As a run-up to World Music Day next week, here’s what the city’s live music scene has to offer
As a run-up to World Music Day next week, here’s what the city’s live music scene has to offer
World Music Day or Fete de la Musique, which falls on June 21, is originally a French concept, celebrating the joy of music during the days of the summer solstice. With the festival of music becoming a global celebration, Mumbai too lined-up some renowned bands and artists from across India. With them performing genres ranging from fusion rock to house, music lovers in the city are in for a treat.
Agnitray Chakraborty (DNA Machines, Kolkata): Drum n Bass with electronica: Debjit (Mahalanobis) and I have been playing together for a while, and we started DNA Machines around six or seven months ago. I am a classically trained tabla player and Debjit is a trained double bass player; he's always coming up with new ideas and concepts. I consider EDM to be the future of music and we wanted to create a sound that takes the genre to the masses. Our arrangements have a tripartite sound, my tabla loops, samples of electronic music or vocals and our own live performances. I perform on the tabla or the dholak and Debjit on his bass guitar. For Thursday's performance, we are going to be performing with Wriddhaayan Bhattacharyya, who has been a friend of mine for a long time and is making his mark with baul music (a form of Bengali folk music). A lot of Bengali bands have incorporated electric guitars or heavy drums with this genre, so we thought of taking it a step further and collaborating to create a new and experimental sound. I believe that music is for everyone and hope that everyone can find a free space to enjoy music this World Music Day. DNA Machines and Wriddh will be performing on June 23, 9.30 pm onwards, at Blue Frog, Lower Parel
Rishab Joshi (Lost Stories, Mumbai): Progressive house: With Swedish House Mafia, Garrix and similar artists coming to India, there has been an explosion in EDM. Prayag (Mehta) and I would listen to artists on YouTube and we look for artistes doing something different from your regular trance music. Taking inspiration, we started officially mixing tracks in 2008. Our biggest influences are Chemical Brothers and AR Rahman. For our upcoming concert we've spent around a month in the studio preparing new international music; we're going to be incorporating that with a few novel Indian Bollywood-like tunes. We will be sharing stage with world number 59, DJ Chetas and it’s going to be an honour. I hope that a lot of people come and celebrate with us on World Music Day, because music is a universal language and it’s a joy to share it. Lost Stories will be performing today, 7.30 pm onwards, at Hard Rock Café, Andheri
Rahul Ram (Indian Ocean, Delhi): Contemporary fusion rock: When we began in the early '90s, there were neither as many bands, nor as many venues and festivals to play at. There's been a tremendous improvement and the Internet too has revolutionised the way you connect and spread music. We like to believe that the essence of the band has remained the same but the new members who have come in have brought their own flavour and influences. We love the Black Friday soundtrack a lot as it sounds nothing like our other albums. Most recently Tandanu was a brilliant experience collaborating with stalwarts like Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Selvaganesh, Shubhaji, Shankar Mahadevan and others. Right now we have started work on our new album and we have two collaborations with Pt. Vikku Vinayak Ram and saxophone player George Brooks that are being finalised in the studio. Music doesn't have to be serious all the time. Some of my favourite memories with the band are playing cricket at our practice place and endless cups of tea. Indian Ocean will be performing today, 7.30 pm onwards, at Hard Rock Café, Worli
Ruben Bhattacharya (Undying Inc., Delhi): Metal: We are a generation that grew up in the '90s; so that scene influences our band's ethic. Our music is very urban and speaks about the chaos of living in the city. Our first line-up dates back to 2003 and the current line-up has been around since 2012. There are not enough promoters of metal gigs who are ready to bring in bands from other states, but this time AntiSocial took a lot of initiative to get Undying to Mumbai for Roots, which we really appreciate. It's a series of new gigs, wherein they get bands that were there when the metal wave started like Demonic Resurrection, Kryptos, Undying Inc. and Bhayank Maut, and bring them along with newer bands. I hope that people come and listen to our line-up of artists on the occasion of World Music Day, because here are people who do it for the passion of it and not for the commercial value. Music at its core is about passion - its nothing else. Undying Inc. will be performing today, 8 pm onwards, at AntiSocial, Khar
