Music in the vineyard

In its 13th edition, Sula Fest, known as country's first and biggest Vineyard Music Festival at Nashik is back with another massive line up, the festival, which is being held on February 1 and 2, 2020, is expected to be another massive event. Speaking to The Hans India, one of the biggest names in the Bollywood music Industry Salim and Sulaiman who will be performing at the event shared with us about their journey, EDM and music scene in the country and more

"We always hope that music scene gets better and better. But, In the last four years there have been so many gimmicks that are happening often. People are just not getting to listen to new music because of all the remakes of old songs. Singers are finding a quick way to sensationalise and popularise themselves using existing songs," shares Salim.

"However, we have taken a different view, and decided to do our own album that has finally completed; we are hoping to release it soon. The album is called 'Bhoomi 2020'. Twenty years ago, we did an album called 'Bhoomi'. After that, we got into doing a lot of movies. We decided to go back out old roots," share the musical duo, Salim- Suleiman.

Speaking on the independent music scene in the country, Salim says, "The beauty about music and indie music scene is the fact that you have a common platform. There was a time, when music used to be on CDs. Now, everyone has a great opportunity to display their work and find fans who like to listen to their kind of music. And so, at the end of the day, you have been seeing a raise in the independent music scene."

Speaking on the upcoming Sula Fest, the duo says, "The festival is getting bigger, and we have been trying really hard to be part of the festival and glad we could make it this time. We know that there is going to be a good crowd, a mixed audience. We get a lot of messages on social media saying that we should be playing in Maharashtra, especially people living outside Bombay who'd like to come and visit. These festivals get us the opportunities to interact with fans."

They have earlier collaborated with stars like Lady Gaga and Enrique and other names, Sulaiman, says, "These are alternatives something we are still planning to explore, but for now we are focused on our up-coming Bollywood releases only."

Speaking on the EDM scene in India and how Bollywood has been using this form of music in their films, Salim, says, "Bollywood is taking EDM in a very serious way. There are a lot of songs nowadays in various platforms. We have seen people embracing EDM very strongly. Apart from Bollywood, a lot of college fests have been giving special slots for EDM artists due to immense following the country has for the music."

The duo is happy that many people are turning out to come and hear the artists and live shows are getting popular. Salim, says, "Live experience is something that people are really enjoying. I know when we started performing 10 years back that it was already quite popular with a few artists. Now people are getting more aware and many voices are getting noticed and shows are filling up as well. That's nice to see for a singer."

They have their share of advice for young musicians, "There is so much to learn, this is an ocean of music. You cannot just sit back and relax. People need to work hard and make themselves heard to the masses out there.

They add, "We realised we wanted to be in this scene and had a career at the age of 15 and worked hard to be where we are. So can others, they just need to work hard and focus."

While the Merchant brothers, Salim–Sulaiman, the popular Indian duo will bring in the Bollywood vibe with their record-breaking hits at the beautiful open-air amphitheatre at the Sula vineyards, the two-day extravaganza also brings performances by the likes of British Chart-toppers - Hot Chip, who will be setting the stage ablaze for the 1st time in India, spinning tracks from their latest record.

The heady lineup includes the popular Dutch-New Zealand trio, My Baby (Joost van Dijck, Cato van Dijck and Daniel 'Dafreez' Johnston), performing some of their best hypnotic dance mixes. Adding to the mixtape is The Local Train (Ramit Mehra, Raman Negi, Sahil Sarin, and Paras Thakur) with a mash-up of Hindi rock tracks.