Bengaluru-based musician Teenasai Balamu, 24, is in a quietly buoyant mood when we meet at a coffee shop in Jayanagar. Life has gotten a little busier for the singer-songwriter.

The artiste, who identifies as non-binary and gay, and performs as GrapeGuitarBox, released their first single, ‘Run’, off their début EP, Out, on March 16. Impressively, it was on a Spotify Editorial playlist the next day alongside several international artistes.

“I was so happy that I thought I was going to cry. I honestly don’t know if it will happen again but it is the best thing ever,” they say. As for the name GrapeGuitarBox, Teenasai laughs, “It is just three things I like — grape, guitar and box. I used the name on SoundCloud and YouTube and then it stuck.”

They say, “I would describe my music as indie pop/pop rock. My musical influences are Ed Sheeran, who I look up to, Taylor Swift (she was a big influence when I was in school), Adele, The Lumineers and Julia Stone. Subconsciously, AR Rahman as well because he has so many elements in his music and I have tried to do that in a few tracks.”

Music was a part of Teenasai’s life from a young age even though they don’t come from a musical family. “My older brother went for piano classes and so I was sent too. I even sat for the Trinity College of Music exam when I was around nine or 10 years old, but stopped after grade one. When I was about 14, I started learning the guitar seriously and got a diploma from Rhythms by the time I was 16.”

It was in college after pursing a degree in Media Studies, while considering an MBA, that a professor suggested they pursue music seriously. “I finished college in 2015 and for a while did content writing and wrote screenplays. But it was not that stimulating. So, by the end of 2016, I decided to pursue music full time.”

Things clicked from there. While performing covers of pop songs, they were noticed by the flautist from Aathma, Sidharth Bharadwaj, who told Teenasai to send him their artiste-profile. Later, Rolling Stone magazine named GrapeGuitarBox on a list of upcoming artists to look out for.

“Initially, I didn’t want to be known as a queer musician. But then I thought that right now, this is where we are at, fortunately or unfortunately, and I am okay with that.”

As for the six-track EP, Teenasai says, “I came out recently and decided to name the EP Out. There are one or two songs where I have explicitly used pronouns to suggest that I am queer. But I wrote these songs when I was not out. So, I didn’t have the liberty to make it ‘queer-sounding’.”

They add, “One reason I want to be visible is that I felt like if I had found someone like me back then, it would have been helpful. I did get help and encouragement from someone who identifies as lesbian later on. It helped me with being okay with my identity; something as simple as cutting my hair or dressing the way I want. That is where representation and visibility are extremely important. If people don’t know you exist, it is a huge problem.”

Apart from giving a TEDx talk at DY Patil University, Navi Mumbai, in March this year on heteronormativity and how one should think beyond the binary of male and female, Teenasai, along with Pooja Krishnakumar, started Almaarii/Closet in 2018, a project that asks the question of what a physical manifestation of someone’s closet would be. The narratives sent in are then illustrated by different artists and posted on Instagram and WordPress.com.

“We also started The Queer Question in 2017 under which people can ask questions anonymously. There is a Google Doc on their Facebook page that has to be filled up and we post the answers on Instagram.”

As for what their expectations are from the EP, which was put together with the help of producers Miti Adhikari and Santhos Nataraja, and multiple session musicians, Teenasai says: “Honestly, it is a humble expectation. I hope people relate to it. You listen to a song and it stimulates certain feelings in your head or you think of it with your own stories. If it does that, I’ll be happy. But if you are talking about things on a bigger level, I just hope that some queer kid sees it somewhere and thinks, ‘I am fine, nothing is wrong with me’. That would be good.”

‘Run’ is available on YouTube and major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Saavn. A music video for GrapeGuitarBox’s second single ‘Wait For You’ is under production.