Bengaluru-based electronic music band Argenil, comprising producer/percussionist Rohit Gandhi and guitarist/DJ Anil Prasad, is known for having created a unique musical genre called “Hindustani trap”. The genre, which is a blend of Indian instruments and EDM music, aims to create “a bridge between Indian sounds, culture, ethnicity and the global sounds that are used in trap/hip-hop”, says Anil.
He tells us how the music duo uses this new genre for making music. Anil explains, “We as musicians were first introduced to these Indian sounds before anything else, so our idea is to make this a global experimental sound. It’s exclusive to us just because of the way we use it in our compositions. It could be a small blend or a whole song derived from it. The important part is to add that vibe to it, which would make it a signature sound for us.”
Generic experimentation has become quite common in the world of music, and bands like Argenil have been getting the support of listeners internationally for that reason. Rohit says, “We’ve been seeing amazing growth in the last couple of years. It’s amazing how so many talented producers are trying hard to contribute something to the industry and the community. Trap music is taking a big stance in India and we’re looking forward to having a big movement supporting the same in the future. In the last 4-5 years, the indie music scene has hit a major boom, too. All bands, solo acts, and other projects have been experimenting with new sounds, trying to educate the audience with different vibes of production and performance. It’s just a matter of time till it hits the industry globally.”
The duo has recently collaborated with artistes like Apache Indian, Eddie Heartthrob, and Yatez among others for their recently released debut five-track EP. She Did It, an independently released EP, features the following tracks: “Sleazeball”, “Help”, “Dholna”, “Marianna” and “She Did It”. Featuring sounds of the nadaswaram, violins, flutes, tabla, ravanhattha, thavil, the album covers everything from reggae and trap to dubstep, folk and hip-hop.
On his experience of collaborating with renowned global artistes for the album, Anil says, “The experience was definitely one of a kind. Every collaboration gave us new ideas and gave us a chance to understand another artiste’s perspective. We’re definitely blessed to have had the best collaborations on this EP. It was a dream come true to have worked with Apache Indian… We sat for nights together in the studio to finish the songs and it’s a magical vibe when you have him [Apache Indian] in the studio. There is a reason they call him a legend. His talent, experience, and personality is the biggest inspiration for us. When he first heard our music, he was really intrigued by the whole sound and showed great interest in exploring our complete idea. He eventually agreed to work with us and life has been different ever since.”
It took Anil-Rohit six months, most of which were spent perfecting the blend of Indian and global sounds, to create the EP. On their creative process for She Did It, Anil says, “Half the stuff was composed when we were in America and we had to finish the whole thing back in India. We tried a bunch of rappers and singers for the songs but it took us a while to get that perfect fit. Even though we had a vision for our sound, it was quite challenging to make that perfect blend. We had multiple versions of the songs before we could actually see the finish line. So we finished about 10-12 songs and then picked the top five, which made it into the EP.”
Launching the label independently was a “big challenge” for Argenil. Anil says, “Our primary motto is to build a base with our new sound and make sure people know that we exist. Independent releases involve a lot of organic sharing and hype. It’s tough but there is no other way to it.”
So which one out of the five tracks took most of your time?
Rohit responds, “The title song, ‘She did it’, definitely took us a few months to get the vocals in place. We had the whole vision of the song but we couldn’t find the right rapper who could translate the vibe of the song. Even the song ‘Sleazeball’ took us a while… The track has a ton of grooves and intense layering of sounds and vibes. It has a strong Hindustani vibe that is blended with modern hip-hop/trap.”
With no one theme in common, the EP collectively showcases all the ideas that Argenil stands for. Rohit says, “There is no particular theme as such but the name of the EP is the name of the title song. People will definitely understand that we’re trying to carve out a niche here.”
And while an independent EP is a big milestone, the duo believes that there are more struggles ahead. “As an artiste, the biggest dream is to take your music to the world and we just had that one thing in mind all the time. As a human being, as an artiste, you grow every day. Every day is a new day and will help you improve if you keep at it. We got signed to Limn Entertainment [an artist management company] earlier this year, which helped us with everything. We never expected any of the collaborations or any such things happening for us. It just happened at the right time. We were blessed to have had two teams when we finished the EP and that’s Limn Entertainment for India and Sunset Entertainment [an international artist management company] for worldwide. The struggle is still the same and we believe that it will be the same throughout, because only the hustle game works in the music industry,” concludes Anil.