We catch up with the founding members of an electro-funk (primarily) act from Delhi, who made their unofficial Mumbai debut recently
Friends and fellow musicians Mukul and Shenjit
Two Delhi boys in their early 20s, who’ve been friends and fellow musicians since they were in school, landed in Mumbai on rainy afternoon earlier this month, in the hope of finding platforms to showcase their talent at. And though this isn’t an official tour, the duo - Mukul Jiwnani and Shenjit Basu - who founded the electro-funk, blues-rock and funk-rock outfit Emenes, made their debut in the city this past weekend. Though active since 2014, the two really forayed into the scene with their first original song, Toothbrush - a sassy take on missing out on a person's vibe - last year. More recently, they made all the right noises with their single Never Gonna Give It To You, which talks about celebrating the love for dance while not giving two hoots about what other people think. We catch up with the duo (the rest of the band - Raj Nandi (drums), Manav (keys), and Kabir Agarwal (bass) - are not touring with them) while they are here.
Mukul and Shenjit
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How did the two of you decide to form this collaboration, Emenes?
Mukul and Shenjit: Emenes is basically the phonetic pronunciation of Mukul and Shenjit, and it was started by both of us after we grew tired of doing songs that other people wanted us to do instead of the crazy ideas we have idea in our head from the start. We love experimenting with our sound and our previous acoustic duo setup was also restricting a little bit. Emenes is us breaking into our own, with a full band set up which helps us realise our ideas and help them come to life
Being two guitarists, how does the composing process work for you guys?
Shenjit: Well Mukul is the lead guitarist while I just tinker around with the guitar whenever he allows me to. The foundation of every song is the guitar and it's probably the most integral part of our song because we come up with the riffs and solos first and then build the song around it. Mukul's influences are varied and the sound we both try to achieve is something that is reminiscent of a time gone by while also ushering in a modern, neo-funk/rock sound that is something we try to achieve with our tracks. Our influences are so far off and far-reaching that every song ends up sounding completely different from the last one. Every song is approached very spontaneously, and it might sound random individually but all the elements make sense the moment they are pieced together.
Tell us about your debut Mumbai performance.
Mukul and Shenjit: We loved performing in Mumbai because we love this city's spirit. We both have lived in this city during different times of our lives while the other members have regularly played gigs over the last few years. Just the idea of sitting down in front of Marine Drive with a guitar and the sea gushing behind you while you sing the songs you love is something that you can't find in any city in the world.
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