We’re at Sonu Nigam’s house in Seven Bungalows, Andheri, where percussionist Bickram Ghosh is regaling me with behind-the-scene stories of the making of their album The Music Room, an album that’s as much mainstream, as it is experimental. Talking about how Nigam would prod him to give him beat structures he’s unfamiliar with, Ghosh says, “We have composed songs which are in three-and-a-half beats or four-and-a-half beats, which is very rare.” This would, in turn, make Nigam’s job of writing the lyrics even more challenging. “But you should listen to the lyrics he’s written. They will blow your mind,” the musician from Kolkata tells us. I remark that the two must have pushed each other’s boundaries, to which a deadpan Nigam says, “Push...pa!”, a la Rajesh Khanna in Kati Patang and Ghosh almost spills his tea as he guffaws aloud at the former’s comic timing.

Sonu Nigam and Bickram Ghosh at the former’s residence in Andheri. Pic/Sameer Markande