It's easy on the ears. There's a play-it-anywhere-and-anytime feel to it you can't deny. Could it be because of '50s & '60s Bollywood, the other influences (US west coast and Brit guitar pop) as well?
It's easy on the ears. There's a play-it-anywhere-and-anytime feel to it you can't deny. Could it be because of '50s & '60s Bollywood, the other influences (US west coast and Brit guitar pop) as well? When you have a template set by a mix of the '50s to the '80s (and there's no better way of putting this), you're going to end up pleasing a lot of audiences.
Not surprisingly, if you're tuned in to English TV shows (like The OC and Gossip Girl), indie Bollywood (The President Is Coming OST), the odd Brit flick (Run Fatboy Run) and music festivals (One Tree Music Festival 2008), you're bound to have heard of Goldspot. If not, here's an introduction...
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Read Siddharth Khosla's biography on the Goldspot website (www.goldspot.net) and you'll discover a very personal note on childhood memories seeped in "vocal melodies" that belonged to the likes of Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh. Old-school Bollywood was to become the most enduring influence for Khosla's sound.
About the Bollywood influence, he says, "Bollywood music has been the most important part of my music growing up. My parents used to listen to Hindi music all the time. We'd listen to Mohd Rafi, Kishore etc; these singers really shaped me and their music became part of me. I started discovering my own musical pace. REM, the Beatles, The Cure, The Smiths: all those kind of converged to create the kind of sound you hear now."
The Bollywood affair continued during the band's last visit to India (during last year's One Tree Festival) where Sid met the makers of The President Is Coming, an album he was to write the music for. He recounts, "My family (including my mom) came to the show. She gave me a note with Anuvab Pal's (writer for The President...) number on it. I called him; then Rohan Sippy, Anuvab and Kunal Kapoor and I got together. We didn't really talk about music, we just got along so well, we shared common sensibilities. Next thing you know, they sent me the script. I look at it, loved it, I wrote the music and that was it. I thought it was something different, something cool and I wanted to be part of it."
Any Indian collaborations in mind? He replies, "I'd love to do stuff with AR Rahman down the road. I've worked with his orchestra (in Chennai) before and recorded in his studio with Srinivas Kutty, the conductor of his orchestra. I'd definitely like to work with him.but he's a busy man and I'm just a small fish in a big pond. One day, maybe yeah, we'll see."
Well, Tally... has been around forever (not that we're complaining) but isn't there any new album due? Says Khosla, "A new album will release this year, maybe as soon as the summer. It's almost done, we're close. The recordings should be done by March."
How does he feel about being nominated as one of India's best artists of 2008 by Vh1 India? He says " Just being put into any category by Vh1 is an honour. I guess its pretty cool. The fact that people in India love my music; to me, is really exciting and just amazing.
If you were a '80s child, you'll remember Goldspot, the now extinct orange soda. While that's the inspiration for the band's name, here's a parting shot. If not Goldspot, what? Pat comes the reply, "Pourange. My friend used to say nothing rhymes with orange. So there." Well, so much for the citrus obsession.
The words are finally here... Let's rewind and unwind.
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