MUMBAI: Radio and Music exclusively features the newest and grooviest Synth-Pop single ‘HIGH ON FEEL’ by Electronic producer duo Bajje Squad in collaboration with Pop RnB Singer Songwriter Thomson Andrews. We had the opportunity to interview these stellar artists as they share their experience of working and creating music together.

Check the interview below: 

Tell us about the song HIGH ON FEEL.

High On Feel encapsulates the power of meeting your soulmate. 

It’s about how your world completely flips for the best. The energy of a soulmate is a part of you from the first time you know that they’re the one. "High On Feel" is dance music, it’s pop, it’s a romantic ballad, it’s a banger. With international arrangements & and localized Vocals, we have a new refreshing sound that will grab the listeners attention while still creating a strong emotional connection with the Vocals.

How did this collaboration between Thomson Andrews and Bajje Squad come into play?

Pratik from Bajje Squad says, "So a few years back I worked with Thomson on marque music properties in India - MTV Coke Studio and MTV Unplugged where Thomson was singing for prominent music producers like A.R Rahman sir, Amit Trivedi, etc. We kept in touch and when the idea of diving into language came up the first name that popped in my head was “Thomson Andrews”. He is super versatile and a fantastic singer. We knew right away that this song needs Thomson's voice and the rest is history now :)”. 

What inspired you to produce this song?

So Bajje Squad has been focusing on exploring the full electronic music spectrum for a while now. We wanted to focus on bringing those sensibilities to a modern take on Hindi music. We wanted to build stronger connections with the audience exploring the Hindi space. We think we can explore more westernized soundscapes with Indianised vocal arrangements. 

Was it a challenge to compose on a synth-pop beat for you as a singer-songwriter? 

“Well it wasn’t challenging; rather was super fun, as the music beat and track I heard instantly inspired me to compose several cool hooks and took me to a whole different space melodically,” says singer-songwriter Thomson Andrews. He adds, “I remember sitting at my home setup and ideating on the melody of the song and eventually put down 3 different melodies and hooks that all sounded greatas the track was just so groovy. I did initially struggle to narrow down to one option. Following this process, Pratik and Mark (Bajje Squad duo) and I had a few ideation sessions to select one melody that fits well with the track and groove and once we locked the tune and were vibing to it, we had a single ready to be baked!. We then got lyrics penned down by Divyesh Mungra who beautifully put our vision via lyrics that perfectly fit the melody. Post the final dubb and mix master, we hear a stellar song I’m proud to be associated with. Bajje Squad and I have a few more great tunes up our sleeve and it's an absolute creative process, fun and artistically rewarding experience working with them. Their professionalism and passion for creating great music are the traits that made our synergies match, to create good musicand work together”.

Your take on collaborations and their importance in today's music consumption.

We feel like today doing a collab is the secret sauce for any artist. 

1. It’s feeding into a wider audience with 2 different artists coming together.

2. When 2 styles come together it’s pure experimentation in our opinion. Everything that you go in with has a new avatar once you walk out of the studio. 

3. Also I think the most important thing in collabs is… you learn so much from the artists you collab with like different workflows, professionalism and you expand your music horizons

How was it working with Pop-Rnb Singer-Songwriter Thomson Andrews?

Thomson is a super popular voice in the music circuit from catchy pop songs and singing for various top heavyweights in the industry he’s done it all! We were super excited to take the song to Thomson and check what he thought of the collab. The turning point for us was when Thomson instantly jumped to the idea and that was super encouraging so we got together and played around a little bit and that's how the song came about. Thomson is one of the most versatile artists we know. His range is spectacular and his vocal arrangements are super innovative. Which is a win for us and Bajje Squad as a collective.

What were the challenges you faced in getting the project to its completion stage?

We are super critical when it comes to anything that we put out. From our music videos, creatives, promo material, or even mixing and mastering. We are a full D.I.Y project. We have total control over our art and we like it like that. So analyzing everything we do and scrutinizing every approach is where most of our time is spent. It’s not really a challenge but more time-consuming. But we wouldn’t change a thing about that I think it works for us :)

Tell us about the music production elements you've chosen to use in this track that helped you get this fresh and unique approach to a Hindi Single. 

The production of High on feel is an expression of our love for the European trance. Artist like Armin, Paul van Dyk, BT, Gabriel & Dresden has had a massive influence on us right from the early stages of our electronic music journey. So in terms of production, we have incorporated signature Trance sounds like the rolling baseline, Gated Vocals, Synth Plucks & Arps But in a way that’s unique to us. We have arrangements that are more influenced by the US Top 40 charts - Verse, Pre-chorus, and Chorus structures.  Thomson’s Vocals just take all of this to a whole new level.

What's next for this combo act of Bajje Squad and Thomson Andrews 

We have already started work on our next release and that's gonna be a whole different vibe altogether. Like we said earlier we want to dive deeper and experiment a lot more with electronic music in the Hindi space. There’s so much unexplored territory and we feel like we can fill the gap seamlessly.