Sahil Samuel on his new album Marammat: `I was carrying a quiet weight`

Sahil Samuel, known to his fans as Naalayak, has earned a reputation for turning emotions into indie anthems like Zakir, Baawra, and Haan Pyaar Hai. But with Marammat — his latest album, named after the Urdu word for “repair” — the Chandigarh-born pop-rock artiste has stepped into his most vulnerable creative phase. He says the eight-song album emerged from a period of personal low.

“Marammat was shaped during a deeply personal phase where I was carrying a quiet weight within myself. There was no single trigger, just a gradual distancing from my own emotional centre. Writing Marammat became an act of slowing down and turning inward. Each song allowed me to sit with uncertainty, acknowledge vulnerability, and gently restore parts of myself I hadn’t realised needed care,” he tells mid-day.

Through Marammat, Samuel hopes to take listeners through the entire emotional spectrum. If the song Gulfam radiates warmth and renewal, the title track stays closer to pain and the slow mending of trust. In the singer’s view, these emotions are not opposites, but inseparable companions. 

“Healing is never linear; it loops, pauses, and often surprises. Joy and ache shape each other, and the album embraces both without choosing between them,” he explains, adding that the track, 3 am Thoughts, captures those hushed hours when honesty becomes unavoidable.

Nayak nahin, Naalayak hoon main

Naalayak, the stage name Sahil Samuel performs under, wasn’t born out of branding, but from childhood reputation. Growing up, he went through seven schools, more interested in mischief than academics. Teachers frequently scolded him with the same phrase: “Yeh kitna naalayak hai”. Instead of letting it diminish him, Samuel says he claimed the word and transformed it into his on-stage identity.