Jalebee Cartel served: Twisted and sweet

As Jalebee Cartel's album One Point Nothing hits stores, we catch up with the awesome foursome, who let us in on life, their new album, and playing live gigs

Isha Singh Sawhney

Nomenclature seems to have become a bit of a pain in the ass for the Jalebee boys. With their first album going on racks this week, we caught up with them and asked the obvious.

“Why ONEPOINTNOTHING?” (and yes, its in all Caps!)

Sighing Ash Roy, lead vocals and percussions, says to me with a resigned expression, “why does it have to mean anything!? It means just that ‘one point nothing.” Translation: their first album.

Same story with their name - Jalebee Cartel. “Oh,” says Ash, another nonchalant wave of his hand, “it could as well have been butter chicken!” The name, despite all the fancy-deep-introspective meanings we could give it, meant nothing. It was just a name they, the foursome of Ash, Arjun Vagale (laptop, mixing and scratching), Ashvin Mani Sharma (laptop and synths), and G-force Arjun (backing vocals and bass) all fell in love post a particularly inebriated night. That and oh, they like being twisted and sweet.

A culmination of their journey over the years spent performing together, One Point Nothing, marks the coming together of the groups varying influences, inspirations and aesthetics - music that has twisted round and round to form a whole offering, like the savouries they name themselves after, and the album chases their dreams of putting India on the world electronic dance music map.

Bringing to the act different influences, from Ashwin’s purely psychadelic and G-force’s thrash metal to Arjun and Ash’s break-beat, house and techno tunes, Jalebee Cartel steps out of the shadows of conventional ‘rock bands’, and gives the idea of live performances a whole new identity.

No longer do tedious long-winded beats signify electronic music, these boys have brought experimental electric sounds, live vocal harmonies, percussions, drums and tablas home. All mixed together into a potpourri of urban dance beats, which brazenly challenge you not to be bouncing to them.

Despite their magnum opus finally hitting markets, the development is no measure of the popularity of the band. Ashwin points out, “it’s all about our live gigs!” And having seen more than my share of those cracking Jalebee gigs, where even if the entire crew isn’t performing, the energy levels and the connection both between the band members and the audience are phenomenally high on adrenalin, I have to agree.

Raw and fresh, Ash talks about the energy of the band. “Initially, I would be unsure of my singing and crowds would scare me. I’d have to look for a familiar face for positive feedback, and if they were frowning I’d be like wtf!” Now, Ash is a regular performer, and his gig is complete with onstage antics, funny faces, the works. “Today, people freak out even if I'm doing nothing. We could just scratch our head, yawn or twist a knob and the crowd can go ballistic.”

Recently back from their soft launch in Mumbai’s Blue Frog Arjun talks about ONEPOINTNOTHING. “We all came together in one style, and we didn’t want to shy away from the fact that is a dance album,” says the band’s programmer. Yet, the album is a reflection of their more artistic side too. Other influences pepper the album. Chill tracks with melodious effects, signify them growing up, and evolving into more mature and intelligent artists.

Still, post their Blue Frog gig, ahead of their Delhi launch, the boys swear by their live gigs. While Ash reminisces of particularly bad audiences where people don’t know what going, and almost expect you to pull a flower out from you’re a** or do cartwheels, Ashwin explains how they have been winning the battle against piracy. “Torrents are always going to be there, so instead of fighting it, just build up things people are going to come looking for – live gigs!”

ONEPOINTNOTHING, that includes some of their best, most loved songs from gigs over the last couple of years. And the wide amalgamation of sounds that come together to form the sounds of Jalebee Cartel, are signature to this album.

So, get cracking get a copy for yourself, and more importantly catch them on tour in your city. And as we trail the Jalebee boys around the country, we’ll keep you updated on the all the latest pictures, behind the scenes news, and hopefully some scandals!

Keep watching this space.

Check out the video made for the track "Tough Cookie" from their upcoming album. Video by Bharat Sikka