KOCHI: Remember the first time you fell in love? With a person, with a new job or with yourself? The crests of highs and the troughs of lows. The inherent feeling of wanting to discover yourself, or return to your childhood. Recall the last time you felt such intense sentiments. Remember when you felt young. Kochi-based folk/indie rock band ‘When Chai Met Toast’ (WCMT) is here to take you back, or rather, remind you of those manifold emotions with their first full-length album ‘When We Feel Young’. The first song from the album ‘Maybe I Can Fly’ along with its enticing visualiser released last Friday has already amassed plenty of appreciation. Lead vocalist Ashwin Gopakumar, guitarist and banjoist Achyuth Jaigopal, drummer Pai Sailesh and keyboardist Palee Francis had belted their extremely successful EP ‘Believe’ in 2018 and their recent work is only an indication of band’s calibre. Express speaks to Ashwin and Achyuth on the same.
“We’ve been working on the album for a year-and-a-half. Creating a full-length album has always been a milestone ever since the formation of the band. Over the past few years, we’ve been writing singles and EPs and making this album was a natural transition. It was a challenge as we weren’t used to writing multiple songs altogether,” says Ashwin, on the process.WCMT’s songs have always known to radiate happy vibes in the listener.
‘When We Feel Young’, takes a rather different, albeit pleasant diversion. “While the album broadly falls into pop music, the songs are wide-ranging in terms of the musicality aspect – there are stadium anthems, intimate songs and singalongs. Our inspiration differs from song to song. While our songwriting process hasn’t changed much, our listening choices have. Palee, who has produced most of the songs, is a key element,” quips Achyuth.
Ashwin mentions that even though the band writes on various emotions, they dynamically fall under the ‘happy’ note, primarily because of who they are and whom they are surrounded by. “The album encapsulates the feeling of being young. Some songs talk about standing tall and fighting for the world, one delves into the miscommunication in a relationship, in another you’re reminiscing about the earlier days of a relationship and so on. Every song in the album is about a different feeling as explained by the shape it is associated to,” he explains.The ‘shapes’ refer to the album art which comprises various geometric figures that arise from a person’s head – eight structures altogether which hint on the number
of songs.
Art director of the band Malavika A K is credited with the intriguing illustration. ‘Maybe I Can Fly’ is depicted by a form consisting of triangles and a hexagon put together. “The hexagon represents liberation in time and the triangles describe moving forward with hope and space. The whole meaning of the song is conveyed through shapes and colours. Classic blue is chosen as the colour for the song which conveys truth, dusk, hope and dependability. Malavika has done a lot of research for the album,” says Ashwin.
The protagonist in the visualiser for the song is an astronaut in space. While the art for ‘Believe’ comprised a moon and stars in space as well, Ashwin says the concept is centred on the band looking towards the stars, wanting to play for crowds, which has always been the dream. “However, ‘When We Feel Young’ takes a different approach from what we used to do,” he adds.
For what is primarily a touring band, surely the pandemic has altered their reality? “Ideally, the plan was to tour once the entire album was released. Usually, word spreads after people attend our concert. Now, the whole process is via the online medium. So we’re releasing one song at a time, and hopefully, things ease once we’re done,” says Achyuth.
Despite the pandemic, the band members count themselves fortunate to be in Kerala, which enables jamming sessions even though video shoots are restricted. Nevertheless, when do they feel young? “I still do, I’m unsure about Achyuth,” says Ashwin. “The album in itself is about all of us feeling young. It can be now or even in the future,” Achyuth adds.