Festival Rush in The City

Artists Mayur Narvekar of the Bandish Projekt and Kini Rao speak about what it’s like to perform in the City of Nizams
Festival Rush in The City

Taking the music scene in the city to a whole new level, the fourth edition of ‘Off the record @ Rowson’s Reserve Smooth Spaces’ witnessed various artists from across the country take the stage to enthral the audience in a day-long music festival. Among those who performed was our very own Kini Rao who has firmly stamped her name in the country’s underground house scene. Since she started as a resident DJ at Poison in Hyderabad in 2009, Kini has gone on to play at every respected club in the country, bringing her brand of house and techno goodness to the new generation of Indian dance music aficionados. “It’s just one of those things which I picked up one day. I had never really planned to become a DJ, it’s something which naturally happened to me. But I have collected music all my life so I’m more of a music collector,” said Kini.

Kini also remains one of the few Indian DJs who can lay claim to a growing international audience, having played abroad several times at venues like the legendary Bar 25 in Berlin, the Villain’s Club and Oakroom in Copenhagen to name a few. “Performing abroad is a completely different experience than performing in India. Abroad, the parties go on till late at night as compared to India and the audience there is more mature. Having said that, it is great fun to perform here as well and I’m really excited,” she added.

Originally from Hyderabad, Kini is delighted to be back in the city for her performance. “I’m really looking forward to performing in front of my home crowd. I haven’t been to the city for a long time now and it’s always special to come back to Hyderabad for a performance,” she gushes.

Performing as part of the music festival gave the opportunity to the talented DJ to collaborate with different kinds of artists who had come from all over the country. “It’s always nice to collaborate with different artists. Each person has different things to offer and there is a lot you can learn from,” she added.

Bandish Projekt, who entertained the crowd in the city was equally enthusiastic about performing here. “It’s always been great to perform in Hyderabad. I remember performing here in 2004 and I have played here from DJ sets and recently live with my band. It’s always been really exciting and well received by the people,” said Mayur Narvekar, Bandish Projekt .

Having been active for the last 15 years, Mayur says that the journey has been great so far and puts it down to hard work and dedication. “The moment when my first album ‘Correkt’ got released world wide in 2009 was really special and now I am all ready to release my next album ‘Connekt’ early next year,” he shares whose recent release Alchemy also holds a special place in his heart. “Alchemy’ is something very special to me. I never thought I would be able to do something like that,” he added.

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