PROJECT BIO

What happens when the people we meet in our hardest moments become part of how we find our way forward?

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For Nashville-based indie folk band Windsong, that question begins on the back patio of a treatment house in Tennessee. It was there that Uday Sehgal and Brandon Alexander, two musicians navigating addiction and recovery, became friends and began playing music together every night.

Before there was a band or an album, there were two housemates finding something familiar to hold onto. The first song they performed for the other residents was “Man in the Mirror.”

They named their band after the house where they met.

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Blending indie folk and Americana with roots in rock and blues, Windsong makes music shaped by the experiences people often struggle to put into words. Their debut album, Human Conditions, explores pain, loss, depression, addiction, spirituality, and healing through songs grounded in lived experience. Releasing on November 18, the album also accompanies a documentary film coming to Apple TV in January 2027, extending the project’s exploration of pain and healing beyond the record.

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At its heart is a belief that Uday puts simply, “Pain can eventually be your ally, and music has the ability to heal.”

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That belief was tested along the way. After leaving treatment, Uday and Brandon returned to Nashville and began writing together. Both experienced subsequent relapses and further stays in rehab before recording the album in February 2026. The music grew alongside that process, giving them a place to explore what they were going through without needing to have it all figured out.

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Asked what makes him proudest of Human Conditions, Uday starts with its very existence.

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“First, that it even exists,” he says. “Second, the caliber of the players. Third, the honesty and integrity.”

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Long before Windsong, music had been a constant in both founders’ lives. Raised in Chicago, Uday fell in love with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in kindergarten, performing its choreography for classmates at recess in a pleather jacket. He went on to play guitar in bands through high school and college, began writing songs at 18, and performed with Continued Education while studying mathematics at Northwestern University. His career would take him into hotel development and filmmaking, but songwriting remained a way to make sense of his life.

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Brandon’s musical foundation began in Nashville churches, where he played piano and organ and sang in the choir. He later attended Fisk University and became a member of the renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers. His gospel background brings another perspective to Windsong’s sound, joining Uday’s rock and blues influences in music built around personal, emotive songwriting.

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Uday’s family history adds another dimension to the album’s spiritual questions. His parents grew up in an ashram in Pondicherry, India, before immigrating to Chicago. That connection informs “Sunrise,” a song whose title also reflects the Sanskrit meaning of his name. Elsewhere, the record moves through the struggle to leave destructive patterns behind on “We Are Through” and the experience of depression on “Free.” “Awake” carries those questions into the search for spiritual awakening, reflecting the hope and anticipation of discovering what comes next in recovery.

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Some of these stories reach back decades. Written when Uday was 18, “Linda Lee” remembers a friend’s mother who died in a car accident. “Close Your Eyes” confronts the absence left by a friend’s suicide, allowing grief to remain unresolved. On “His Love Is Kind,” the focus turns toward a close friend battling ALS, honoring the heart and courage Uday always witnessed in him.

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Together, these songs make room for experiences that can be difficult to share, and for the people whose lives continue to shape our own.

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Recorded primarily in Nashville, Human Conditions was produced by Dallan Beck. The sessions brought together a wide circle of musicians, including vocalist Savanna Smith, guitarist Ravi Rao, violinist and mandolin player Lacy Rostyak, bassist John Mason, and drummer Joe Travers. Alongside Uday’s vocals and guitar and Brandon’s vocals and piano, their contributions give the songs a musical breadth that reflects the project’s folk, rock, and blues foundations.

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For all the experience assembled in the studio, the purpose remained personal: to make an honest record that might help someone else feel less alone.

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“I hope it provides some connection or comfort for those in recovery or other mental health challenges in particular,” Uday says.

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That hope carries into Windsong’s future. The goal is to keep writing, recording, and playing, to keep improving, and to use the music as a voice for something positive. The album and accompanying documentary open that conversation to others, while the band continues the work that first brought them together.

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What began with two musicians playing on a treatment-house patio has become a collection of songs about being human, even when being human feels hardest. With Human Conditions, Windsong offers the kind of connection its founders first found in each other: someone willing to listen, something honest to share, and a reason to keep going.