Dubai, Chicago, Boston, Singapore, each city a chapter in a life defined by movement. Seema Farswani is one brilliant and a genius singer, songwriter and a composer.
As a singer-songwriter, she gives voice to the spaces within. Her latest single, “Sketches On The Walls,” is what happens when those two identities stop competing and start a conversation.
The result is a composition that feels both meticulously designed and emotionally raw, a blueprint of a soul in motion.
The song opens with a clean, deliberate melody that gives way to Farswani’s clear, confident vocal. There’s a polish to the production, a crispness that speaks to her designer’s eye for clean lines and uncluttered spaces.
But beneath the surface, there’s a current of something more complex. The track builds, layering in harmonies and a driving rhythm that mirrors the relentless pace of a life lived across continents. It’s a song about becoming, and the music itself seems to be in a constant state of arrival.
The central idea of the song is a reflection on the past, not as a fixed point, but as a series of preliminary drawings. Farswani sings of the “black-and-white sketches” of her past, the initial drafts of a self that is still being coloured in.
It’s a potent image, one that resonates with anyone who has ever felt like a work in progress. The song questions the labels society imposes, the neat boxes we’re expected to fit into.
Farswani’s own life defies easy categorization from being a designer, musician, mother, wife, expatriate and the song is a quiet rebellion against the pressure to choose just one.
Speaking of things that are difficult to categorize, have you ever noticed how the best food is often found in the most unassuming places? A roadside stall, a hole-in-the-wall diner. It’s the same with art.
Sometimes the most profound statements come not from the grand concert halls, but from the quiet corners of a life lived with intention.
Farswani, an ICMA Finalist and Berklee Summer alumna, is a proof to this. Her music is about inviting you into her world, one carefully chosen note at a time.
The track takes a fascinating turn with the introduction of a Hindi bridge: “Tootey sapney, bikhrey armaan, aashaein, manzilen chhod aaye hum kahan.” The translation, “Broken dreams, scattered desires, hopes and destinations left behind where have we come to now”.
Farswani wrote these lyrics while looking out at the Boston cityscape, a student at Berklee, a world away from her life in Dubai and Chicago.
The inclusion of Hindi is an acknowledgment of the multifaceted nature of identity. It’s a nod to the fact that we are all, in our own ways, a fusion of different worlds.
The collaboration with Rish, a Berklee alum from Level Music in Mumbai, adds another layer to the song’s global story.
Working across continents, they crafted a sound that seamlessly merges Eastern and Western influences. Rish’s harmonies and backing vocals add a soaring quality to the track, a sense of uplift that complements the song’s message of resilience.
It’s a reminder that creativity knows no borders, that a song can be born in Boston, refined in Mumbai, and find a home in the hearts of listeners around the world.
Farswani has dedicated the song, in part, to her “girl tribe,” to the women who are constantly reinventing themselves, balancing careers and passions, motherhood and personal growth.
It’s a powerful dedication, one that broadens the song’s appeal beyond the purely autobiographical.
“Sketches on the Walls” becomes an anthem for anyone who has ever dared to color outside the lines, to embrace the messy, beautiful, and often contradictory process of becoming who you are meant to be.
“Sketches on the Walls” is a map for anyone who is still drawing their own. It leaves you with a sense of quiet optimism, a feeling that the best is yet to come, that the canvas is still waiting for its final colours. And what a beautiful thought that is.
