Music lovers across genres in the city were in for the ride of a lifetime as Bengaluru folk rock band Lagori launched a brand new track in collaboration with Girish Pradhan from hard rock/heavy metal band Girish And The Chronicles on June 12. What makes this collaboration actually epic is that the track and its accompanying music video is a remixed cover of English progressive trance group Above And Beyond’s title track from their latest album We Are All We Need .
Invited by the DJ trio themselves to work on the track, Lagori’s version of ‘We Are All We Need’ is a non-EDM take on it, which, the much impressed Above and Beyond are launching on their YouTube channel, simultaneous to its official release in India.
Comprising vocalist Tejas Shankar, electric/acoustic guitarist Geeth Vaz, acoustic guitarist Edward Rasquinha, bass guitarist Shalini Mohan and percussionist/drummer Vinyl Kumar, Lagori teams up with one of the rising stars in the indie scene – Girish — for the music video that blends a range of Indian elements and rock to its unique soundscape. Tejas says they are excited “in capital letters!” What got Above and Beyond’s attention on Lagori was an earlier cover of their song ‘Sun And Moon’, explains Edward. “We were approached by their label Anjunabeats to do a cover for the title track of
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Tejas elaborates: “We could relate to this track a lot since it’s about travelling and exploring ourselves. We all love that though we do get bored of touring and each other sometimes,” he jokes. “The song is all about hitting the road and the journey. We thought we could write a nice Hindi version of it and rope in a kick-ass western singer for the English bit.”
Shalini adds: “We retained the original feel of the song so Above & Beyond fans connect while we’ve added a bit of Lagori to it. It’s a nice mashup of Hindi and English where Girish comes in.”
They admit that Girish was the best thing that happened for the track. Tejas emphasises: “We couldn’t have found a better singer. He was our first choice. He came in and nailed it in one take.” Vinyl adds that though it is a non-EDM track going to Above and Beyond fans, it is different and appealing. “When we did ‘Sun And Moon’, we shot the video in City Market among cows and vegetable vendors. It was a massive hit.” Tejas pitches in: “That gave us the confidence that it doesn’t matter if the audience is an EDM listener base or not. At the end of the day if you can relate to the music, it’s good enough.” Shalini sums up: “It’s just our way of saying that if we can relate to EDM by covering their song, the other way round is also possible.”
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Shalini points out that they are quite kicked about the video they shot for the track. “We look quite cool in it,” she beams. Tejas explains: “It’s got the whole road feel.”
Edward elaborates: “We shot the video in a garage that services bullets and other bikes. We ride in on our bikes in the biker outfits for the video.” Shalini adds that the first shot is that of a regal-looking sitar player in the midst of all the rugged bikes since the intro of the song has a sitar piece.
Tejas says they have added a whole repertoire of elements in the song – from Indian to dirty garage to even a scene on a railway track. “It’s a neat mishmash of everything.”
“The only challenge in making the video was getting Girish and Edward to ride the bikes,” Shalini laughs. “They have this whole biker appearance but they didn’t know how to ride the bikes.” Edward joins in and says: “We had a lot of cool ideas and some of them turned out to be funny like this one.”
Tejas adds that having co-written the Hindi lyrics for the track with composer Abdul, giving the completely EDM track an Indian feel and taking the challenge up made it a fun process.
What’s the take away for listeners and viewers in ‘We Are What We Need’? Shalini one lines it: “Girish’s vocals and Lagori, of course.” Tejas adds: “And the fact that an Indian band has done something cool like this. This proves that Indian music can blend with a range of other genres.”
The video is available on YouTube and was aired on Pepsi MTV Indies.