Shruthi Rajasekar talks with Tyler about the three touchstones she returns to again and again: identity, community, and joy. She reflects on how understanding identity—both self-defined and externally perceived—helps her shed fear, claim space, and recognize the privileges and complexities within South Asian artistic lineages. She also unpacks how her understanding of community has shifted: from being raised within a tight immigrant network to realizing that real community includes disagreement, multiplicity, and the difficult work of holding many viewpoints at once. Finally, she speaks to joy as the constant in her creative life—not as surface optimism, but as a commitment to imagining possibility even within serious or painful stories. Together, these three frameworks shape not only her music but the experiences she hopes to cultivate around it.

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