talking breakups, community pools, and the sweet east with quiet light

ISSUE 002: SUMMER 2024

Interview by Jade

[EDITOR’S NOTE 2026: Online version is shortened from original transcript/printed version].

In the middle of March, long before the first heat wave of the year, I sat down to talk to Riya Mahesh - the sweet voice behind “Quiet Light”. Here we deep dive into her recent work and plans for the summer…

MAUDLIN: Let's start with where you are, i know you're on the east coast - where are you currently?

QL: I'm in Boston right now.

MAUDLIN: is that where you're from or is that where you're currently living?

QL: I'm living here right now but I’m from Dallas, Texas.

MAUDLIN: How would you say being in Boston compared to Dallas helps you create music? Did you move there for music?

QL: I definitely did not move here for music, I moved here for grad school. I think that it has helped me make more music than before because it's so cold here, so I do a lot of indoor activities vs. in Austin before this.. I felt like I was out a lot more, I was outside and doing stuff. Here I think a lot of people have hobbies like reading, drawing, indoor hobbies.

MAUDLIN: So it's more of an introspective place to be in?

QL: I think so. I don't feel that strong of a connection to Boston at all, not nearly as much as i did Texas, but I appreciate what it has to offer for sure.

MAUDLIN: Do you have plans to move anywhere else or still in Boston for now?

QL: I think i'm going to move to LA in like a year or so!

MAUDLIN: What are some of your favorite spots in Boston, or even in the surrounding area?

QL: I really love the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, it’s really inspirational to be there. They have a lot of flowers and it’s always in bloom, even when it’s the dead of winter which is really nice. There’s this one venue I like to play at called O’Briens Pub which is in this neighborhood called Allston. And....I like the Red Soxs a lot so so i go to Fenway whenever I can.

MAUDLIN: As for music release I noticed that for a lot of drops that you do you post longer captions, while most artists prefer to maintain some sort of mystique. Personally it generated more interest for me, it made me connect to what you put out more. Do you feel that it's really important for you to share the ideas and stories behind your music?

QL: Definitely. I'm still a pretty small artist. I think things have changed a lot for me in the last year. In terms of like, the reach that I've had with my music. iI's gotten past the point where people who aren't my friends listen to my music right now, and I think it's important they know the characters that are involved in my life and how I got here. Also I’m not a mysterious person at all, I'm very much an open book and I think that shows through in the project because it's really honest and forthcoming. So yeah, I love having a release and being able to share the process too, I think it's equally as important as the song.

MAUDLIN: I really loved it.

QL: Thank you!

MAUDLIN: Nobody does that anymore, everyone is set on gatekeeping themselves so it's nice to see that for a change. I saw a few artists that you posted on instagram as well: life without buildings, dean blunt. What artists would you say currently inspired what you've most recently worked on?

QL: I'm a really big dean blunt fan, really big life without buildings fan but I think the biggest inspiration in my music right now is this band called ivy. I have their album right here - [pulls out ivy - long distance CD]

MAUDLIN: I love that album!

QL: Really? this is my favorite band. those [long distance and apartment life] are two albums that really influenced my music. I love french pop music - jane birkin, carla bruni, that stuff. I really love sade, I love the band wet. they have that song "don't wanna be your girl" that was popular but I feel like they haven't really been popular for the past couple of years.

MAUDLIN: Yeah, the remix of that [song] in 2014 was crazy.

QL: The chokehold it had on everyone!

MAUDLIN: That remix did something for my development, honestly, it shaped me.

QL: I’ve been saying, an album that I'm going to make in the future, probably a couple of years from now, is that I want to make a home depot makeout jam type of album, like that is one thing I have to make.

MAUDLIN: That's a really good way to describe it honestly. I really like the photo on the cover of "I love you because [you're in love with the world]" and all of the voice memos and recordings that you integrate from friends going into the songs. What do all of these nostalgic references and sentiments mean to you, and how do they make their way into the music?

QL: Yeah, i love that album a lot because it's just so personal. It really is an album that took place over my entire life. The voice memos in there - half of them are from friends that i've collected over the past year, but then a lot of the voice memos on there are actually home videos. So, my parents are speaking in the Indian language that I grew up hearing when I was a kid, my brother's 5th birthday in one of the songs. It just really takes you down memory lane. For me it was really important to make that album because I just got to this point where I was writing so many songs about my ex-boyfriend and not to say that stuff's not important, but I was writing these really emotive songs about people that hurt me and people I didn't really care about anymore.

I wanted to make something that was about the people that are going to be in my life forever - and that's really that album. And I love that photo, I'm glad you pointed it out - I was a kid, my dad took that photo on a beach in India when I was there. I was like 8 or 9 or something, and it's so whimsical. There's a horse on the beach, that was my childhood. My parents really made everything so magical, even when it wasn't. I feel like we were broke a lot of the time, but they didn't let us know that.

MAUDLIN: That is so sweet. It's nice to see people pull from things other than heartbreak, it's obviously the easiest route and the most cathartic, but going back to childhood makes something a little different than what we typical hear all the time. Regarding "fresca", you described love as this oceanic feeling that you can give into and swim in freely. Can you expand on this feeling and how you translate it in the music?

QL: I think that i've only been in love once in my life, a lot of my music is about that time. And i do think that there's this feeling whenever you're really really in love with someone of "how did you find me?" you're always thinking of these ideas of you looking for the person, but the truth is you never find anybody when you're looking really. It just kind of happens. So when it all happened to me I was so swept up in everything and when anything ends you get really reflective on it. I think about how I was in that relationship, how fearless I was. I think that's something about myself that I do really love and the song is about that characteristic - just being zen about the whole idea of being in a relationship, which I think it's just a song about letting somebody do what they need to do i guess.

MAUDLIN: Summer is a recurring theme throughout a lot of the music - what does a perfect summer day look like to you?

QL: That is the perfect question. I am obsessed with summer because I have really bad seasonal depression. I think the perfect day is i'm in Austin, Texas - I wake up and I go to a yoga class and then I have a smoothie. I go to the local pool, go swimming, and then I go to this place called Pool Burger, I have a burger there. Then I go and make some music with my friends, and then I go to a show with my friends, is the ideal day for me. But it would definitely have to happen in Austin, Texas because that's where all my friends live.

MAUDLIN: The location is just as important as the events. It makes it or breaks it -the place I grew up is ridiculously hot so it doesn't feel like summer when I'm not there. Aside from being from Texas, why do you think you have a deep connection to this specific season?

QL: I think I just remember being a kid and always having the perfect summer. A lot of my songs are about swimming, directly or indirectly, It's kind of the only thing to do in Texas in the summer. when I was a kid my mom would take me to swim practice and lessons, and it would start at 7pm and end at 9 or 10 because you just couldn't be out during the day. You'd get heat stroke or something. I remember having these really amazing, long summer days and I carried that whimsy into my summers recently. Every summer I say I'm going to have an amazing summer, and I generally do always have a summer boyfriend. At the end of summer it's over, but it was really fun. It's like that show "the summer i turned pretty", every summer.

MAUDLIN: How much of the EP is done right now?

QL: It's been done for months honestly!

MAUDLIN: What are three words you'd use to describe it?

QL: Ooooh. the EP is called "the contact". So i'm going to say, distance, ocean and....crying. but like a good crying.

MAUDLIN: What are some achievements, music related or not, that you're hoping to hit in the next half of 2024?

QL: There's a lot of music I'm sitting on so I want to clear my slate. I have this EP coming out in may and an unannounced album, so that will give me a blank slate. I'm starting another album soon that i'm really excited about. So aside from the new stuff, I'm working on a music video for a remix of "Fresca" that I'm excited for because I haven't had a music video yet! Those are the main things, this year is a building year for me. I want to build a foundation and reap the rewards in the future. But my eyes are set on acting right now!

MAUDLIN: Really?

QL: Yeah, I just watched the sweet east.

MAUDLIN: Wonderful movie.

QL: An amazing movie! you know the evening mirror song, I was watching that scene and I used to act when i was in middle/high school. I did theatre, and I was just like "Wow, I really miss completely embodying another character." I’d really love to play a random side role in an indie film and maybe have my music in the film - something like that you know, be involved in other things.

MAUDLIN: I don't want to take up too much time so lastly, what is your star sign?

QL: I'm a Virgo. Virgo sun, Capricorn moon, and a Gemini rising!