Soulgroove on What It Takes for an Indie Band To Mount an India Tour

Shillong soul and reggae band kicked off their eight-city India on Fyah tour on July 24 in Mumbai

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July 26, 2024

Soulgroove band members seated on car in a forest

Nearly seven years into their career, Shillong soul and reggae act Soulgroove are heading out on their debut India tour, which kicked off on July 24 at Mumbai’s mainstay venue Bonobo.

This week, the band – founded in 2017 by drummer John Rymbai, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalists Elza Rymbai and Zediah Hynniewta aka Zed – perform in Hyderabad on July 25, in Bengaluru on July 26 at the speakeasy bar ZLB23 and head on to Chennai on July 27 and Puducherry on July 28. The second leg of the tour sees Soulgroove pick back up on shows in Shillong on August 16, in Guwahati on August 17 and in Siliguri on August 18 to close.

Drummer Rymbai says, “As we have never toured as a band, every show at every venue, every city is gonna be an experience of a lifetime for us for sure.” The live band members joining Soulgroove include DJ-producer and keyboardist Manavon Massar, keyboardist Kynsai Manners and bassist Nash Lyngdoh.

Hynniewta says they’ve take on “extensive preparation” for their India on Fyah tour, including a ton of rehearsal. “With our chemistry already established from playing together for a considerable amount of time, we focused on meticulously mood-mapping out our set [and] making a few strategic rearrangements,” he says.

The band is working with Bengaluru-based music company Overture and Shillong event and communications firm Springboard Surprises to guide them and help promote the tour. A financial boost came in the form of the Meghalaya Chief Minister’s Special Grant. Hynniewta admits that though they’ve toured around the North East of India a few times, Soulgroove was a relatively new band on the national scene. “Venues don’t really have a support system for bands like ours. This we understand as venues have to run their business, no one is doing any charity work on this front and we don’t expect them to either,” he says with a laugh.

They went about looking for sponsorship or funding that would cover part of their travel and accommodation across the tour for all seven members including their tour manager. The band’s manager Keith Wallang – who has managed the likes of blues veterans Soulmate – wrote out a funding proposal and Soulgroove submitted to the chief minister of Meghalaya. “Thankfully it was accepted. Since we have been gigging quite a bit in Shillong over the past few years, I think the chief minister was also aware of us and that helped too, I guess,” Hynniewta adds.

The setlist on the Indian on Fyah tour includes their own songs off the 2023 EP Soulgroovin’, plus singles like “Fyah” and their latest, “Shoebox.” Hynniewta says they might just tweak them as they go along depending on audience reactions in each city. “We’ve also included a selection of popular songs that are sure to delight the crowd, as well as a range of tracks designed to get you moving and grooving straight from your soul,” he says.

Vocalist Elza Rymbai adds before and after the release of “Shoebox,” they’ve been working on a lot of material. She says, “There is a huge drive between the three of us to come up with an album as we already have quite a few songs under our belt, so releasing a few singles off of that album later this year or early next year sounds like a good plan.”