By Rashi Wadhera
They say they like to focus on the ‘story’ during a gig, but turns out I found one in them.
Meet the boys du jour, Arjun Talwar and Karanvir Singh, both halves of Magnolias Sessions; a weekly EDM podcast releasing mixes of both original and self-produced tracks. Conceptualized in May of this year, Talwar is candid in his admission of the lack of creativity in naming their property. Both of them moved into DLF Magnolia, Gurgaon early this year and the rest is well, a podcast. With a four-year age gap, both boys have a long-standing friendship, owing to their families being close friends. “Our families have had a tendency to follow each other around the city” says Karanvir.
Besides their love for physical proximity, they share a deep passion for electronic music and have managed to find expression with Magnolia Sessions. Arjun believes it's soulful, positive and that the feel of EDM is unparalleled, while Singh thinks it to be the easiest medium to transfer energy and emotions from one person to another.
{Arjun Talwar}
Singh, a drummer from the age of 5, traces the start of his journey back to when he was 14. “I bought my dad a guitar for his birthday and ended up using it myself, the next natural step was to start making my own music, incorporating the guitar and drums”. During a summer stint in a studio, one of his colleagues made him listen to Swedish House Mafias’s One… this is where he believes it all started. He bought a keyboard {this time for himself}, set up a studio at home, started making music and sending it out to record labels. In 2009, Squad Music, a Spanish label, signed a track he produced. With great flourish Singh announces his grand earnings on his first track, Hold On, a grand sum of 15 euros. “I took my parents out to dinner for Kathi Rolls in Defence Colony”, a neighborhood Arjun did not follow them to.
Arjun was in Bombay instead, at his day job - a banker with Citigroup. Talwar was a self-professed Hip-Hop fan. In fact, he spent a majority of his life thinking he was a gangster. Dressed in jerseys honoring 2pac and shorts hanging dangerously low, someone happened to play him DeadMau5. This happened circa Groove Shark days, where he then spent much time researching artists, festivals and eventually, podcasts. Retiring his many jerseys, he started attending EDM festivals, starting with Sunburn and moving on to Tomorrowland, which he says sealed the deal.
In May this year, Karanvir was asked to put together a sample set for a friend’s corporate event. As fate would have it, Arjun was back in Delhi and resumed living close to the Singhs. He asked for Arjun’s input, and this brought the boys together to make their first sample set. Although the event fell through, they decided to put it on Facebook to test the waters.
This was the birth of Magnolia Sessions.
Much to their surprise, they got a promising response and decided to release weekly episodes alternating between chill, progressive sounds and high energy, big room sound. With a growing fan base, they only got more popular with each episode. After they hit a 1000 likes this September, they wanted to up the ante and attempt a live set; and after emailing multiple venues around the city, they've landed a gig at Kitty Su, at the Lalit Hotel.
In a city that’s suddenly witnessed an EDM boom, hosting some of the biggest DJs from around the world, another EDM gig might get lost in the sea of them. However, apart from the big DJs and mammoth gigs in Noida, it’s hard to find a low-key gig that allows beginners to get a sense of the genre and provides avid fans a mix of different artists and sounds. Magnolia caters to a wide audience and intersperses enough commercial, well-known tracks with introductions to less-known DJs, so there’s something for everyone.
Check out Magnolia Sessions at |
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/MagnoliaSessions?ref=hl%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E&utm_source=LBB&ref=lbbpost
Mixcloud | http://www.mixcloud.com/magnoliasessions/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E?utm_source=LBB&ref=lbbpost
Soundcloud | https://soundcloud.com/arjuntalwar%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E?utm_source=LBB&ref=lbbpost
Check out Karan's alias, North & South, at | Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/officialnorthandsouth%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E?utm_source=LBB&ref=lbbpost
Soundcloud | https://soundcloud.com/officialnorthandsouth%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E?utm_source=LBB&ref=lbbpost