Poignance is a quality that musicians acquire over time and experience. On occasion, it comes out rather naturally in budding artists. Pune-based Firuzeh Mihrshahi, who goes by her first name, is one such person. She has achieved a level of maturity that most dream of, in her second single only.
‘Take Me to a Place’ starts unassumingly with stray notes on a ukulele and ambient bird chirping sounds in the background. Right at the word go, the song evokes a sense of freedom – something that all of us are dreaming of right now in our isolated confinements.
The two-strum ukulele rhythm remains the central nerve of the song as she talks about going away to some other place where the loud thoughts in her head and the overbearing advice of other people will cease to exist – ‘take me to a place which isn’t real.’
“I feel like I’ve lost my old self and want her back. If I am feeling this, someone else must too,” she says. “So I want this song to be a safe space that will heal you from your trauma. Or at least, knowing that you are not alone in feeling like you’ve lost your way.”
Indeed, closing your eyes and listening to the track does take you to a different place. The lone, echoing chord on an electric guitar wraps a soothing blanket around you while the layered keyboards provide the bed for a four-minute-long reprieve from the ghastly reality on the streets. To top it all, her soft humming becomes the perfect lullaby.
However, the pain in her voice as she cries out for her former self strikes deep inside. It’s unsettling – just as the brutally honest line: ‘I don’t have the strength to start again.’
