As one of the busiest DJs in the country, Anish Sood is among those who have taken the Indian dance music industry by storm. His new track ‘Superfly’, with singer Anushka Manchanda and dance-music producer Nanok, is out on iTunes and is currently number 3 on its charts. While Anish describes ‘Superfly’ as having two distinct parts, “a dreamy verse and a pop-dance chorus,” Anushka says the track reminds her of summer “easy and languid, yet it has a bounce that's undeniable! I was thinking of girls in the sun, on the beach, dancing, having a good time when I wrote it.”
Anushka and Anish met through a mutual friend in Mumbai and connected quickly. The discussion about ‘Superfly’ came about when the pair happened to be sitting next to each other on a flight to Goa. The track, Anish says, is different from the music he normally plays. “It sits nicely between commercial and alternative sound and is doing quite well online.” Anushka, who professes a love for grungy sounds, distorted guitars and heavy drums, says that this is light and lovely, a change from singing on stage.
Talking about how house and electronic music are received in India, the duo have positive things to say. “The real growth is with 15/16-year-olds who are online listening to our tracks and these are the people who cannot come to concerts. This is an untapped market; they’re growing up listening to Calvin Harris, David Guetta... this is mainstream pop music for them,” Anish says. Anushka thinks things are changing.
“There’s a big market for electronic music. We just need more artists from the Indian scene to put out more music like this. We consume electronic dance music from around the world. We are ready.”
Anish, who is all set to perform in Chennai on April 18 for Sunburn on Air, says that while the Chennai audience isn’t as educated in EDM when compared to the Mumbai or Bangalore crowd, they do have a strong culture of weekend clubbing. “They are used to going out, so it won't be difficult to get them to attend,” he laughs. For Anushka it has been a decade in playback singing. She started her playback career with Tamil songs and gradually moved on to Hindi and Telugu. Will we see her back in Tamil? “I would love to sing more in Tamil! There are fantastic musicians here and the kind of sounds coming out of this industry is incredible.
My younger brother Shikhar (part of the metal band Reverrse Polarity and a producer) and I discussed going to Swarnabhoomi to study. There is so much to learn!”
