Varun Sheel isn’t chasing trends. He’s building his own lane — one where shimmering pop meets South Asian tradition, and emotional honesty dances under disco lights.
On “Cool Like You”, the Boston-based artist leans into contradiction: It’s breezy, beat-driven, and undeniably fun, but the lyrics cut with precision. Sheel sings from the margins of self — from the aching space between who we are, who we pretend to be, and who we’re trying to become. The result is a track that’s as self-aware as it is sonically addictive.
Wrapped in glistening guitars, tight 808s, and drums that hit like a shoulder shake, the song is a slow reveal. It sounds like joy, but it’s more complicated than that. There’s a sadness in the shine — a bittersweetness that speaks to anyone who’s ever tried to blend in, fit a mold, or hide their truth just to feel loved.
Sheel’s production lives at a cultural crossroads. Raised in a household steeped in Hindustani classical music — his father a trained vocalist — he absorbed the nuances of raagas, breath control, and melodic storytelling early on. Later, self-taught guitar sessions and a deep dive into Western virtuosos like Buckethead and Paul Gilbert cracked open a different kind of creative freedom. Now, his music lives between those worlds: fluid, hybrid, and deeply personal.
Where past singles like “More Than Friends” and “Over You” established Sheel’s cinematic, genre-hopping style, “Cool Like You” doubles down on emotional specificity. He’s not just fusing styles — he’s threading identity through every melodic turn. The chorus sticks, the groove glides, but it’s the tension underneath that lingers.
This isn’t just an indie pop artist with global influences. Varun Sheel is reshaping what cross-cultural pop can sound like when it’s rooted in memory, diaspora, and lived emotional nuance. “Cool Like You” might be about pretending — but the music feels anything but.
