> 1) For those people who are outside of the UK, many do not know the full story about how Tigerstyle got involved with and became icons in the Bhangra music industry. Please elaborate on when you guys got started producing music, including the interesting road with different record labels, etc.
We come from a traditionally Sikh family and our upbringing has been enriched with the sense of Punjabi identity. We started out very young, learning classical tabla and various other forms of North Indian music, folk, dhadi sangeet, gurmat kirtan etc. Once we started to get into hip hop and other contemporary music while we were at school, we began to fuse them with our Indian influences and that’s how our passion took off.
From there we established the Desi Bombsquad Roadshow to take forth as DJs the sound we were representing. With DJ’ing, we also started to remix a lot of material and slowly got into production. At this time we came into contact with Panjabi MC who heard our demo and put us in contact with Kismet records. We signed our first deal with kismet and released the now classic album "the rising" in 2000.
The album was hugely successful. I could sit here and go on and on, but best thing to do is direct you to my website to read up from that point until now. www.tigerstyleonline.co.uk
> 2) What is your inspiration behind the music that you guys do? Any major influences growing up, whether it be artists, music genres, mentors?
There was so much goin on while we were growing up, there was so many influences. In terms of genres I’d say punjabi folk music influenced our sound a lot, and it’s where we sample a lot of stuff from. Its where we base our desi sound from. We like that 70s/80s type of punjabi music, Gurdas Maan, Kuldip Manak, Chamkila, Mohd. Sadiq, Shinda, Hans Raj Hans etc etc. in hiphop there’s no bigger name than Dre and the political subjects Ice Cube touched on when he was at his peak influenced us in bringing that raw edge to desi music too. I also listened to a lot of Bob Marley, I like his sense of cultural heritage and giving a voice for his people and having a message in his music. All these elements influenced us in their own way.
We come from a religious Sikh family so the preachings of Sant Bhindranwale, and other figures also had a huge influence on us while we were growin up. My dad is a strong figure in our family, and he plays a very influential role within the sikh community here in Scotland, so that sense of community also came from him being involved in the community around us at that time.
> 3) How is the relationship between the two of you as brothers?
Hahaha. Yeah I guess we get along. We're not best of buddies but we work well together and we understand that each other wants when we're in the studio so we tend to guide the sound and shape it into what both of us feel. Over the years slowly we have both fallen into our own role and we do treat it like a business now more than when we first started out. Raj concentrates on the studio and technical side, engineering, studio sessions etc., of things whereas I deal with most of the instrumentation, a&r, business, show bookings, bringing in commissions, and meetings. As a team we work well together, I think!
We jus recently set up the company "tigerstyle ltd" and we have the side businesses "soldier sound recordings" and "ak music publishing" set up as well so things are starting to run smoothly. We have also acquired new premises now to house "The Dera" Production Suite. So within months we will be fully functional.
> 4) Where are some of the places where you have done some big gigs recently? Have you guys done shows in India? When will you be coming out to the US, mainly the west coast (I know that you are coming down, but this is a chance for you to promote it)?
We do shows all over. If u go onto the tour section of the website you will see the listings of shows. We hit Dubai, Singapore, Australia, Canada, USA, Germany, Norway, Poland and Switzerland all in the matter of a couple of years. In the USA we travel a lot, we toured many times in various cities on both the East and West coast. The problem there is that a lot of media and public don’t really pick up on what's goin on. I think there definitely needs to be more communication between the websites, magazines and club promoters to ensure tours get promoted correctly. This year, we hit the USA twice. The first leg hit Chicago, New York and Las Vegas back in Feb. and the second leg we jus completed a couple of weeks ago which was Altanta and L.A., so things have been busy.
As of yet we have not hit india. There seems to be some hesitation from promoters so we'd rather wait until the time is right and our profile is big enough for them to feel confident.
> 5) A few off the wall questions: a) who is your favorite Bhangra vocalist? b) producer? c) who are some other non-Indian artists that you guys like?
a) Of all time, it would need to be Kuldip Manak. right now I like a lot of singers from india, like Nachattar Gill and Manmohan Waris.
b) In regards to production, there are a lot of talented artists out there. Dr. Dre, Neptunes, Timbaland, Scott Storch, Kanye West, Ar Reham, Charanjit Ahuja, Sangtar etc etc. Sometimes, you don’t even know who the production is by, but the work is amazing so its hard to answer that one.
c) Like I said before I was into Bob Marley a lot while I was a student and recently I have gotten back into that vibe. Recently I came across damien marley's first album " halfway tree" in Poland while we were on tour and I fell in love with it. About a month ago, he came out with his jamrock single and it blew me away. I’ve jus bought the new album and I’m slowly getting’ thru it. I really admire the work. It’s incredible!
> 6) What are some of your interests outside of producing music?
You know what, there aren’t many, music is my life. i was studyin architecture at art school and multimedia at college before music became full time, so I guess I’m one for the creative industries. I like appreciating art, poetry etc. I learnt a bit of muay thai kick boxing for a bit but didn’t have time to stick with it. I've just joined the gym again after about 9 months so hopefully I'll stick to that!
> 7) Out of all the tracks that you have made, which are your favorites? And, out of all the albums you guys have released, which is your favorite?
I don’t think i have a favourite track or favourite album yet. The albums are all quite old now, so I feel like they are no longer relevant. The new album is one to watch out for. There is alot of good material on there and I do have my favourites aswell. i think its best to wait til its out and then i'll come back and comment on my favourite bits. Generally we dont feel like we have even released anything to our full potential yet. The new album is definitely something to look out for.
> 8) Given the recent raid of Bhangra shops in the UK in response to DJ Sanj's "Authorised" featuring excessive sampling of many hip hop tracks, and given that a large part of the popularity that you guys have gained has come from releasing underground tracks, such as the classic remix of "Lean Back," what are your feelings on sampling? What about regarding music piracy and downloading?
I’d like to make it very clear that we are totally against piracy. The remixes we do are mainly for our dj sets and promotional material only. and the labels which own the copyright to the material which we sample get sent the material directly from us. We have touched base with artists like mr vegas who featured on our recent bootleg hit "ishq nagni".
The way the dj circuit works is djs put together exclusive mixes for their use in their set to gain popularity. They then press these tracks for general circulation amongst other djs and radio play. After leaving Kismet Records our whole move has been towards generating popularity and public interest as well as a strong following. There has been alot of original material from us along the way as well, in the form of full on original songs and official remixes for artists like Lisa Maffia, Ms Dynamite, Street Symphony, Lamya, Jay Sean, Raghav, Macka Diamond, Luny Tunes, and Wisin Yandel. The list is long! The difference between us and most Bhangra artists is that we do not expect to make money directly from the sales of our bootleg mixes, they are mostly for radio play and to drop in our dj set!!!
> 9) What direction would you like the Bhangra music industry to go into in the future? Maybe with regards to new styles, should the music stay traditional, do more hip hop, go back to the roots of Bhangra?
I think bhangra should go in every direction not jus one! We should take Bhangra, our Punjabi culture, language, traditions, beliefs, and way of life to every corner of the world, places where u dont even see a brown face or a turban or a bindi or a pakora or a samosa hahahah! At the same time we want to work at keeping this all alive within the community. Keep the spirit and sound of punjab alive within our own people, whatever way we can.
> 10) Who are some artists that you would like to collaborate with that you have not already worked with before?
I love Missy Elliot, I think she has awesome talent, we'd love to work with her. We also like A.R Rehman's production work and we feel like he has brought a whole revolution in Bollywood music which will echo thru the years. It would be amazing to see what would come out of a collaboration with him.
> 11) What CD's are in your CD player right now?
The only time i really listen to cds is in the car. Right now the Damien Marley album “Welcome to Jamrock” is playin in there. Thats after we took out the master for “Pure Desi Vol 1” which we jus completed from the studio for VIP records.
> 12) www.punjabisongs.com would like to thank Tigerstyle for letting us sit down and do this very exclusive interview. Now, here's your chance to promote what you folks have in the future to our audience. What can we expect in the future from Tigerstyle (album releases, new collaborations, etc.)?
Right now we are in the middle of things. the album is 90% completed. Be sure to catch that when it drops in the coming months. The single will be ready shortly and you'll see promotion starting up very soon. 3 of the tracks from the new album have been taken by microsoft for the PGR 3 X Box game so check that out. We've also completed tracks for Achanak’s latest album "Bhangra-ology" on Nachural Records and we have produced Bikram Singh’s debut album "American Jugni" on VIP records.
Check out www.tigerstyleonline.co.uk for the latest info, its updated regularly. And also pls join the mailing list from the website so we can keep you updated. thanx once again! peace.
[Images courtesy of ManikSingh.Com]
