Music is an experience the Almighty has blessed us with: Twin Strings

When your first original gets over a million views on YouTube alone, it means people love your music and you are here to stay. So it happened with the country’s upcoming boy band, Twin Strings which is now ready with their second original, Tujhse Hoti Hai Subha. “We are excited for this, especially after the success of the first one, Dhalti Rahe, last year. Over the next few years, we will be releasing many originals besides the covers that we do,” they say. But who are Twin Strings?  

Twin Strings is a music-based collective start-up by twin duo of Sagar-Sahil along with Manav and Mohit Deen.

The Twin Strings share their journey with Saurabh Tankha

Tell us more about your latest original track, Tujhse Hoti Hai Subha.
Tujhse Hoti Hai Subha is a fun country and beach vibe love number that we made almost a year ago. We shot half the video in Thailand and the other one was planned to be shot as a storyboard but then we got super busy with our shows until the lockdown started. So we thought of putting together a feel good lyric video having shots from not just Thailand but from our different live shows and releasing the song during the lockdown itself so as to bring a smile of people’s faces in these testing times.

Conventionally, such songs have a female lead in the video but not here. Any reasons for this?
Yes, perhaps. But this is also not a conventional love track and video :). The song has a free and travel vibe. We wanted it to preserve it that way instead of going for the good old textbook style couple thingy.

How did music happen?
Mohit, our cousin, realised the passion we had for sound in early high school days. Back then, when we (Sagar-Sahil) used to travel to Mohit’s place during our vacations, we created music and shared it with friends. That’s how it all started. Even when we had got busy with our jobs, we made music with Mohit as also collaborated with various artistes on YouTube. After completing his MBA, Mohit pursued sound engineering from Beat Factory Academy in Delhi. All this happened till we saw a guy put up a raw singing video. We still remember, it was Na tum jaano na hum. We located him and asked him to come to the studio for a jam session. That was the day when we met Manav, a software engineer who worked for TCS for three years before he jumped fulltime into music. We – Sagar, Sahil, Manav and Mohit – have never looked back since.

Are there creative differences when you guys make music?
Creative difference are bound to happen when multiple artistes work together, but that can prove to be very beneficial too as everyone brings to the table something different. We especially have had very different musical backgrounds eg Manav was more into rock music in school, Mohit was very fond of edm music and us (Sahil-Sagar) used be very much into melodic stuff, with a little bit of Bollywood as well. When so much of diversity comes together, it could result in something very interesting that we never thought of.

Being brothers (in case of Sagar and Sahil) is a blessing or do you think it somewhere leads to arriving at a compromise so that it is peace always?
Being brothers is always a blessing until we fight. Let’s not talk about fights.

What was the reaction of your parents when you disclosed to them that music is what you want to pursue in life?
Initially, they were like guys, ‘Jobs! Engineers! MBAs! Practicality!’ It took us some time to get them on our side. Now they are the most proud people and we’ve always had their support.

How have you utilised the lockdown period to create something new, something innovative?
The only thing that has changed is that we are unable to meet and jam. Rest is the same. We have been covering songs – producing music and shooting videos from our respective homes (find our quick covers on social media), we have been writing more music, engaging with our audience and devoting much needed time to practice and improve our skills.

What is the biggest problem you have encountered in this journey of music?
We haven’t to be honest. The reason is our great tuning with each other and our family.

What do you all enjoy most about being a musician?
That’s hard to put in words. Music is an experience the Almighty has been kind enough to bless us with, everything that accompanies this experience (being struck with those moments of inspiring ideas to write songs, recording, performing live, jamming) is something to cherish.

If you were to rate the music lovers in terms of understanding music, which will be the top three cities and why?
Lucknow has been amazing. We get so much respect there. People in Bengaluru are amazing, open to listen to all kind of independent stuff. And then Delhi, kyunki wahan toh dil hai.

Acceptability of Indian music abroad?
It’s just the language. Indian music is one of the richest forms of music, something people across the world have been and will continue to be fond of. These days countless Indian artistes are performing around the world.

What’s next up for Twin Strings?
Lots of originals lined up. Stay tuned…