Coimbatore-based musicians Shaq-T and Dasa release their two-part single...

Race cars and music have always gone hand in hand. So many Indian as well as international artistes have brought them together and produced amazing hits. Coimbatore-based musicians Shaq-T (Shakthivel Karthikeyan) and Dasa (Nikhel Kallingel), recently released a two-part single Throw It/Thooki Veesu that works on the same line. This interesting combination of cars and music gets us talking to the duo, who share their thoughts on the song, how they worked on the music video, their upcoming projects and lots more…

Tell us more about the two-part single?
Dasa: It all started as a joke and it came from a segment of YouTube channel Tamil Comedy Central. We were not sure whether we would do one song or two songs. When we started working on the song, we decided to do two songs, but with the same name. We decided to call it Throw It and Thooki Veesu, which means the same in Tamil. It started from there and there was kind of a snowball effect. The context of the video revolves more around things that we enjoy like cars and customisation. The storyline talks about this whole car culture that is happening in India right now.
Shaq-T: What we have done is, we run a YouTube channel called Buffalo Balu Entertainment. That’s where we have been posting our work until now. We expanded on that universe. In the video, it is basically the Buffalo Balu Entertainment (BBE) headquarters. It’s an office space. The person who pulls up at the end is the CEO of BBE. In this world, we are artistes who are signed to the BBE. The CEO owns this really bougie car, which is the Toyota MR2. We end up crashing the car.
Dasa: It was the valet that crashed the car but we ended up taking the fall for it.
Shaq-T: So the CEO gets really irritated and he sends us back to the garage to fix his car. Then there is this street race at the end.
Dasa: The second part of the video is all about us fixing the car and getting it ready for the race. In the end, he races his arch-nemesis Turbo Thangachi.

Did the idea of car racing and a song come naturally for you guys?
Dasa: Yes. Both of us have been part of this culture where all our friends have been buying and selling cars and taking them out. So, since we have always been around this stuff, it was natural to showcase this culture.
Shaq-T: Coimbatore is also a big hub for manufacturing cars. Ever since we were young, we were around these really cool looking cars. Also, another thing could be that we are really close to Kerala and they are like Japan.
Dasa: My church pastor back in my hometown in Kerala has a modified car. It’s a Honda hatchback but it has rims on it. He has tuned the car. It’s like an expression. You wear your personality on the street.

How was your experience working on the music video?
Shaq-T: We shot the video last year in July. It was a very ambitious shoot but also very hectic because this entire six minutes was shot in less than 48 hours. We had four people come down from Bengaluru.
Dasa: The crew was there. There were so many people. The factory we shot in was almost 100 kilometers away. So, moving everything around, moving these people, feeding these people. All of this was quite an experience.
Shaq-T: Funnily, the ending section of Thooki Veesu was shot completely in the basement of one of the most busiest malls in Coimbatore. It was a Saturday night and the basement was jam-packed.
Dasa: We had all these smoke machines and lights. Since these places were not well-ventilated, the vents were all sucking up the smoke and it was going into the mall. People thought it was some fire and they all rushed out. Then we quickly wrapped up the shoot and got the right shots. People who were in the basement came to see what was going on.

And your upcoming projects?
Shaq-T: We are collaborating again. This time we have the music video ready but not the song. I don’t think anyone has done something like this ever (laughs). So, Nikhel went to Berlin along with his family and he shot a bunch of videos there. And I got married last year and went on my honeymoon to Singapore. I also shot some videos there. So, both of us will have songs that revolve around travel.

Throw It/Thooki Veesu is now streaming on all music platforms.

Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @al_ben_so