What do you get when you bring two live wires together and start a disco-funk duo? Madboy/Mink. The duo, consisting of Imaad Shah and Saba Azad, have been one of the finest live acts in the country’s blooming independent music scene for the last couple of years. Having played at festivals such as Sunburn Goa, NH7 Weekender, SulaFest, as well as playing at various venues across the country, Madboy/Mink have created quite the niche for themselves, with a loyal fan following.
As the duo take over Mumbai tonight as part of Budweiser MADE Stage, we caught up with them to discuss their upcoming new music, their live shows and much more.
Read ahaead!
TBB: Can you tell us a bit about your brand of music that has now successfully taken over the Indian audience?
Imaad: Other than the feel and the style of the music, rather than seeing it as a trademark or our own brand of music, it’s something we’re trying to working on developing since we started working together. Our style basically can be quite varied sometimes, but basically it involves elements of high energy, bit electro and electronic music along with songwriting styles, which are inspired or in the mood of slightly older, 70’s funk and disco
Saba: Even older blues and jazz sometimes
Imaad: Yeah, I mean our influences come from all these various places. All we look forward to make is our own trademark Madboy/Mink sound and our own music. That’s the idea of the project. To kind of create our own sound.
TBB: What is it about your eclectic live shows that continue to rake in more number of fans with each passing way?
Saba: Um, I think both Imaad and I come from a space of performing arts, not just music. We’ve both been born into theater families, we’ve been involved with and been on the stage. So there’s been an understanding of different mediums into our live performances. So apart from the fact that we’ve been incorporating a bigger band, not always, but whenever the stage permits. We work with a horn section, a drummer, and apart from that I think also the fact that we’ve kind of been working with visuals because we’re both into film making seriously, not just as actors, but as filmmakers and scriptwriters so for us the whole visual medium is very important. There’s choreography involved where we’re dancing actually, the whole band has been a part of that, and we’ve had dancers come on board as well. SO the whole experience in itself is a bit of a musical theater kind of an experience that we’re really trying to create, and taking it to the next level. At the end of the day at a live show, its more of an experience. You can’t have people standing around the stage. We firmly believe that and do our best to create that for our audience.
TBB: As Budweiser Made Stage makes a return, how excited are you to be a part of the concept?
Imaad: We’re happy to be a part of it, and we’re excited for the show tomorrow, and all the other work that we’re going to do with Budweiser.
Saba: Budweiser have kind of put together this whole experience, to collaborate with other musicians, to be kind of on stage with other musicians. We don’t usually collaborate so this is a great opportunity. Also, not just us, MADE Stage as a property in itself is a great opportunity, I think for, musicians to display their music in a way.
Imaad: Budweiser have been very involved with electronic music all around the world, including our country, and promoting and pushing local talent to do newer stuff and bigger stuff. They’re occupying a place a lot of people want to occupy, and everyone’s seeing the value of electronic music, or music in general, the way independent music in our country is growing every day. More people are becoming aware of this, so I’m glad Budweiser is also involved with this.
TBB: You two have already dished out two fantastic EPs ‘All Ball’ and ‘Union Farm’. Any new music on the horizon?
Saba: Of course. There’s always new music coming from our side.
Imaad: We have music videos that are being conceptualized and worked on, and we have two more EPs that we’ll be putting out this year, with a full length album next year. That’s the way we’re planning it right now.
TBB: And finally, how does your special collaboration with Dualist Inquiry and Kohra for the Made Stage’s return fall in sync with Budweiser’s ‘Music Brewed The Hard Way’ campaign?
Imaad: The idea of ‘Brewed The Hard Way’ is about artists who’ve made it the hard way, made it on their own, coming up in their own scene at their own merit.
Saba: I think that stands through for all the artists in this gig.
Imaad: Budweiser is brewed with the highest standards, and the whole thing stands the same for the music and the artists involved. We’ve all (musicians) kinda made it on our own, built the scene out of a time when there was nothing.
Saba: We’ve seen the scene grown in front of us. Up till 5 or 6 years ago, there wasn’t much of an independent scene in India, you know. And it’s been amazing to have been in the mix to have seen it grow, and be a part of it. It’s great to have this amazing talent around us, and the quite incredible music that’s coming out of India right now. The power of the Internet is fantastic, and the reach people have now is amazing because of it.
Catch the eclectic duo tonight at Todi Mill Social along with Dualist Inquiry and Kohra for a gig of a lifetime. Details here.
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