Indian electronic music production duo Tech Panda and Kenzani release their 21-track debut album

When Tech Panda (Rupinder Nanda) and Kenzani (Kedar Santwani), the contemporary producer duo from New Delhi, decided to create music in 2019, their idea was clear — to make music that had a piece of their soul and home in it. Their music spans diverse sounds and decades, creating a genre that is quite literally unique to them. The duo recently released their 21-track debut album, Tijori, which is their love for Indian classical music, folk melodies and electronic music, coming together. We get chatty with this dynamic duo to uncover everything related to their debut album.

Take us through your debut album Tijori?

Tech Panda: We’ve been well known in the music scene to release singles and that’s worked out well for us. But we really felt the need to showcase our music in a larger way while capturing different emotions and elements. Tijori for us was a happenstance really, as we together felt that some of our unfinished songs deserved to see the light of the day and be shared with our listeners and audiences who are looking for sounds that aren’t conventional. I think we have literally bared ourselves as producers with Tijori and can look back and say that we are proud of the decision. A lot of the tracks on the album were unfinished, so we spent most of 2024 working on fixing these and getting them ready for release.

How did the collaborations on the album come into being? Where did the idea originate from?

Kenzani: The collaborations on the album are something we were most excited about. The song with Rekha Bharadwaj was just an ideation in the studio, the samples were taken from one of her interviews online. But her voice has such an effortless quality to hear that it worked like a charm and we didn’t need any retakes. We made our management listen to the track and they proposed the song to the singer herself and took the necessary approvals and got it ready for us to release. Other collabs on the album are young producers in the city whose sounds we admire and in some way remind us of when we started out. Artistes like Aaromal and Aarav are talented young guns and we feel they have a bright future ahead of them. We are lucky we got a chance to work together.

Folk music has its own audience while electronic music also has its own audience. How do you bring a balance between the two so that neither of them lose their identity?

Tech Panda: I agree that folk and electronic music are very different in their sounds and approach, but the beauty of music is that it doesn’t believe in these barriers and if done with the right vision, very different sounds mixed together can create an impact that’s novel. It’s like trying to bring pieces of puzzles together and sometimes they fit and sometimes they don’t but we don’t give up trying as it’s the favourite sound to our ears.

Which were the songs in the album that you found most interesting to work on?

Kenzani: We can’t quite name a handful of songs because we love them all! Every song had a unique production experience attached to it. But we will say that some songs took years to finish whereas others took two days. Atmaranjan, Come with Me, East Meets West and Liquid Days take the cake in terms of being the maximum fun while producing.

What’s next for you following the album release?

Tech Panda: Honestly we didn’t realise at the time what a big task it would be to get 21 songs ready for release. We’ve spent the past 10 months or so just getting the songs and the artwork ready for the listeners. Now that the album is out we are spending time at home and with family because the last leg of the year and touring season is about to hit India soon. So, we’re just amping up to be in the touring mind space now.

Tijori is streaming on all audio platforms.

Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com

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