MUMBAI: Another brand new independent music festival, The New Wave Musicfest finds its host city in Goa, and it is not an EDM festival. The event, organised by Ennui.BOMB, is far from the usual gigs and might be capable of breaking the stereotype that Goa only welcomes party music acts. Its tagline promises to bring fresh Asian Indie and punk music, nothing like any other festival in the country. With bands and artistes from other Asian countries like Japan, Malaysia, Dubai, Myanmar and Nepal, The New Wave Musicfest will, for the first time, introduce the Asian independent music scene in our country.
The event, which will take place on 15 and 16 November at a go-kart race track in Goa, will have three different stages. The smaller stage will host electro-pop artistes and singer-songwriters, while the other two will see all kinds of music genres. The mastermind behind the festival, Rishu Singh, who has been in artiste management for years says, “Goa is beautiful and has its own charm. We are looking at people coming for the festival from Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune and hoping for a turnout of around 5000 people.”
Singh explained, “The idea for a music festival came from our annual compilation of ‘Stupid Ditties’. New Wave is an extension of that; our idea of promoting these brilliant upcoming independent artistes and bands. These will be the next rung of headliners in our country and people need to start recognising them.”
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He added, “We need to explore and understand the culture and the music scene in our neighbouring countries, which is so great. There is a need for us to open up to the music there and let them experience the kind of music we have to offer. When we pitched our objectives and goals to the artistes, they all loved the vibe of what was on the plate.”
Singh says, “There will be everything – hip hop, hardcore, punk rock, indie, folk fusion, singer-songwriters, electro pop, alt rock, post rock and others. What we can promise to the crowd is that there will be no time to get bored at the festival.”
Shonen Knife, an all female Japanese pop punk band is the headliner at the festival and has had a cult fan following globally in their 30-year music career. They made fans out of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, who confessed that he became a ‘little fangirl’ when he watched them live and other big bands like Sonic Youth and Redd Kross. The festival will also see Malaysian rock band- Kyoto Protocol that has opened for bands like The Killers, MGMT and Smashing Pumpkins in the past. Other Asian bands are Rebel Riot from Myanmar, Point of View from Dubai and Nepali bands- Youth Unite and The Squirt Guns.
Singh confessed, “It is such an honour and a dream-come-true that such big acts have agreed to play at our festival. I have grown up listening to these bands and they are all enthusiastic about it.”
The festival will also bring to stage home grown names like The Supersonics, The Ganesh Talkies, Sky Rabbit, The Circus, Laxmi Bomb, The Vinyl Records, Bombay Bassment, Peter Cat Recording Co., Space Behind The Yellow Room, Grammy Winning Effort and many more. There will be more than 50 music acts at the two-day festival.
Although most of the line-up has been announced, organisers are still in talks with a few more international bands. They are also extremely focused on finding talent from Goa to break the perception that the Goan crowd only appreciates blues or jazz music. Post rock bands from Pune, A Mutual Question and As We Keep Searching performed at the pre-gig of the festival on 23 August in Goa, which was a success. Another pre-gig will be held on 28 August at Mumbai’s Three Wise Monkeys, where Pinocchio’s Moment of Clarity and As We Keep Searching will perform.
Singh revealed that they will be bringing Gibson on board with the festival as their official gear partner. They have also roped in big names and brands like Bajaao as their festival partner and IndianStage as their ticketing partner. Art Escape from Goa is co-organising the festival with ennui.BOMB and Studio Kohl is their creative partner. He says, “Besides these, there are other cool, urban brands related to youth culture who will also be our sponsors. All these brands associated with the project, decided to work with us because they believe in what we stand for and we assure you that it is going to be a lot of fun.”
