Mumbai’s Freshest Duo St. Cyril Release Scintillating Debut Single ‘Table For Two’

Although Mumbai-based musician brothers vocalist-guitarist Sarthak Karkare and drummer Shashwat Karkare have been part of the country’s independent music scene as part of alt-rock trio Unohu for a decade now, the pair have been playing music together for much longer since they were kids. “We grew up liking a lot of similar artists and bands. We jammed to a lot of punk and pop-rock growing up,” says Shashwat.

With a couple of singles as well as two EPs released as part of Unohu, the Karkare siblings decided on forming a new musical outlet called St. Cyril to pay homage to the bands that shaped them into the artists they are today. Last week, the pair dropped their debut single as St. Cyril in the shape of the rousing “Table For Two.”

According to Sarthak, he informs us that the teenager in him still loves the likes of bands such as Green Day and the Black Keys. He says, “I kept trying to recreate their tones and sounds.” Ask the guitarist if it was a conscious decision on the sonic direction he wanted St. Cyril to go in and he says, “The project was a little bit of both — intentional effort as well as free-flowing creative work.”

“Table For Two” opens with a crunchy guitar riff as a booming bassline as well as in-your-face drums take center stage, while Sarthak’s soaring singing coupled with slick backing vocals add to the excitement of the track. Sarthak says, “This is a song about a first date and the nervous energy and excitement I felt right before and after.” Shashwat adds, “Lyrically, it’s got some similar notes as it talks about the nervousness and excitement you feel on a first date. Very similar to our nervousness and excitement over our first release and how people will respond to the song.”

The Karkare boys self-produced the track at their home studio with Sarthak handling guitars, vocals, keys and synths duties and even borrowing their Unohu bandmate Yohann Coutinho’s bass to track the low end. St. Cyril tapped Mumbai alt-rockers BLEK’s frontman Rishi Bradoo to mix the song. “He [Bradoo] was a stellar choice for us and he’s done a fantastic job with the mix and we’re very grateful for the feedback he gave us as well,” says Sarthak.

With two more singles already written, St. Cyril is already prepping for more releases soon. They are also keen on taking the music live while plotting music videos, merch and NFTs. Sarthak says, “Since the songs also have a quirky sound, they could potentially be used as themes in cinema and TV, so that is another domain we wish to explore.”

Away from St. Cyril, the pair are also finishing up on a bunch of new singles with Unohu while Sarthak also plans on dropping an album under his solo Hindi avatar Maqta. The brothers and Coutinho have also been playing cover shows recently as Run For Cover. “That keeps us busy gigging so we don’t get too rusty,” says Sarthak. With a busy 2022 ahead, there’s plenty to look forward to from the Karkare brothers. 

Stream “Table For Two” on Spotify below and on other platforms.