When Chai Met Toast: ‘We are proud to be Malayalis and represent Kerala’

When Chai Met Toast will be performing on Day 1 of Lollapalooza 2024 on the Budweiser Stage. Photo Courtesy: Mid-day file pic

In more ways than one, When Chai Met Toast performing at Lollapalooza 2024 was meant to happen, especially with the kind of power-packed year that the band from Kerala has had in 2023 with their tours and performances. Vocalist Ashwin Gopakumar reveals, "To be very honest, we wanted to be a part of the first lineup. Now that the chance has come through, we can't wait to show the world what we have got." It is like a dream come true for the band, which will also get to see and share the stage with some of their favourite bands too. "We grew up listening to Sting, and now we have Jonas Brothers and Lauv too," adds Gopakumar.

The international music festival, which came to India for the first time in 2023, is back and will take place at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse on January 27 and 28; When Chai Met Toast is one of the many Indian bands who will be performing their music for fans attending from all over. There is something special that is definitely planned for their performance at the festival, which is co-produced by BookMyShow, but guitarist-banjo player Achyuth Jaigopal is tight-lipped about it and instead says it is "nothing extraordinary". "We are just trying to do a more cohesive set from what we have done before. We have always wanted to step up as a band to do a more production set, so that is something we are working on for Lollapalooza. We tried it out on the tour for a normal set but to do a longer festival set is what we are attempting to do this time around," he adds.

Getting to the big stage
While originally being formed in 2014 by Gopakumar and Jaigopal, they took off with their current version and line-up of the band in 2016 with Palee Francis on keyboard, and as producer, and Pai Sailesh on drums. Ever since then, they have only gone from strength to strength after releasing ‘Firefly' to more recently ‘Sushi Song'; it is not only in their songs but also in their performances and new fans.

Gopakumar reminisces, "Our first gig was NH7 Weekender and we probably had 50 people around us at the start, and that turned to 2,000 in 45 minutes. It is definitely something that we look forward to -- meeting new people, new audiences and that has been growing at an exponential rate year by year. " Jaigopal highlights how the crowd in Bengaluru on their last tour, surpassed all expectations when they saw as many as 2,500 people at one show.

The four-member band has not only grown in their presence in India but also in terms of their music and as musicians too, which is visible in their EP ‘Believe' (2018) to ‘When We Feel Young' (2021) and recently LYTS (2023) - all of which have shown how their sounds have changed yet sound like them. Gopakumar quickly explains their evolution. He says, "I think when we started the band, we were all in our 20s, Achyuth is still in his 20s, but all of us are in our 30s, that has changed a lot of what we look like and sound like, which has come through because the influences and where we have been playing and what we have been going through personally. The positive factor and what we stand for is still the same."

Representing Kerala
It is also why they haven't forgotten their roots, and that is Kerala. At a time when the country boasts of many music festivals and bands coming out from different parts of the country, When Chai Met Toast stands tall as they sing not only in English but also Malayalam and Tamil. It can be seen in ‘Khoj' and ‘Nee Aara' among others, which showcase their multilingual indie-folk flavour, and that is very important to them as of now and the time to come, the band members agree.

Gopakumar explains, "Kerala has produced so many great bands over the years - starting from Avial to Motherjane to Black Letters - there are a lot of them. Representing Kerala is something that we are really proud of. I keep saying it in every show, ‘we are proud to be Malayalis' and representing the state we are from and the cultural values that have gone through us and representing that in all the music that we write is also what we look forward to."

It is also why the vocalist of the band, easily recognisable because of his shock of hair, says Kerala has a lot to do with who they are as band, who they are as people, and the music that they make and representing it definitely makes them proud. Over the years, the likes of Motherjane and Avial have influenced them over time, while they discover their own voice and perform around the country and the world, and Mumbai is only one of their pit stops this year.

Frequenting the city often now, the band collectively admits to savouring fish fry, misal pav, and vada pav in the city, while also visiting some of the popular restaurants here for their food whenever they are here. In fact, they also reveal that Mumbai also happens to have their second largest fanbase for a live audience after Bengaluru.

Single, EP or album?
Even as they tour, the band is working on new music, and were actually recording some music in the studio when this writer spoke to them. So, what do they plan to release this year? Gopakumar says, "We may release our second album or just be an EP or singles. We still haven't decided how it is going to go. You can definitely expect something, but we don't know what."

Jaigopal adds that since they are still in the process of writing their songs and putting them together, it is a little too early to tell how they may end up. "We are writing a bunch of songs, and then we will select a few and see what goes together," he adds.

Ask them if they prefer releasing singles, an EP or album, and Gopakumar says while an album is always exciting, "The way social media is influencing the industry right now, releasing singles is a great prospect but it depends from time to time. If we feel like releasing a single, we will do it or if we think of an album, we will do that," he concludes.