We enjoyed flaunting our butts: Neha

l Ihave been busy this whole year getting my album Tabaah together. Its been quitea journey, from writing the album with Gaurav Dayal, to mixing it. Then shootingthe video ‘Apple Bottoms’ in Ukraine. Now finally the album is outand its time to tour. l My audience was and is the college crowd. They relate tomy music as it’s youth-centric. With this album, I am trying to dosomething different. Post Diwali, my troupe an I will tour the country takingthe music on ground. I’m very excited about the concerts as that is thereal deal.l The songis my first release from the album. It is a beat-driven song, capturing the soulof hip hop. Strangely, as it’s a song about the butt, we enjoyed flauntingour worked out behinds in the video. The song is a fun anthem, about lovingoneself. The album Tabaah has the prevalent shades of my personality. There aresome good pop rock songs to look out for which are about myexperiences.l I explored my favourite that is pop rock,Tabaah has a grunge rock, aggressive feel to it, whereas Neela Aasma hasbeautiful open guitar parts with easy vocals and backings, hooks.. Then you have‘Apple Bottoms’ which is a club song, so I’d say I dabbled inboth pop rock and dance, both genres that I enjoy a lot. We enjoyed flauntingour butts in the video.l I feel very sad by this revelation. If in acountry that claims to be growing, the youth does not have the liberty to maketheir passion their career, then I don’t think we are really growing.Today, content is not a winner on mediums like TV and radio. Its money. Anyoneand everyone who has money can buy airtime. That’s why we don’tproduce Beyonces, Pink Floyds, Led Zeppelins or Michael Jacksons in ourcountry.l Oh with a lot ofpeople, John Mayer is on top of my list. I love his easy songwriting style andhis playing... I want to do something with Timbaland and it has been a dream tosing a great melody with Def Leppard.l We usually put down a scratch trackwith a basic beat on a tempo, then rough chords and then compose a melody ontop. Then we do final vocals, by focussing on vocals first, rather thanarrangement. We use MPC 2500 for producing electronic drums and basslines andGaurav loves the Dave Smith ‘Mopho’ Analog synth. Also he uses theRoland Space Echo a lot! We recorded through high end analog gear, such as Neve1073 Pre/EQ and distressor compressor. This was all recorded toLogic Pro on Mac. Then we mixed out analog summing on the Trident 8T customeconsole and used real effects units like the Lexicon PCM 80 and EventideEclipse. We also use a lot of plugins from Waves and Softtube. So yes, a mix ofsound from analog and digital seemed to work for us. Let’s hope that thepeople who buy the record also think so...Follow us on Twitter for more stories