professionals, and my brother is a computer science engineer. My friends have nothing to do with music, and my city isn’t exactly known for it. So, I got a lot of exposure when I went to London and I met artists, worked with people there, and saw live shows. That’s what crafted my sound.”  

Tuning in to artists like John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, and Coldplay, to name a few, Sahni acknowledges the significant role of his creative influences, in developing his own unique perspective, as a musician and songwriter. 

“My teachers were my posters on my wall,” says Sahni. “I’m very heavy on inspiration in that sense, because I feel like there’s people that have done it. They’re so great at what they’ve done, and you can learn from all of them. Take the best of everything, just be a sponge and absorb from different genres of music. And not just music, but different art forms—whether it’s dance or painting or whatever it is, it all becomes a part of who you are. And then you take that ball of knowledge, that’s become so big in your head, and you add your own goals and your own sound to it, and that becomes your sound.”

For the most part, though, Sahni listens to whatever music he can get his hands on. He adds, “I listen to any and all kinds of music. I have so much musical influence from the music in India, whether it shows or not in my music. […] It’s a very subconscious thing, so I think my sound is an amalgamation of all the artists that have ever been on my playlists.”

For Sahni, composing accessible, piano-led music is both his personal passion and his driving purpose. 

“I think my aim is to never make a kid feel the way I felt, in terms of having no one to look to for the keys in this generation, by making [piano music] in a modern and palatable way,” says Sahni. 

On September 19, Sahni released his debut EP, Puzzle, which delves deep into the unending complexities and fleeting nature of modern-day relationships. The beginnings for this work started with the title track he wrote by the same name, over a year ago.

He elaborates, “Basically the EP and that song are about how there’s always a missing piece of the puzzle in modern love and just finding the perfect one, because modern day relationships have more variables than there used to be before. In our parents’ times, when things were simple, you’d meet someone in your city, you’d settle down there, you’d work there, everything would be great. But people move now, people have opinions on things that can maybe hamper relationships. Your cultures come in, your families come into the picture, you maybe want to pursue something later in your life which takes you away from the person you love.” 

He continues, “You can find the perfect person, everything could be correct, but you’re missing that one element. I experienced that, and I’m writing this EP from the point of view of the protagonist, which is that each experience, or each track is one missing piece of the puzzle—where it almost happened, but it never quite did.” 

And while the EP explores the fragility of contemporary romance, Sahni shares what he believes is essential in creating meaningful music, poised to stand the test of time. First, he describes the intentions of any artistic creation. In Sahni’s opinion, a lasting song comes from pure and honest intentions, that don’t solely rely on a 15 second hook.

“I think that’s what’s happening with pop music unfortunately,” he explains, “because a lot of it is really good, but it’s like fast fashion or fast food. I don’t say that there’s no soul in pop music, but once everything starts sounding similar, in terms of the production techniques, in terms of the things that are being spoken about, it’s very hard to sort through that and pick something that remains timeless. I think that honesty comes when it’s a deeply personal experience that people relate to, when the sonics have been crafted with the intention of long-form listening, and that we’re able to listen to the projects the way that they’re intended.”

Puzzle, in this way, is different. He adds, “I know that if this EP was released 10 years ago or 10 years later, it will still have the same impact to someone when they listen to it, because of the writing or because of the sonics of it.”  

Sahni also speaks to his experience working on the EP as an independent artist, tackling both the expectations and unknowns of the project, with eyes wide open. All of his music videos, additionally, are produced completely by himself.

“I was happy, but it did come with its own challenges,” says Sahni. “It’s tougher, but you learn, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He continues, “Having creative control over something that is so personal, this early on, is very important to me.

Sahni is also mindful of the cultural barriers surrounding his music; he hopes to contribute to advancement of his genre, on both a local and global scale. 

“I think with the kind of music that I’ve chosen to make, I’m very aware of the data that is around me in my country, especially for English music,” says Sahni. “There’s very, very, very few listeners of local, Indian-English acts. I can count on my fingers the amount of artists in this entire industry that are English songwriters, but that’s increasing. And there’s not enough DSP support, in terms of the playlists that you can get, compared to if I’m doing regional languages, if I’m doing Hindi music, [or] if I’m doing Hindi pop.”

In Sahni’s experience, he explains that most labels he met with approached this with skepticism, as that is their job, after all. He elaborates, “[Labels will] throw data at you and other things, but I’m so clear in my concept, in terms of where this country is heading with the culture and the kind of music we’re consuming, and how audiences are getting smarter. We do have the second-highest English speaking population, and it is time that a certain standard or a certain quality of local, English acts are provided to this country. 

“[…] I’m not trying to appeal to just audiences here,” Sahni continues. “I am trying to be an artist that is from India, not an Indian artist. This is my background, my people matter to me, and I want to do a lot for the scene here, but I’m not restricting myself to thinking of just this demographic, which is why the sound has to be international on a level that people have not seen before.”

Now following the release of Puzzle, Sahni hopes listeners will experience, through his songs, patience and the level of realness involved with the creation of his music. According to Sahni, the best situations to listen to his music is when you’re on a drive, at home relaxing, and similar environments.

“I do want to take people through a journey in those 20 minutes,” he says. “It’s like the length of a sitcom episode, but you can live an entire movie in that time.” 

He continues, “I want [listeners] to know that this kind of music is still being made. I want them to show it to their grandparents, to their parents. […] I think this is something for all ages and for all backgrounds. There’s no one that’s not welcome to this universe.” 

As for what comes next, Sahni says he has more songs in the works, with plans to keep expanding his musical universe.

“This EP was me realizing that I’m sure of this sound, I’m sure of what I want to do, and it’s an evolution of this,” Sahni says. “Everything here on out will be small things, here or there, added to this sound, that make it evolve. But always keeping the piano at the center of it, and keeping my core honest and true. I’m enjoying that right now.”

Photos courtesy of Akhil Sahni / Interviewed on October 25, 2025