The artists, also co-founders of erstwhile music venue blueFROG, look back at the making of their 2008 album and why it needed a relaunch via Ghanekar’s Wah Wah Records
(Clockwise from top left) Dhruv Ghanekar, Ashu Phatak and Kailash Kher. Photos: Courtesy of Wah Wah Records
Between the two of them, Mumbai-based artists and entrepreneurs Ashu Phatak and Dhruv Ghanekar have arguably built the blocks for independent music in India. Around the time that they launched the venue, recording studio and label blueFROG in 2007 and before Phatak co-founded True School of Music (both in Mumbai), the duo recorded and released an album called Smoke Signals in 2008.
Ghanekar – now a founder in his own music company Wah Wah Music – and Phatak have now given the alt rock/fusion project a new home in the streaming universe by reproducing and remastering Smoke Signals, along with a proper release of their music video for “Summertime Rocks,” the sublime single from the album featuring singer Kailash Kher. Upon revisiting Smoke Signals – which is out via Wah Wah Records – Ghanekar says there were a “mix of nostalgia and anxiety.” Phatak adds, “When anyone listens to an old song after a long time, memories come flooding back… every feeling, every smell…comes back. To a composer of that song, that feeling feels even more amplified because the inspirations behind the idea start coming back too.”
To Phatak, a song like “Summertime Rocks” represented the sense of freedom they were working with, one that inspired them to build blueFROG. He adds, “So when I hear this song now, I’m reminded about the first day we heard the speakers come on inside blueFROG – it gave me goosebumps and made me feel great to be alive!”
The quirky, pastiche-like music video – directed by Shashanka Chaturvedi with animation by Simmi – has an instant early 2000s experimental sense to it. At the time of publishing, it’s already got over 50,000 views on YouTube, along with a few nostalgia-driven comments that prove that the song had its own audience. Ghanekar feels the video still feels fresh in 2023 and is glad it can also find a “new and younger audience” in today’s streaming landscape. Phatak describes the video as “absolute Art,” praising Chaturvedi and the production house Good Morning films. “The madness of the video conveys the sense of freedom and feelings that we felt when we wrote it, but actually, he took it to another level completely.”
Originally, Ghanekar intended to recreate “Summertime Rocks” and spent a month on it until he says he aborted the “entire exercise as the whole pursuit of trying to recreate a moment in time was never a good idea.” He adds, “I think the song needs to exist in its current form with all the idiosyncrasies as it captures the zeitgeist of that period. Some things are better left untouched.” In addition to Kher, Smoke Signals also includes vocalists such as Vivienne Pocha, Viju Jeremiah Traven, Ravi “Rags” Khote and Shubha Joshi.
With the album out now, the duo don’t necessarily rule out a reunion show performing Smoke Signals. Phatak says about bringing Kher on board as well, “I think the three of us are doing very interesting things and are very busy with what we are up to right now […] If we get enough requests to do a show we’d love to do it.”
We’d be remiss if we didn’t ask about how they think back to the days they ran blueFROG and what they think about live music in India right now. They remain proud of blueFROG – the Mumbai venue shut in 2016 – and Ghanekar pegs the contribution to the entry of MTV into India in the Nineties. “Both were important milestones and were instrumental in shaping the music scene as it is today. I think the Indian music scene has transformed and continues to evolve with the advent of infrastructural support like professional music schools (TSM), professional artist management firms and international digital distribution that has democratized the music business.” The artist does, however, rue the lack of mid to small venues in the country for live music culture to thrive. Phatak agrees that blueFROG “changed the way people thought about music and accelerated the independent music scene.” It led him on the journey to co-found True School of Music in 2013 and it now stands as a university. He adds, “I’m very, very positive about where it’s heading, especially with what’s happening in the OTT platforms, independent music, the hip-hop scene, everything…”
Listen to ‘Smoke Signals’ below.
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