Mumbai Folk-Indie Outfit ANC Changes Name to As Night Calls, Releases New Single ‘Only One’

Mumbai-based indie-acoustic/folk-rock trio As Night Calls (previously known as ANC) – comprising vocalist-guitarist Arjit Sahai, percussionist Ritesh Malaney and bassist-producer Dhruv Kathuria – recently released their latest single, the dreamy “Only One,” under their new band name. In this interview with Rolling Stone India, Sahai tells us why they decided on the rebranding, talks about the new track, what’s in store in the future, and more.  

Why did the band decide to change its name? 

We were trying to go for consistency with releasing our music, but we ended up losing out on actually pushing the songs. It was around this time though that I got in touch with Atmus [a music business platform]. I had been following the page for a while, trying to follow some of their music business tips and tricks. I finally got on a call with Atmus who gave us a clearer picture as to why we weren’t doing as well as we could. Taking on Aurora’s consultancy, we’ve started to get our base processes and brand in place before releasing any other music. This included taking the risk of changing our name to something which actually made sense and was us! It’s been an interesting six months pushing our first release multiple times and working late nights to finally get this song out and have our structure in place. It’s also just nice to work with someone who has the same passion for indie music as us, and someone willing to have the same trial-and-error attitude and accept his mistakes and grow with us.  

When did you write “Only One” and what can you tell us about it? 

‘Only One’ was written in 2018. At the time I was in a long-distance relationship with my now-wife. I was staying with [singer-songwriter Andrew] Sabu then and we were listening to and covering a lot of Daniel Cesar and Tom Misch. I always like to keep every song interesting and there is something about this chill R&B vibe with the sevenths everywhere which just crept into my songwriting and made me want to profess my love to the world! But lyrically I couldn’t separate my overthinking, introspective self from the song. I wanted to talk about the tricky journey of really falling in love. It’s not just about finding the right person; it’s about really letting yourself go and letting yourself be loved. 

What was the recording and production process like for the song? 

I wanted to work on improving my production skills and I didn’t have any equipment to record with, so I just drew the piano and programmed this interesting beat and an upright bass sound on FL Studio [a digital audio workstation]. Over the next few months, I got the chance to record my vocals and guitars at Ritesh’s. In a few sessions, I actually had most of the track down. Luckily, I rendered some basic stems because we lost the entire project along with Ritesh’s desktop. That definitely got me bummed out and I sent the track over to Dhruv, who had to redo everything from scratch. He finally revived the track and of course, made it sound better. We had my scratch vocals down, but COVID hit and we didn’t get to complete the track. I ended up working with Sandeep Raghavan in Coimbatore, who helped me finish up the vocals. I also had my first online collaboration with Kush Asher, who is always my go-to for keys and bouncing song ideas. With the track in place, Dhruv finally sat down with Itek Bhutani in his newly built Studio Fudge to get the mix and master down. We needed a mix that was more R&B, and Itek being the most versatile musician I know, gave us something much better than what we could have expected. The production for the song was pretty much a lot of goodwill from a lot of people who just really enjoy the music – it would never have been possible otherwise. 

What’s next? 

We feel like we have a solid foundation and started with this new song and image, and we are going to keep up the pace with our next track coming in November. We are also focusing a lot on our brand and content, and really looking to be consistent and grow as we entertain and make people think along the way. We are also in the early stages of planning a tour by the end of the year, and are looking to get some festival opportunities.  

Stream the song on Spotify below and on other platforms.