Danish Sood's everyone's a baby finds something useful in being a little naive

Delhi-based actor and singer-songwriter Danish Sood released his debut mixtape everyone's a baby on July 3rd, with VHS footage of his family and himself as a baby. It’s a fairly direct introduction to a project about childhood, but the mixtape has less to do with nostalgia than the footage suggests.

The mixtape's own framing calls this a "beginner's mindset" — staying curious and emotionally open rather than chasing certainty. What interests Sood is the version of yourself that exists before you get too conscious of how you’re supposed to behave. "There's something really beautiful about mixtapes," he says. "They feel less precious. Less pressure, more love. Raw, unfiltered, a little less overthought."

The cover art follows the same idea: childhood photographs sit beside a hand-drawn portrait labelled "Danish Sood," a grocery list, a Columbus Zoo ticket and a sticky note reading "take care of your tummy!!" It looks like something pulled out of a drawer at your parents' house rather than a proper album cover.

Photo: Instagram/Danish Sood

everyone's a baby is Sood’s first self-released project following placements like "Jaanu Na" for Mismatched Season 2 and "Kya Karun" for Call Me Bae, along with independent releases such as "Crash." Across the tracks on this EP, he moves through love, memory and growing up, without making adulthood sound particularly impressive.

For Sood, the childhood imagery isn’t just about being young, it is really about creative instinct. Kids don’t usually stop to ask whether they’re doing something correctly, they just do it. "I think you've got to be a little naive to create honestly," he says, "and just as naive to let yourself receive it."

“Ruby,” named after Sood’s mother, is built around a voicemail from her that he missed. The moment is ordinary, but the song turns it into a question about understanding love away from home. “Somewhere between the voicenote and the rest of the song is a version of me trying to understand love outside of home,” he says.

Photo: YouTube/Danish Sood

"Butterfly Tattoo" comes with the mixtape's first visual, which follows an almost-missed connection that becomes the kind of story you laugh about later. Nothing enormous has to happen for it to matter. The appeal is that something small happened at all.

Everyone is a baby at some point and that same instinct runs through the EP - produced by Sood, with Ritic Joel on co-production, recording, mixing and mastering, refusing to offer a polished version of growing up, messier than that, and better for it.