By Willie Gordon Suting
Hailing from the Silicon Valley of Bengaluru, Argenil, which consists of Rohit Gandhi and Anil Prasad, has been making waves. The vibrant music scene in India has these two tech experts who weave wonderful music.
Gandhi, sharing how they met, says, “We met in college during our 11th grade in a math class where we were discussing about forming a band to perform in the college fest. Anil soon picked up the guitar and then started playing bass and I was the percussionist. We started playing drums and bass for a ton of bands and then slowly progressed into Electronic music.”
The band has been playing at various party destinations such as college festivals. The uniqueness in their sound comes from the fact that they include Indian music into their tracks in a subtle manner.
Talking about their pioneering genre Hindustani House, Prasad says, “Hindustani is just another name for Indian. India has always had a rich and varied musical history. It is this musical genius from over the years that we’re tapping into. We’re taking the sur, the taal, the alaap and more of Shastriya Sangeet, the different instruments, their grooves and integrating that into Trap music with our unique sound design, coming up with an entirely new genre that we’re calling Hindustani Trap.”
Hindustani House is a showcasing of the band’s perception, its vision of this fusion. The derivation of this music is a blend of sounds and grooves from India mixed with modern trap/hip-hop with its own unique sound design which would appeal globally.
With influences ranging from Big Gigantic, Goldfish, Griz, Troyboi, Herobust, AR Rahman, Shankar Mahadevan, to name a few, Prasad says they start a song “sometimes with the lyrics, a melody, a beat or just a bassline. Sometimes you have a vision of the whole song and you could start the production process with anything and sometimes you just start jamming or experimenting to derive something weird and unique”.
Having released their EP She Did It the band is riding on success. The response throughout the country has been positive.
“It was also amazing to see that our first song The-Di-Ki-Na-Thom reached the masses not only in India but also globally! It was amazing to see that it reached Grammy nominees like HK Kessler himself who had wonderful things to say about the new concept and sound and also being played over 40 radio stations in the US,” says Gandhi.
The band recently performed at Tango Bar in the city. “It was definitely one of the highlights of the tour. It was a full house and a really energetic show. The crowd was super responsive and they also knew the lyrics to She Did It so it was an amazing night,” Prasad had said after the performance.
“Thank you Shillong for being an amazing crowd and for welcoming us with so much love. We appreciate it! This is just the beginning! Looking forward to having many more big shows with you in the near future,” was Gandhi’s reaction.
Argenil also performed at Terra Maya in Guwahati on September 20.