Tej on Creative Obsession, Identity, and His New EP (some sort of mania…)

I was sitting in my room one day and suddenly had this idea: what if I made an entire hyperpop-inspired EP rooted in bass music and tried to do something really unique with it?

- Tej

That moment became the starting point for (some sort of mania…), Tej’s latest EP. What began as a sudden burst of confidence quickly turned into a fast-moving creative process: one that mirrors the emotional push and pull that runs throughout the project.

Blending hyperpop’s bright, high-energy textures with the weight of bass music, the EP captures the collision between creative highs and self-doubt. Across five tracks, Tej explores that tension through chaotic drops, melodic moments, and restless production that reflects an artist stepping into a new phase of his sound.

We spoke with Tej about the ideas behind (some sort of mania…), the influences that shaped it, and how the project reflects his evolving identity as an artist.

Q: The EP is called (some sort of mania…). What does that phrase represent for you emotionally, and how does it reflect the mindset you were in while making this project?

A: (some sort of mania…) came from a very specific moment in my life.

I grew up in India and moved to the U.S., and I think part of me has always felt like I exist between two identities. There’s the life I built here, but there’s also this constant pull toward home. Sometimes it feels like you’re living between worlds and not fully belonging to either one. Around the time I was making this EP, I had also just started playing shows. One day I’d be opening my work laptop and living a normal routine, and then suddenly I’d be on stage playing music for people. It was exciting, but honestly pretty surreal.

A lot of the ideas for the EP came between my first and second tour stops. I had this burst of energy where everything was happening at once - identity questions, personal struggles, being away from home, and the shock of suddenly performing. 
But a big part of the mania was also my relationship with time. I think a lot about how fast life moves and how you never really get moments back once they pass. That realization can be exciting, but it can also drive you a little crazy.

When I get into a creative zone, I tend to work in extremes. A mix of personal struggles, existential overthinking, depression, and honestly severe ADHD can push me into these really obsessive creative periods where I lock in and finish things intensely. That’s what “mania” refers to. It’s that feeling of your mind moving really fast while you’re trying to figure out who you are, where you belong, and how much time you really have to do the things you care about.

Q: What kinds of sounds, images, or cultural influences were living in your head while you were making this EP?

A: The music sits somewhere between hyperpop and bass music, but I wasn’t really thinking about genre when I was making it. I was more interested in contrast: emotional melodies next to really glitchy or aggressive sounds. Things that feel a little broken but still beautiful.

I also tend to think visually when I produce. In my head there were images of motion - city lights moving fast, digital glitches, sparks, things constantly shifting. Music that feels unstable but alive. That chaos matched the headspace I was in while making it.
But more than anything, the music became a way to inject emotion into something physical. A lot of feelings about time passing, travel, changing identities, and distance from home ended up getting translated into sound.

Q: Did working on this EP push you outside of habits you’d built in your production process?

A: I’d say so. But in a way, this is always where I wanted to go production-wise.
One of the biggest changes was letting go of the rules I was used to following. I started clipping things really hard, only sidechaining specific elements rather than everything in the mix, and generally ignoring the idea that the mix had to be perfect.

I wasn’t chasing a polished or technically “correct” mix anymore. If something sounds imperfect, that’s because it’s meant to sound that way.

As a producer, that’s actually a psychological barrier you have to get over - letting yourself break the habits you’ve been taught are the “right” way to do things.

Q: Was there a track that became the emotional or conceptual anchor for the whole project?

A: Probably the first track, right_here_(right_now).wav. Funny enough, the reel teasing that song went viral. That moment fed directly into the mania I was already feeling. It made everything feel more alive and urgent.

Instead of just releasing a single track, it made me want to go all in and turn the idea into a five-song EP. At one point I even wanted to drop one song each day, just to capture that burst of energy while it was happening. 

So in a weird way, the reaction to that first track pushed the whole project into existence.

Q: Do you feel this project represents a shift in your sound, or more a clearer version of something that was already there?

A: I don’t really see it as a shift in my sound. It’s more like an emotional snapshot of a very specific state of mind. This was music that came directly out of that manic creative period.

In a way, this is the kind of music you’d probably only hear at a Tej show. It’s very personal and very raw. At the same time, I still love making bass and trap music in the more classic sense, especially when I’m collaborating with people. This EP just came from a different, more personal place.

Q: Looking back now, does the finished EP still feel like the idea you had in that moment in your room, or did it evolve into something different?

Honestly, it went exactly where I wanted it to go. There were moments where I felt blocked and wasn’t sure where a track was heading. But I kept reminding myself that it was okay to scrap ideas or completely change direction if something wasn’t working.

Once I accepted that, the project started flowing again.

Q: If someone listens to the EP from start to finish, what kind of journey do you hope they experience?

I hope they finish it and think, “That was crazy,” in the best way possible. The goal is for people to go through a blend of emotions and energy throughout the EP.

More than anything, I want it to feel like a window - even if it’s a blurry one - into the manic headspace I was in while making it. The feeling that time is moving really fast and you’re trying to capture something before it disappears.

Track by Track Breakdown

After reflecting on the ideas and process behind the EP, we asked Tej to dive a little deeper into the individual tracks: sharing the stories, details, and moments that shaped each one.

right_here_(right_now).wav

This track started during a “soundfarming” session - a concept I learned from my friend Starseed. Usually people do this with synths or basses, but I decided to try it with vocals. 

I dropped vocal recordings into a granulator and started modulating things like the LFOs, formants, distortion, and random effects while constantly resampling and bouncing the results. By the end of the session I had a huge collection of weird vocal textures. From there, I pieced together my favorite fragments and turned them into a melody that felt really catchy. The whole hook of the track came from that chaotic process.

round_like_clockwork_v2.wav

The main goal with this track was to create a really gritty interaction between the vocals and the 808. I wanted hyperpop-style vocals but with an 808 that actually clips into them - almost fighting for space. That distortion creates this raw energy where the bass, grit, and melody all blend together. Once I started layering the small melodic notes around that core idea, the whole track started to feel alive.

i_wish_i_wasn’t_alive_(interlude).wav

This one came out of another soundfarming session, but instead of vocals I started with full melodies. I recorded melodic ideas, then ran them through extremely granular and distorted processing. Around this time I also started using Melodyne again. I took vocal samples, created grooves with them, and then used Melodyne to pitch individual chops into melodies. After bouncing those back into audio, I chopped and resampled them again. A lot of this project involved heavy resampling, which is why the sounds feel really textured and layered.

Emotionally, this track also came from a pretty low point for me in January.

more_time_v3.wav

For this track I wanted to explore more of an old-school house feeling. I had just spent a long car ride to and from LA listening almost exclusively to house music - something I don’t usually do - and it really inspired me. This ended up becoming the first song I’ve ever released under 135 BPM. Finding the groove at that tempo was actually pretty challenging at first, but once it clicked, the rest of the track came together naturally.

k_i_s_s_i_n_g.wav

This one was just really fun to make. I wanted to lean fully into a hyperbass sound.

The song actually started back in October last year when I was in LA filming content. I ended up in a studio session with Juj and Kiana from Z3LLA, and they recorded the vocal topline while we worked out the melody together.
After that, the project sat untouched for a while while I focused on finishing my debut EP. When I came back to it later, I completely reworked the production - adding a lot more grit and energy while keeping the core melody intact. The goal was to really push the “hyper” side of the sound.

Get it on Beatport