Indian music festivals, like their global counterparts, can be better organised

Ahead of their performance in Berlin’s Tomorrowland festival in July, DJs Prayag Mehta and Rishab Joshi talk about the logistical glitches in the Indian gig scene, and also share pointers on what we could learn from event managers in the West, writes Kish

Music festivals have become pretty common in India. But Indian DJs Prayag Mehta and Rishab Joshi—who together make the “Lost Stories” team and are prepping for their stint at the electronic music festival Tomorrowland in Belgium—hope that the organisers of similar galas in the country would learn a thing or two about management from their international counterparts.

Mehta and Joshi have been performing at Belgium’s Tomorrowland, one of the best known EDM jamborees, for quite some years now. They have also enthralled music lovers at Mysteryland in New York, besides the Sunburn and Supersonic festivals and Enchanted Valley Carnival in India.

Asked what difference they see when it comes to the quality of international music festivals and Indian music fests, Joshi said logistics are more efficiently handled abroad.

“One of the reasons which makes Tomorrowland the biggest and the most loved music festival in the world is their management. It takes only about five minutes to enter and exit the festival. Logistics are handled so efficiently, it just enhances the overall experience for the Music enthusiasts at Sunburn Festival, India. festival-goer. I think most of the festivals in India lack that,” Joshi told IANS in an email interaction.

Talking about their performance at Tomorrowland, to be held from 21-30 July, Joshi said they will premiere new music.

“Tomorrowland has its own charm. It brings most of the biggest artists across different dance music genres under one roof. Festival pro- duction is top notch and you get to meet people from all across the world. We are definitely going to premiere a lot of new music we have been working on lately.

“We love playing Indian sounds in our sets, and we have a lot of surprise elements planned,” said Joshi, who launched “Lost Stories” with Mehta in 2009. They are positioned 52 among the world’s top EDM artistes by genre magazine DJ Mag.

A lot of cover versions of different numbers have been coming up and at times they become more popular than the original. “Lost Stories,” too, came up with one for singer Justin Bieber’s hit song Sorry. What’s their take on the cover trend?

“I think covers are really important. It could bring life to an old song... Considering that the musical trends keep changing very often now, a new cover could just make an old song more acceptable sometimes.”

“But only when there is something ‘new’ an artiste could add to it—it could be the artiste’s trademark style or a new rhythm altogether but it is very important to still maintain some sort of a connection to the original,” added Joshi, who is inspired by American artiste Niles Hollowell-Dhar Crowd cheering at Tomorrowland festival, Berlin. “We love playing Indian sounds in our sets, and we have a lot of surprise elements planned,” said Joshi, who launched “Lost Stories” with Mehta in 2009. They are positioned 52 among the world’s top EDM artistes by genre magazine DJ Mag. aka DJ KSHMR.

“The audio visual journey he takes his fans through while performing is unmatchable and breathtaking. His sets are flawless which instantly takes you on a musical journey. There is so much to learn from him. He is not only an inspiration to us but to most of the electronic dance music artistes currently,” he said.

Mehta-Joshi are currently working on a new visual set and have some new tracks lined up for release. One of them is titled India with DJ Jetfire and DJ Carta. It will be out on 19 June on record label Spinnin’ Records.

“The track has already received massive support from KSHMR, Hardwell, and Knife Party, among others. Our follow-up single is a summer tune Spread The Fire which will be out in August. We have a massive Asia and Europe tour coming up in July-August after the Tomorrowland performance,” Joshi said. They have also started a Lost Stories Academy in Delhi. The aim is to conduct training sessions in music production and DJing. THE INDEPENDENT