American Rock/Hip-Hop Act Flipsyde on Their India Connect, Forging New Bonds and Making New Music
Vocalist-guitarist Steve Knight and rapper The Piper aka Jinho Ferreira also spoke about returning to the Orange Festival of Adventure and Music in Dambuk, Arunachal
Flipsyde's Dave Lopez, The Piper and Steve Knight (from left to right).
At the end of 2022, California’s early 2000s-famous alt-rock/hip-hop band Flipsyde had more than 15 million streams on Spotify and a new collaboration with Indian pop artist Gajendra Verma – “Maar Sutteya” – which has amassed over five million views on YouTube. On December 18th, they were headlining Orange Festival of Adventure and Music in Dambuk, Arunachal Pradesh for a second time.
Considering all this, it would be a total disservice to say Flipsyde are far from their creative prime or popularity. They’ve just been chipping away at their own pace, branching out to prove their global relevance from time to time. India has been a permanent fixture in all of their plans, in one way or another. Before “Maar Sutteya,” a decade-old collaboration with Bengaluru hip-hop artist Brodha V found release, with vocalist-guitarist Steve Knight singing the English hook on “All Divine.” Knight says, “When all this happens, you feel like you’re part of something bigger.”
Always ones to put the work in, Flipsyde said yes to Orange Festival’s back-breaking journey, twice now. In 2019, they apparently traveled 23 hours and made it just three hours prior to their set. Seated now in a new venue in Dambuk in their green room, rapper The Piper aka Jinho Ferreira recounts how it was even raining a little bit. “The fans were out there and they were ready. So I’m so proud of how that transpired,” Piper says.
This time around, there were less hiccups, although the rapper nearly missed his connecting flight due to long queues at airport checks. Knight stalled for time as much as he could, finally making sure his bandmate, co-founder and friend made it aboard. Once at Orange Festival, Flipsyde – completed by producer-guitarist Dave Lopez and DJ True Justice – rocked the house with a set similar to their 2019 India visit, except now relying on DJ tracks instead of a live backing bad. “Our careers kind of started in Indian. The first year we toured, one of the places we came to was India,” Piper says, referring to their 2006 tour of the country right after the release of their breakout album We The People. Knight adds, “There’s a special connection with the fans here and the festival too. [Orange Festival promoter] Abu Tayeng, he’s just a guy you want to be around. It’s just charismatic, inspirational stuff.”
There’s talks of more India collaborations and of course, keeping in touch with Indian promoters to keep making the visits happen. There was even a verse from Piper and melodies written for a version of “All Divine” that Flipsyde wants to release as a remix. Knight says, “All you can do is be in the moment.”
It’s been about 17 years since the release of We the People and the songs would probably evoke a tangible memory for many who grew up around the time listening to radio, watching music video channels or browsing the Internet for MP3s and buying CDs. Piper and Knight both acknowledge that seeing the longevity and lasting legacy built out of songs like “Spun” and “Someday” creates a “deeper respect” for what they’ve created. Piper adds, “I’m realizing that we’re a small part of this. This is a collective thing. It’s not just a collective thing between us [band members]. It’s a collective thing with everybody out there, too.”
Far from Dambuk, the band recently headed to the city of Muscle Shoals in Alabama to record their next album. Recorded at FAME Studios – a mainstay for decades that was used by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Mac Davis and Greg Allman – Flipsyde are currently working out label and distribution deals for an album that was recorded with a live band. “We’re going to call it Legends,” Knight says. It has a rendition of reggae artist Jimmy Cliff’s “Sitting In Limbo” (1971), which was the first thing they recorded at FAME Studios. Knight sets the scene and says it was the first take for the first song they were taking on, on the first day of recording. “Piper hasn’t even written his verse on the song, but we have the map of the track set out. We push record, mostly as a test to get the sound of the instruments right and by the time it’s Piper’s turn, he channels it right and it’s like a perfect verse. It’s just an honest moment and that’s what you’re going to hear on the record,” Knight says.
