Music
When Chai Met Toast is ready to move into a "completely different league" when they play Red Bull Tour Bus Off The Roof 2017 this October in Mumbai.
Kerala’s acoustic folk/indie rockers When Chai Met Toast are still wrapping their heads around the fact that they’ve got a following. Vocalist Ashwin Gopakumar says, “Before every gig, even right now, we feel like we haven’t promoted it that much and if we’ve given enough for people to come to our gig and see us? Then we come (out on stage) and we see about 400 people at our gig, and go, ‘Damn nice, this is going to be something else!’”
That kind of turnout for a band, just a couple of years in action, is a big deal. What started out as the performing duo of Gopakumar and guitarist-banjo player Achyuth Jaigopal, later added Pai Sailesh on drums and keyboardist Palee Francis to become the go-to band for happy, uplifting tunes. This isn’t just for club gigs or festivals, but also for corporate gigs.
Ashwin talks to us just after they’ve got off stage from a private gig in Mysore and he says it was almost like any other gig – people singing and clapping along to their songs and a few covers as well. He adds, “We get a small amount of conversion, the fans come back and listen to our music between sets and check it out on iTunes or SoundCloud.”
Even before they released any material, their appearance on KappaTV’s Music Mojo video performance series gained them over 200,000 views, in particular for songs like the emphatic ‘Beautiful World’. When they released the evocative, Hindi-English jam ‘Firefly’ last year, they amassed even more fans, snagging an offer to perform an evening slot at the Pune edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender late last year. Ashwin recalls, “The best experience was definitely at Weekender, we just got on stage at 5pm, and we had about 2,000 people standing in front of us, coming in and walking into the festival. We just want to make it bigger each and every time.”
Based out of Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Bangalore and Kochi, When Chai Met Toast released their debut EP, The Joy of Little Things, in January. They most recently released the single ‘Fight’, with a slick new music video directed by Malayalam filmmaker Ganesh Raj, one that explores how different artists grapple and overcome hurdles around creativity and self-doubt. The promo tour that took place through August included stops in Kannur, Kochi, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and a DIY show in Trivandrum. Achyuth says about their plan with the latest single, “We wanted to step it up in production and every other aspect because we were aiming for more listeners and an international audience. It was an intense experience because we raised all the money we had earned from gigs into this release. Even on the tour, the stage had props and we wore our colourful costumes from the video.”
There’s no slowing down now that peak gig season has rolled around – they’ve got two new songs in the pipeline. Ashwin tell us about ‘Believe’, which showcases a more “grown-up side” and that the entire band has written it. He says, “It’s about the problems we’ve faced in real life and how we face changes in life. I’ve been in music for nine years now, so I’ve gone past a lot of things in life and got support from so many people.” Their other song ‘Who Are You’ talks about “growing up and living life with what you have around you”. Ashwin adds, “It’s a little mellower sonically, kind of takes from (Irish band) Kodaline in our own way.”
Anyone heading down to their next gig at the Red Bull Tour Bus Off the Roof on October 14 in Mumbai will get to hear these. Achyuth says, “This is only our second public show in Mumbai, outside of the college festivals we’ve played, and this gig is putting us in a completely different league.”
When Chai Met Toast’s Top 5
Here's what Chai Met Toast is listening to right now.
David Maxim Micic – 'Who Bit The Moon'
We just love the elements and composition of the whole album!
Hundred Waters – ‘Particles’
For this song, we love the vocal hooks and production.
Prof – ‘Bar Breaker’
This is like an opening into experimental hip hop and wordplay for us.
Job Kurian - ‘Enthavo'
One of our favourites from Kerala, we especially dig this for the quality of video and audio production achieved by an Indian artist.
Ben Howard – ‘Promise’
This one’s got exceptional guitar work and songwriting from a great artist of our times.