The Anjuna Beats

The gig in India was one of the biggest we have ever done. But when you are constantly performing,you go from one gig to the other still buzzing from the last one. Memories blend into each other. It’s incredible to think that it’s been a year since we reinvented Trance Around the World. I remember that the crowd in India was unique — we felt like we could play different kinds of music and the crowd would accept it.

You also performed your first acoustic set. How did that come about?

I was four when I made my parents buy the piano and I started playing the cello when I was six. So,I am a classically trained musician. But it’s very difficult to translate electronic music acoustically. We got in Bob Bradley,an old friend,who has a genius music mind,to rearrange our tunes so that it could be played on instruments. The gig was totally terrifying. The level of concentration you need and the focus that goes into playing live is so much more than Deejing. When you are behind the console,you are trying things,making a party happen. With live music,you cannot make any mistakes.

Your interaction with fans on social media is constant. What role do you feel new media plays in the music world today?

It helps that we have studied the business of music,and Tony (McGuinness) is a marketing genius. We were using the Anjunabeats forum in the late ’90s. This is way before any major record labels used the power of the internet. We were early on the uptake with Twitter and Facebook,and they are just new mediums — extensions of what we were doing with the forum. For us,social media is a tool to engage with fans like we never could before. They end up connecting with our music more. At the last gig we even had an LED screen that displayed people’s tweets live.

It’s been almost 15 years since the three of you have been making music. Does it ever get tiring?

We do feel tired sometimes,doing the same genre of music,but that’s why it helps having three of us around. There are always new ideas and we are always pushing each other. The difficulty lies in choosing which idea to go ahead with. We usually play stuff out,and mostly after we play an idea back to all three of us,we have a consensus on what a track should sound like.

The name Anjunabeats is inspired by Goa,but there has never been an Indian on the compilations. Are there any plans to do so?

We are not into the business of signing one track and letting it be. We are constantly looking for new material. But it has to be about long-lasting relationships. Every time we want to come out with a compilation,we send out feelers to about 50 producers we work with and tell them what we have in mind. We work with those producers to get the tracks to sound as good as they can be. So it is possible for us to choose someone from India,especially now,because we know there is incredible talent here. If there are any producers reading this,we’d invite them to send their work to us on the website dedicated to our label. We might soon have an Indian on the label after this tour.

kevin.lobo@expressindia.com