The Two Band Theory

One is a Dutch-New Zealand band 'My Baby' and the other a popular Indie music band that marries its electronic music language with folk music sounds; 'The Local Train' has made music it's voice in speaking out political and social issues. The two bands share their journey, music scene in India during an interview preceding the Sula Fest scheduled for February 1 and 2.

My Baby

Every musician has a journey and most of the times it's a inspiring one, same goes with these two bands, speaking on their journey, Cato, the frontman of the band 'My Baby' says, "Joost on drums and me being siblings have been playing together since childhood in our family band with two other sisters and in various other groups. After meeting New Zealand guitarist Daniel about 15 years ago, we included him in a 7-piece soul band playing a lot of old school funk and rhythm and blues. We struggled our way through several years and albums with that band experiencing the trials of the music industry throughout. Eventually disbanding due to creative differences." He adds, "When we continued as a three piece in 2012 we were essentially a distillation of the previous band's sound with the addition of gospel and folk roots. The idea was to emulate electronic sounds with guitars and mix it up with other traditional folk instruments on top of live drummed dance beats.."

On Work and Collaboration

"We have been quite singular in our approach to creating new material in that it's been quite isolated so haven't ventured into a lot of collaboration yet. But it feels like the time to break out of that is nigh. Currently we are working on our 5th album. We have a new producer on board who comes from a dance production orientated background so it will be interesting how it may diversify our sound."

On uniqueness of music

"Our particular style might be different from what you come to expect. Our influences come from styles that usually remain traditionalist like blues and folk, but we manage to fuse those influences and put them in a different context with our more contemporary dance approach. We somehow have managed to pull that off without upsetting anybody."

On favourite performances and collaboration

"We have enjoyed a lot of great festivals over the years. Performances at Glastonbury and Shambala in the UK stand out. But also fests Luminate and Woman in our second home New Zealand have been special. We have recently recorded a title track, a song called 'Everything' , our latest single for a dutch tv series which was an interesting experience. Perhaps we'll do more projects like that in the future."

The Local Train

is an Indian Hindi Rock band originally from Delhi, consisting of Raman Negi on lead vocals and guitar, Ramit Mehra on backing vocals and bass guitar, Paras Thakur on lead guitar and backing vocals and Sahil Sarin on drums and percussions. The band is known for singles like Aaoge Tum Kabhi, Choo Lo, Khudi, The Local Train is one of the biggest contemporary Indie bands of the country. Its track Aaoge Tum Kabhi was featured in the award-winning film Angry Indian Goddesses.

The journey

Paras Thakur on lead guitar, says, "We had some massive struggles, with no money, asked us friends to shoot for us and edit out work and more. No clue what I wanted to do, never thought this journey would go this far. I wanted to make songs and play for the country, the journey was struggle, but now it's amazing to see and do what we are doing."

On music scene in India

"The music scene in India is very unique in India for good or bad reasons, It's a time where non film movies are getting attention and also it's making a good come back too. But again in other western countries the music scene is huge, if I am an artist, then there are people who guide musicians and people working behind the artists, but here in India it's just 'Do it yourself scene', I feel the music scene is fresh and needs to grow a lot as well, this is the time for artist to experiment their work. I am very excited now."

On upcoming collaborations and albums

"Our last two albums were great, got some really nice response, grateful for that. We are working on new album as well, coming with singles as well. We are working with a Grammy award sound mixer, excited with that as well.

The voice

The band is known to very verbal to speak on political issues and speak their heart out through their music. Sharing a bit light on it, he says, "We try to be honest, we are work hard on our creativity; we do everything by ourselves, from making posters to writing songs and editing videos, we invested our entire ten years to put our music out and we have no clue where the time flew." He adds, "Many artists in the past have made strong, bold political statements if they wanted to. Every artist has the right to express their thoughts on any issue. And should feel comfortable in voicing their views as they see fit. People who know us and our band, with things that are happening at this minute in the country, so we playing songs that speak out heart about different issues."