From smashing a guitar on stage to naming their new EP Is It Time to Eat the Rich Yet?, Chennai band The F16s sure have done and said a lot of things regardless of public perception.
They’re not ones to be swayed by trends – although they did compose and feature in a music video ad for a mobile brand, introduced by actor Ranbir Kapoor, or be bizarrely called out on Twitter for choosing a supposedly insensitive band name.
The cool-headed, lighthearted demeanor carries itself throughout their five-track EP, which guitarist Abhinav Krishnaswamy says is liberating to release after a long gestation period preceding the pandemic as well. Bassist Sashank Manohar adds, “We were dormant for about two years and one thing was for certain, we weren’t going to come out of this with nothing. It was a struggle to meet and getting things done. We learned how to do everything ourselves – this is completely in-house in the sense of completely produced, mixed and mastered by us. Album cover, art conceptualized with us.”
A well-oiled machine of sorts at this point, members of the band – Abhinav, Sashank, frontman Josh Fernandez and producer-keyboardist Harshan Radhakrishnan – have their own set roles and total familiarity. There’s a similar bright indie and dance-pop style that was championed on their previous EP WKND FRNDS but the lyrics are much more focused on the end times, from heartbreaks to imperfections to failing governments. “In the general sense, there was a lot of weight in what we wanted to say while wanting to make people dance. Because we were all in the same shitty situation – the whole world became one for a second. We had to address it, we’re trying to tap into that,” Sashank says.
The EP also featured New Delhi multi-instrumentalist Rohit Gupta with triumphant horn parts spread across five tracks. While Harshan points out that Gupta did play horn on WKND FRNDS as well, this time he played a much bigger role, best heard on songs like “Trouble In Paradise”, “Easy Bake Easy Wake” and “The Apocalypse.” Harshan says about Rohit, who’s part of Peter Cat Recording Co., “He plays to the song and he’s not trying to show off. When we knew what he could do and complement the tracks, we gave it to him and told him, ‘Do your thing.’”
Originally starting off with buoyant indie rock in the vein of The Strokes and then adding a bit of Tame Impala into their inspirations, The F16s have truly honed in on a sound that has global appeal. Yet, we can’t forget that it’s a band born out of the gig-parched Chennai independent music space – which has seen only a handful of bands go national and global like Skrat or Junkyard Groove. The F16s have soldiered on to stand alongside some of Indian indie’s must-hear names now, finding themselves on streaming playlists and garnering millions of plays from around the globe.
Closer home, ask the band what it’s like still trying to work within the Chennai live space and they have a lot to say. They were recently part of the Circle of Love festival in their individual capacities – organizing, performing and just general behind-the-scenes action. Abhinav says, “For a while, I think we were all I think collectively wondering what was happening in town. In terms of acts coming up, nothing really connected with any of us prior to this, over the last four or five years.” Anytime he was asked about the indie scene in Chennai, the guitarist found himself often dumbstruck. “You know, it's partially to do with the fact that you don't go to as many gigs as you did when you were in college or something, but also that nothing excites you enough to go for those things.
The festival gave them a chance to discover artists in a sense, including young acts like Sunflower Tape Machine. Sashank adds that despite the pandemic, Circle Of Love might be the only place that’s cultivating “that culture” of independent music. It certainly gave the band a high, working separately but also together for an event that demanded the members do more than just get on stage and play. “It was so fulfilling, man. Dare I say even more fulfilling than playing a gig as F16s,” Josh says with a laugh.
The event was one among several times in the recent years that The F16s also grew closer as people and not just a band, becoming more aware of each others’ lives outside of music. Abhinav adds, “Because of the pandemic, people have had to branch out into different avenues and try other things in tandem with the band. Each other's acceptance with a new chapter, a slightly different phase in our lives is what was quite fulfilling about this whole process (of making the record).”