Acoustic folk/indie rock band When Chai Met Toast’s sound is chirpy, positive and catchy — perfectly categorised as ‘happy’ music by the group. Even before the release of their material, the Kerala-based outfit garnered a loyal following, courtesy their appearance on Kappa TV’s Music Mojo. The video of their performance received over 200,000 views. Apart from their releases, the band also worked with stand-up comedian Kenny Sebastian on his Netflix show, Die Trying.
Ahead of their performance in the city, we catch up with one of the founding members Ashwin Gopakumar about their next gig, debut album and making happy music. Excerpts:
What can we expect in your upcoming show in Hyderabad?
We are playing all the songs that we’ve released till date. We’re also excited to perform at Hard Rock Cafe, a platform we’ve been associated for a long time.
Tell us about your journey and how the band was formed.
Our journey has been tough like any other band. It was not a silver spoon filled with opportunities, most of which we created for ourselves. That’s also the reason why we finally have a clear picture of what we want next. The band was formed when Achyuth Jaigopal (guitar/banjo artiste) and I met, and the others (Pai Sailesh on drums and Palee Francis on keys) joined us soon.
What is your music making process?
We do not have a definite method per se. We are influenced by people, places, moments and instances that happen in front of us, which makes what we write honest and give it a perspective of its own like any other form of art. From what we’ve listened to in the past to what we are listening have played a small part in influencing us as people and our music — ranging from good old regional Malayalam film music to bands like 1975 and Young The Giant.
Your music is very upbeat and happy. How do you account for the negative emotions of life in your art?
There are songwriters who talk about negative emotions in their songwriting, we just look at the brighter side of it. Maybe, this is because we’ve gone through quite a lot in the past. But, we’ve not thought about this before.
What do you have in the works at the recording studio?
Our debut album! This one’s a milestone for us and we’ve been working on this for a few months, but there’s so much more to do. We are trying out new soundscapes, instruments and new melodies. There so many things on our mind that need to be reciprocated properly in terms of music. So after these few shows, we will take a break and focus on working on the rest
of it.
May 12, 8 pm. At Hard Rock Cafe.