Two tracks per day & India’s Music Scene: The Whyd Interview with Trackdrops

Yo dudes! Can you introduce yourselves? Where are you from and when did music start seriously influencing your lives?

Vikram: I am a Canadian who moved to India just so that I could miss the T dot. An erstwhile investment banker turned entrepreneur, I’m best known as the reason why women stay single. Music was instrumental to my memory of childhood. I was surrounded by a healthy variety of genres from the inimitable Rick Astley to ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali. The fault of which lies with my parents, both of whom had a schizophrenic record collection that would play out every evening. I became extremely active (bordering on obsessive) around the time Radiohead launched their “In Rainbows” album. 

Steve: My name is Steve Abraham and I’m from Mumbai. I’m pretty sure music started playing a serious role in my life ever since I was a kid. Much like Vikram’s upbringing, my parents would play all this great music in the house ranging from the Beatles to Doo Wop to Jazz and the Blues. I probably didn’t fully understand what I was hearing at the time, but I knew I liked it. Ever since then, music has been a part of my daily life. Everclear’s “Sparkle and Fade” was the first album I really “got into” as a teenager. 

You created Trackdrops. What’s the general idea, who’s the team, and who should come listen to your site? 

Vikram: The team is Steve Abraham, aka Punkflop; and myself, Vikram Ramchandani, aka Nika. It must be noted however, that the chicas dig da Nika. True story. 

Steve: Trackdrops is a simple idea - a daily dose of one song each from our individual tastes with no restrictions on genre or time of release. What sounds good to us goes on the site. Vikram and I have always had these long conversations about artists we like, so we were hoping to take that conversation online and hopefully get people to see the reasons we like a certain song. Two songs a day are more than enough. In this day and age the amount of information you’re exposed to is overwhelming, so this way people can actually take the time to focus on and hopefully appreciate the music. All are welcome of course - whether you’re a music junkie or a person just looking for something new to listen to. 

What is the music scene like in Mumbai? Should we all start booking tickets to come out there? 

Vikram: Of course you should book your tickets, given the state of the economy we are in desperate need of dollars and pounds. The music scene in growing at an incredible pace with the advent of new music venues, schools and concerts. We have also burnt all remaining copies of any Venga Boys trakcs. 

Steve: Like Vikram said, the music scene is definitely picking up. We have had international artists play in the country who I never thought I’d see live in India. However, we do have a long ways to go in terms of catching up with other international music havens. There is a local music scene, but I find that the same handful of bands is circulated throughout the year, which tends to get boring after a while. So unless you’re into specific Indian bands or want to visit India, I would save my money for another city if it is the music you are chasing. 

Do you have any plans for the future of Trackdrops? Anything we should look forward to in 2014? 

Vikram: We are extra excited to get a playlist out for the people who visit our site on a daily basis. So our fingers are crossed in hope that the super stellar team at Whyd get a Wordpress plug in sorted out. Till then we’re just gonna keep dropping some aural goodness. 

Steve: We’re really just taking a day-by-day approach with the site - adding minor details to make it more interesting and user friendly. But overall we’ve kept things minimal, as that was the whole point of Trackdrops in the first place. The focus will always be on the music. Implementing playlists through Whyd was always in the cards, so we’re excited about getting that launched. I think the main thing to look forward to on Trackdrops in 2014 is what we always look forward to every year - new music! 

Interview with Lets Live Fast: Music, Fashion & Inspiration

1. Tell us about yourselves. How did you start collaborating?

Hey! My name is Nicole “MJ” and I co-founded and blog for Lets Live Fast. I actually started, ran and relaunched this blog with my former college roommate, Chel. We have been best friends and roommates for as long as I can remember, and seeing that we have overlapping tastes in style, music, and lifestyle in general, it seemed only natural for us to enter the blogosphere and share what we like and appreciate with the online world (or at least those who cared to visit our site :)

2. When did you start Lets Live Fast? What is your primary goal for the project?

Lets Live Fast was something Chel and I started in sophomore year of college: it started off as a casual style and inspiration boards depending on what we were currently obsessed with in the fashion world. This, however, evolved into the creation of the LLF Monthly spotlight features, where we got up close and personal with our favorite up-and-coming bloggers, some of whom are actually super successful now (re: Aimee Song & Zanita Whittington, to name a few).

Anyway, soon after, life got in the way so Chel and I took a break from blogging. It wasn’t only until several months ago that we decided to relaunch and rebrand Lets Live Fast as LLF Interview, as we decided to build on the “discovery” and social aspects of “meeting” new and inspiring people throughout the world wide web from the old Lets Live Fast. 

3. What topics do you cover, and what perspective do you bring to the table?

Our main pages are Style and Sound, in other words, we primarily focus on fashion and music. What we try to bring to the table is this: build taste, at least our version of it, by helping people discover new, talented, and inspiring people. We want LLF to be the primary “launching” platform of some sorts for young creative go-getters to be discovered by the LLF audience and eventually, the rest of the world. For example, I curate a Soundcloud (and of course Whyd) profile that I hope to use as an A&R tool to help me find the artists that are worth getting to know. Admittedly, LLF is still very much a work-in-progress, but it is definitely a space to watch! 

4. What can we look forward to from LLF in the near future? 

More music, more style, and more interviews! We love meeting new people, albeit virtually… everyone always has an interesting story to tell. And although we spotlight those delving into fashion and/or music, I think we will eventually extend our focus and feature people who we find inspiring, in general no matter which field. But for now, keep up on our Soundcloud and Whyd pages, it’ll definitely give you a taste of who we are and what LLF strives to be. 

Don’t forget to follow LLF on Twitter and Like their Facebook page too! 

Interview with damn nyc: Outsiders Looking Out

1. Tell us about the team behind damn nyc. How did you start working together? 

We started our project in November 2011 with the idea of documenting and gathering everything that we thought was fun, different, and what we thought deserved the limelight. Most of the artists we chose were emerging artists, mainly because they either didn’t know that they were totally awesome so we wanted to show them that they were, or that they were bringing something new to the public, and it wasn’t getting as many hits as it should. There were a few exceptions, ones that definitely made us think “damn!” However their fame didn’t always translate across international borders, which was what we hoped to accomplish then. We were traveling for a year from New York, Hamburg, Moscow, Philadelphia, and London, and wanted to bring a special taste to our webzine that screamed originality and personality. We like to stay up to date, and move from one topic to another with common themes. 

2. How have your respective backgrounds influenced the things you write about today?

Jan is German, who grew up in Franve. Inna is Russian, who grew up in the states. We’re both outsiders, so we like to look inside everything from a different perspective. We’re also completely different in our approaches but we find ways to spread out and then later come back together with new information - so it works pretty damn well. 

3. Who should read damn nyc?

People that read, listen, get inspired, think, dance, and smile? Anything else in the news is already out there. I don’t think that we have anything in our webzine that is reported on a standard basis - so it’s a window to new, emerging trends that will make you say “damn.” Oh, and if you don’t like the news, create your own news… we’ll probably find you!

4. What are your future plans for the site? Are you looking for contributors?

Yeah! We’re all about collaborations. It’s about expansion, and we look out, not it. 

Make sure you Like the damn nyc Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, and as always subscribe to them on Whyd

Looking for a DJ? Here are some of the coolest DJs on Whyd

Do you want some international flair to your music? The type of energy that just doesn’t seem possible from the music you’ve been listening to? Sometimes we need the creative forces of a DJ to breath new life into music, arranging it in such a way that emotions build into glorious climaxes of sound. Here are a selection of some of the elite DJs from around the world that call Whyd home:

Adele Shields - DJ from London featuring deep/techno/house music, like her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter

Chris Bushnell AKA BINGO - DJ/Producer from Orlando, Florida, dropping hot mixes, connect via Facebook and Twitter

EVO-K - EDM DJ from Italy. Read her interview with us, and hit up her Facebook and Twitter pages too! 

Cheaper Shepherd - DJ/Producer/Manager from Baldwin Records in Paris, get the inside scoop by connecting to them on Facebook and Twitter.

Hide Kadota - Tokyo-based DJ pushing long form mixes

Brooklyn Bitches - Paris-based DJ duo dropping all kinds of electro. Get at their Facebook page

Radar! - DJing between London and Paris, this dude is one of Whyd’s most active people. Hit him up!!

What? You’re not on Whyd yet? Here is an invite link to sign up directly. You’re welcome here with us! 

Interview with Johan: Music Miner at Soundigger

1. What are the different faces of your personality?

One could define my personality as very open in a number of different domains. Clearly music is at the forefront, but I am interested in everything that is around me on a daily basis. From cinema to reading passing ads to traveling. I love to discover, learn, and share the little things I find everyday. Very involved in everything that I come across, I like to go as deep as I can. Always unsatisfied with my work, I try to do more, take detours, and improve what it could be. I’m currently working on the rebuilding of my blog, modification of design, a new logo and making stickers. 

2. When did you first have the idea to launch a music blog?

First off, I was definitely fed up listening to my friends listen to Maître Gims, Pitbull, David Guetta and other Zaz during road trips or happy hours. I wanted to make them discover music with a capital M. Just the guts and those that rise the charts. I bummed around for a while on friends’ music tweets (@ilovezistrack, @absolutebass, @musiquechic, @bordwood among others…) The idea to launch my own blog came a long little by little as a result of following them, and they were the ones who really gave me the desire so I have to say thanks! We arrive at the start of 2013, and I decided to launch the site. I was alone at first, then a friend came and joined me to cover Hip Hop on the blog. So we are two. 

3. Where do you find your music?

I use 2.0 web tools a lot to discover new tracks. Principally Soundcloud, but also Whyd, Shufflr, YouTube, ExFM… Certain artists send me their links directly and I thank them graciously. I try more and more to find music blogs from other continents to enlarge the range of musical styles and get a way from European artists who are already widely covered by the French blogosphere. 

4. What are your goals for Soundigger? Who should read your blog?

By creating Soundigger.com, the primary goal was to break as many people as possible out of their commercial shackles, freed from peroxodized clips which can be endlessly consumed on national radio and TV channels. We want to make people discover, and bring forward, lesser-known talent, creating connections with them and other bloggers to carry out various projects, and to create a small community. To do interviews, live reports from festivals… that’s what I had in mind when I created the blog. 

At Soundigger, we love diversity, as much musical as human, that’s why our publications are not reserved exclusively for specific types of people, snobby preps or other hipsters, but just as many people as possible. If Jacky the farmer on the corner discovers, appreciates, and shares the latest releases of Bit Funk, Fakear, or Apollo Brown on our blog, that would mean that wouldn’t probably couldn’t get any bigger. 

5. What other blogs do you recommend?

Among the following blogs, a good portion come from friends with whom we discuss and share a lot of music and advice. It’s the magic of web 2.0 that we know these people thanks to the same love of music 

- http://www.ilovethistrack.com/

- http://absolutebassline.tumblr.com/

http://unclesound.fr/

http://lecoledumicroenbois.com/

http://www.spreadtheword96.com/

http://moosetache.over-blog.fr/

http://www.radiovnl.fr/

http://bordwood.com/

http://davycroket.com/

http://www.musique-chic.com/

http://sodwee.com/blog/

And many more! 


Thanks Johan! Make sure you like the Soundigger Facebook page, and of course subscribe to Soundigger on Whyd

Do You Like That Song? Playlist Contest Starts Today!

Wondering what to add on Whyd? Need some inspiration to share your favorite tracks? Check this out!

The team at Do You Like That Song? is happy to announce that their playlist contest begins today! They have created a tracklist based on interesting situations like Chilling on a Rooftop or Partying at 5 AM (sometimes at the same time!!) The contest starts right now and will last two weeks, ending on Friday, June 28, 2013.

The winner of the competition will be selected from the three finalists by an all-star jury of music tastemakers and lovers: The prize is where things get fun! Instead of selecting something that might only be cool for certain people, we are announcing an open prize of your choosing. As soon as you finish your playlist, send the URL and the prize that you want to tony@whyd.com. What are we talking about here? Well, are you an artist? Want us to introduce you to a record label? Are you a DJ and want to promote your tracks across our entire community? Are you a blogger looking to get featured? Just a music lover? How about some new headphones? Are you just hungry? We’ll buy your dinner! The prize is whatever we can do to help you get the most out of the music you make, talk about, or just love. 
Read the official rules here, and use the link on that page to go directly to creating your playlist. May the most original music lover win! 

Small disclaimer for the prizes: if it doesn’t cost money, we’ll do everything we can to deliver the prize you want. If it costs money, we can go up to 30 euro plus delivery.