Ady Manral Takes Us to the Hills with Sketches from the Top of the Hills

If you've ever wondered what kind of music comes out of a place like Landour, Ady Manral might have an answer. The 40-year-old singer-songwriter has been living in the hill town since 2009, writing in both Hindi and English and turning pieces of life in the Himalayas into songs. Born in Dehradun, Ady released his debut EP Lean on Love in 2018 and has followed it with a series of singles while continuing to figure out exactly where his music belongs. For now, he calls it “Indie Mountain Folk”, somewhere between singer-songwriter and acoustic folk, with his life in the hills becoming a natural part of the songwriting.

His latest release, Sketches from the Top of the Hills, which was released on 19 July, takes that idea beyond the songs. It's a visual EP and music documentary built around Ady's music and his life in Landour. Everything was recorded and filmed at his home, and the entire process took just three days. Putting it all together afterwards took almost a year. The result brings the songs, visuals and Ady's everyday life into the same project, giving you a glimpse of the world behind the music.

The three days were anything but smooth sailing. Equipment kept giving up on them, moisture found its way into places it absolutely shouldn’t have, and at one point the crew literally had to improvise a microphone stand using a towel. Instead of hiding the chaos, they leaned into it, and it all made its way into the final film. The film was created by The Give Up Session, directed by Romil, with cinematography and colour by Aman Singh, who also shot many of the photographs that ended up as artwork, covers and promotional visuals. Ady had first met Romil years earlier while working on his track Kaisey at Vivek Thomas’ studio in Kochi.

Musically, Ady's influences stretch well beyond one particular folk tradition. Bon Iver, Paul McCartney and The Beatles, Eddie Vedder, John Martyn, Hozier, James Bay and Gillian Welch are among the artists he draws from, while Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan sit firmly among his idols. He also brings a more contemporary approach to his live performances, using a loop pedal and taking inspiration from Ed Sheeran's looping. Ben Howard has influenced aspects of his singer-songwriter style too. At the centre of it is storytelling, writing about his life in the hills and turning those experiences into songs. Ask him to describe his journey in one word and he says, “Evolving.”