Soham Mukherji and Riz Shain have produced songs for the likes of King, Jonita Gandhi, OutStation, Ikka, Chaar Diwari and even collaborations featuring Jay Sean and Jason Derulo. The duo, now 24 and 26-years old, have worked since their teen years on the art of music production, having learnt the ropes from YouTube tutorials, like many of their Gen Z peers.
While Mukherji comes from a musical family, having veteran Bollywood singer Shaan as his dad, Shain started out assisting brothers Armaan and Amaal Malik in the studio at 16. They joined forces in 2023 after years of seeing each other at songwriting camps and studio sessions.
The duo’s name NEVERSOBER doesn’t have any discerning significance. It felt like “the dumbest name possible to come up on a credit list,” they say. Mukherji struggled with the idea of a music career growing up. “I almost feel like I didn’t want to do music for the longest time until I discovered music on the internet again. And that was my re-entry point. I think it’s almost out of spite that I didn’t want to be a singer. I thought let me try something else, the passion for producing just grew from there,” he adds candidly.
One of the reasons they have worked with a variety of artists in a short span is because they’re “really flexible” with what they want to make. “In every session that we are in, we’ll come with a vision for you. Whether the artist accepts it or not on the day is their call. Sometimes they don’t and sometimes we just do what they tell us to do. But a lot of the times it has been where we sit in and and we’re able to drive the sound forward in a way which helps a lot, in terms of people coming back to you because you’re providing a well of creativity that maybe they weren’t able to see cause we’ve been artists ourselves,” they elaborate.
One of their most memorable sessions was with Yashraj, making “Sanatan” in the studio. “In the third hour we just locked in for 30 minutes and the whole structure of the song kind of came to life. I think that kind of built our synergy in that moment with him (Yashraj) also. We locked in for life after that session basically,” they share.
Mukherji and Shain both listened to “the dirtiest, most aggressive” early SoundCloud rap, Lil Uzi Vert and R&B in their formative years, while their environments were more Bollywood-forward. Shain’s exposure to songwriting camps started with a break from one of Warner Music’s A&R reps, sitting in the studio with Karan Kanchan and other producers. One day when Kanchan was not in the studio, Shain said he could bring in Mukherji for the session. Things snowballed from there and now they have producer or artist credits as a duo on “DAF” by Yashraj and Badhshah, “Channa” by Jonita Gandhi, “Haal e Dil” by King and Shreya Ghoshal and “Talk My Shit / Guarantee” by KR$NA and Yashraj.
One of the ways they’re different from their peers is that they don’t send beats to the artist. “It doesn’t work. I feel sitting and marinating over the same beat might not be the same as me kind of tweaking it while you are thinking about something. That active moment of actual work is the most important thing ever,” they assert.
They also prefer being in the studio with the artist, which they’ve done with Jay Sean and Jason Derulo as well, for “Piche Piche” and “Bumpa”. But, they don’t care about how big an artist is. “When you take an artist from zero and make them even into a 10, not even a 100, even if you get them to 10 or even 50, that is a way bigger accomplishment or a way bigger feat because you’re taking someone from the ground up and shaping them.”
They’re mindful of their role as producers while offering a 360 degree service to the artist. “There have been times where I’ve been embarrassed because I’m vocal directing Jonita Gandhi. We have to do this. Otherwise what are we contributing other than just a beat,” says Mukherji.
Creating his own space away from his father Shaan also involved explaining to him what he does. Shaan did ask him what exactly he was doing, not fully aware of what a music producer is. Mukherji explained the core difference to him. But the influence of a film-music composing sessions with a harmonium and the director’s vision still appeals to them.
“We want to go back to the composing angle where we can just sit on a piano and compose a song and maybe build it out from there as a new sort of method. There is some beauty and some magic in that process as well,” they share.
Mukherji is also part of boy band Citimall. While Shain and Mukherji have released a couple of tracks together a few years ago, as the main artists, their dream collaborations include Tyler, the Creator, Childish Gambino and Nigerian artist Rema, of “Calm Down” fame.
