Generation WHY and Rolling Stone India Team up for Monthly Gig Series

Poster: Courtesy of Generation WHY

Following a successful debut edition in January, gig series Generation WHY has partnered with Rolling Stone India for its upcoming shows featuring rising independent acts.

The upcoming show, to be held at Mumbai’s popular music venue Antisocial Khar on April 12th with gear partners Furtados Music, will feature four bands: Bengaluru duo Nikhil Narendra and Shreyas Dipali (synth/samples and drums, respectively), Mumbai-based prog rockers Across Seconds, neo-soul quartet Smalltalk, producer Tansane featuring saxophonist Nigel Rajaratnam. Conceptualised by Aftab Khan, former Programmer/Events Executive at Hard Rock Café India, the independent music property aims to promote both undiscovered bands and genres, and provide the artists with a platform to reach out to their potential fans. “The idea is to diversify,” says Khan. “With Rolling Stone India coming on board, it’s going to expand and become a much bigger and better property.”

Says Radhakrishnan Nair, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Rolling Stone India, “As India’s biggest music magazine, it has always been our endeavor to put the spotight on budding artists, and with this partnership with Generation WHY, we hope to discover and introduce talent that is deserving of a big stage.”

Neo-soul outfit Smalltalk will be performing at the second edition of Generation WHY. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

The first edition of Generation WHY took place in January and featured Mumbai-based multilingual hip hop crew Swadesi, Pune-based post-rockers Cat Kamikazee, pop-rock band The Ryan Victor Project and Mumbai-based psychedelic act MILK. The upcoming second edition promises to be even more genre-bending. Even more interesting, says Khan, was the process of discovering the artists–Smalltalk and MILK share a member (bassist Yohann Coutinho also of alt rockers Unohu) while Across Seconds and Narendra and Dipali were artists Khan found through music festivals and other performances. “They’re a really interesting live electronic act I saw at Magnetic Fields so I had a conversation with them there,” says Khan about Narendra and Dipali. “They don’t get to play much because their music is more on the experimental side, but when I saw them I was blown away so I was sure I had to get them down for this.”

Khan discovered Across Seconds through Bandcubator in Pune. He explains that Tansane and Rajaratnam are also new discoveries, blending electronica with trumpets and saxophone for an unusual but groovy dance-based set.

Click here for more information about the show at Antisocial Khar, Mumbai on April 12th, 2017.