Would love to collaborate with Honey Singh: Musical duo Twinjabi
Indian-American musical duo Twinjabi is basking in the glory of their latest song titled Talk of The Town, which released on February 12. Nonetheless, the twins, Kush and Neil Nijhawan, have certainly established themselves in the music industry with viral hits such as Bombay and Brown Magic as they aim to bridge their cultures with their pop act. And it would not be wrong to say that the global crossover appeal of their tracks have worked in their favour.
In a chat with Cinema Journal, the duo speaks about their music, Indian Hip-hop scene and their inspirations. Excerpts from the interview: Your songs have been quite popular. Any secret behind it? So, for Bombay and Desi Dons, it’s just music and hard work. We take our music very seriously. And we want to create something special, amazing, something that the audience has never heard before. We’d like to say, with Twinjabi you can expect the unexpected.
We felt artistes weren’t taking enough creative risks with their craft. Everything just started to sound the same. We started Twinjabi with the intention of creating vibes that are incomparable to our counterparts. We’re not limited by genres, structure, or production: The possibilities are endless with us. We have ambitious plans to take desi music to the universal masses.
What do you have to say on the Indian Hip-hop scene?
The Indian Hiphop scene has definitely grown in the last 5 to 10 years. It’s nice to see that and hope it continues to grow. Any music inspirations from India and any actor, singers, composers you
would like to collaborate with?
We’d definitely love to collaborate with Honey Singh. We love him, he inspires us. And for a composer, we’d like to work with Ved Sharma. He’s actually a friend of mine. He has composed the title track for Malang and has sung it too. We would also love to collaborate with Pritam, who’s a legend himself.
Tell us about your future plans…
Future plans are just more music, more videos. We shall be dropping new songs, new videos on a monthly basis, all round the year. That’s our future plan, just ‘Rinse & Repeat.’
How you manage to find inspirations in the pandemic with no live gigs. How has it been working virtually?
With the ongoing pandemic, yes there have been no live gigs but we have adapted, we have done some virtual performances. If 2020 has taught you anything, it is that you need to learn to adapt to situations and that’s what we have done. We plan on being in India in April as well, we are really looking forward to that.
The focus is now shifting to South Asian actors. Is it helping singers and musicians as well?
It is really helping the entire lot. One of the main reasons behind us becoming musicians is taking Indian music global. Now that the focus is shifting to South Asian artists, we are really happy.
What are the strong and weak points when it comes to you both?
Yes, both of us know about our strengths and weaknesses. My brother (Kush) likes English more and I like Hindi more. My brother sings in a certain way, I rap in a certain way. It’s good that we complement each other.
It’s not like a duo wherein two people look the same, sing the same, sound exactly the same. Our art is our God. Anything that makes our music better, we go with it. There’s no ego, if someone is better at the hook for a song, they get the hook. That’s the understanding we have.