“When Chai Met Toast” : They all loved it.
With their customary multilingual spread in Hindi, English, Tamil, and Malayalam, on offer, Kerala based band “When Chai Met Toast” has shattered norms and etched for itself a pole position among the countrys youth bands .With Spotify recognising them as a rising artist on the RADAR, their forays into various prestigious music events and festivals, the Indie-folk alternative band is echoing all over.
Q. “When Chai Met Toast” is entering its 7th year; How has the sojourn so far been?
Ans: Ultimately, we’re grateful for the love we’ve received, to be able to do what we love, and take our music around the world. It’s been a challenging journey, but very fulfilling.
Q. You have been described as a new folk music band. How much of your music has folk elements and what are the other eclectic parts in your music? How would you like to describe your music in a broader sense?
Ans: The folk mostly comes from the instrumentation. We incorporate instruments like the banjo, ukulele and charango which lends our sound a folk-ish flavour. We’d not want to put a genre on ourselves, it’s a transitioning sound and somewhere between pop, folk and alternative rock.
Q. Your songs have broken convention by using multilingual lyrics; What prompted this thinking?
Ans: Ashwin is comfortable singing in multiple languages, so we didn’t want to restrict ourselves to a single language when making music. Also, when we write songs and feel that certain emotions are better expressed in a particular language, we go ahead with it.
Q. How different are the experiences of recording in a studio and performing in front of a live audience. .. any standout experiences?
Ans: It’s both completely different. I’d consider ourselves to be more of a live band than studio musicians. We thrive on live performances, it’s beautiful to be on stage. Every gig is something special so we don’t want to pick and choose.
Q. How is performing in India different from abroad?
Ans: We have it comparatively easier in India, to be honest. Abroad, it’s similar to starting all over again and building a new audience, playing smaller capacity venues and handling everything from booking venues, promoting gigs to logistics ourselves. That being said, it’s the best feeling when you have people around the world sing back your songs. That’s ultimately our aim, to spread joy to as many places and people we can.
Q. What does your typical set in a gig consist of?
Ans: We’d encourage everyone reading to attend a gig to find out!
Q. What do you enjoy more -a live performance or a recording and why?
Ans: Maybe live performances slightly more, it’s always fun and full of energy.
Q. How much of your music involves personal anecdotes or inspiration from the lives you lead?
Ans: Most of our music stems from personal experiences and experiences on the road. So a good percentage for sure.
Q. How do you guys decide on what song to write? Is it a team decision or does one of you in the band decide?
Ans: Varies a lot from song to song. Some of them are ideas come up by a single member, whereas other ideas come up in jams or during sound checks. Mostly, it’s a collaborative effort to realise a full song.
Q. Music apart, is there any particular band/group whose gigs influence you as a performing unit?
Ans: Coldplay definitely tops the list. The 1975 pull off a fabulous live set too.
Q. Can you take us through the making of your song Kahani? Are there any offers for scoring music for films?
Ans: We keep a bank of song ideas, consisting of voice notes that we record when we get inspiration for a melody or lyric. Kahaani was one such voice note that we had
recorded sometime last year. We returned to this melody when we were working on
the When We Feel Young album, and felt Hindi words would suit perfectly. Being non-native Hindi speakers, we approached Ankur Tewari – a good friend from the indie music circles to pen the words for the song, after giving him the gist of the idea we had behind it. Once the lyrics were written, it was a matter of arranging it in the best way – we tried to keep it simple, minimal and heartfelt. We’ve actually already released 2 songs for Bollywood movies – the latest being Aa Bhi Ja from the movie Do Aur Do Pyaar starring Vidya Balan and Pratik Gandhi.
Q.What has been the high-point of your career?
Ans: Yet to come, we hope. So far, in no particular order – the UK tour last year, our LYTS EP launch tour and performing at the F1 Singapore Grand Prix, and recording in London have been super memorable.
Q. What part has social media played in your popularity as a band?
Ans: Social media is where music has been discovered for the last few years, and for us it was no different starting out. The advent of streaming platforms like Spotify in India also helped amplify our reach.
Q. Can you tell us about your experience of recording a 1 minute song. Songs usually are longer. How different was this one minute song?Do you think this short-song model will last?
Ans: It wasn’t extremely different. When we write songs, we usually make a one minute rough version and then decide whether it’s worth pursuing further. Here, it was just about limiting it to that one minute and conveying everything we wanted to within that minute
Q. Your music exudes positive vibes and the lighter side of life, is that going to be the continued USP of your band?
Ans: We have explored various emotions, but yes, I think naturally that has become the USP of the band, and something we are very proud of.
Q. How do you see your music evolving over the coming years?
Ans: We’re working on some new material, so excited to see how things shape up. We’re still exploring sonically, but have some song ideas we’re very excited about.
