After Sushi, here's what When Chai Met Toast has in their kitty

When it comes to independent bands who etched a mark with their rustic melody and relatable lyrics, When Chai Met Toast’s name comes to the forefront. While their song, Joy of Little Things made its way into everyone’s playlists during jamming sessions, the band is back with their new solo, Sushi, reminding us of everything Japanese — the blossoming cherry trees, the picturesque Fujiyama mountains, and of course Sushi. We catch up with the band members: lead vocalist Ashwin Gopakumar, guitarist Achyuth Jaigopal, keyboardist Palee Francis, and drummer Pai Sailesh to know more about the project, indie music, and their upcoming projects.

Could you tell us about Sushi?

Sushi is essentially a love letter track where we are asking that special someone to come with me/us to Japan. The song talks about the love for Japan and everything about you and your partner or that somebody special to join you for your trip to Japan, and how eventually these two people fall in love.

Any particular reason for choosing Japan?

It’s our love for Japan and it also has a personal note. The song depicts a story that is very personal to Ashwin.

Anything you want to mention about the music bit?

This is the first track from the foursong EP LYTS. Musically, it’s quite familiar to the tracks we have done before. Our last album was more of an alternative rock genre, but in this track, we are back to our original Indie folk style using banjo and stuff like that — you know, whatever felt right for the song. We felt that the song should exude happiness, and we tried to execute it in the best way possible.

What made you form a band in the first place?

I think growing up, we listened to a lot of bands and we saw pop culture, and that’s something we gravitate towards. We, like a collective, call on the music that we make together, rather than a singular approach. We are four musicians creating numbers together, so it’s a joint effort by all of us. Very recently, you also had a metaverse concert.

How was the experience?

We collaborated with a brand to create a whole metaverse experience for our gig. It was very new for us because there were lots of questions in our mind — how our avatars are being created, how the stage is being set up and so on. We had sent across things but how the show turned out finally was a surprise for us as well. And to find a lot of people experiencing it and it trending on social media platforms was really cool. We’ll probably be doing more of this soon. In recent times, Indie music is coming back to the fore again.

What do you think worked?

Previously, there were a limited number of artistes putting out music that featured on music channels like MTV or Channel V. Right now Indie music is a bigger term — so many artistes creating music, independent collectives, and smaller and bigger record labels, but they are still under the bracket of independent labels. The rise has been greater once the streaming platfor ms came to India, which also made a section of the listeners shift from Bollywood music to independent music. There are lots of musicians who want to make music, want to put forward their personal stories, and want people to connect with them. Earlier, there was a limitation to listening to newer singers, it was just the CD or cassette shops, but now the resources are vast. However, the number of bands has reduced, it is a trend that we see now, everyone is going solo. Also, independent music has branched into commercial independent music and indie independent music. While the commercial music is more relatable to the masses and very similar to Bollywood, indie independent musicians and bands are still experimenting with their sounds. Even after that, there are divisions like regional independent music and English independent music, the latter has musicians writing songs in English, but the listeners are way too low compared to the commercially accepted languages. However, we feel that independent music has shown how big it can get, even at par with Bollywood.

Do Instagram reels also help in getting popular?

Of course! We would love to take our example on this. Our track Joy of Little Things probably went from Spotify’s last five songs to being in the top three, just because of reels, which is what I believe. So yeah, it’s an added platform.

What projects are there in the pipeline?

The new EP got us all excited. We have a UK tour (London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Dublin) in May. There might be a couple of Bollywood projects which we aren’t sure of yet. And towards the end of the year, we are planning a multi-city India tour, which we are looking forward to.