MUMBAI: Crescendo Music will soon join the likes of well known music festival curators with its first ever music festival called ‘Gheun Tak’. The festival is Crescendo Music’s first IP which also seconds as a platform for young talent to showcase their talent. ‘Gheun Tak’ boasts an interesting line-up of artists scheduled through the two day event with electronic duo Midival Punditz, The Liquid Bass Project and Krazy Electrons set to perform on the first day, Saturday, 31 January. Independent rock acts Agnee and Ankur & the Ghalat Family are set to perform the following day, Sunday, 1 February at Irish Village Brewery in Pune.
Crescendo Music, Co-Director, Mohit Vadia spoke to Radioandmusic.com about the development of the festival. He said that there were primarily two reasons that led to the inception of ‘Gheun Tak’. “First was to create a Crescendo Music original IP. Unfortunately, physical copies of music do not sell anymore in today’s era of digital downloads of music tracks. There has also been a sudden rise in the amount of live music events. Today, you will find tonnes of music fests happening all over the country. But, when a music label is coming up with something like this, of course people’s curiosity is going to be peaked,” said Vadia.
In addition to having some of the leading music acts like Agnee, Midival Punditz and Ankur & the Ghalat Family showcase their work; Crescendo Music is also conducting preliminary auditions, the finalists of which will open for these well-known bands. “We selected four out of a potential six bands to perform at Gheun Tak, with the preliminary auditions conducted a week ago,” said Vadia. The winning band will get to shoot a music video sponsored by Crescendo Music. “Not only would we be releasing the single, but we will also be promoting and marketing the music video,” he added.
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Vadia also said that the line-up was divided between two days intentionally. “On a Saturday night, people are in the party mood, and the electronic line-up that features Midival Punditz, The Liquid Bass Project and Krazy Electrons perfectly fits. Opening for them, we have local EDM music acts Riptide and instrumental progressive act- Celestial Teapot. Similarly, on Sunday, people tend to be a little more laid back and for that reason we have bands that reflect indo-fusion and pop rock with Prateek Bhaduri and Rudraksh opening for Agnee and Ankur & the Ghalat Family,” elaborated Vadia.
“Agnee plan to shoot a music video for their upcoming single during their performance at the fest. The band will play its first new track in almost two years and will premiere it at the festival,” said Vadia. For that reason, there are six cameras and eight microphones set up at the venue.
Choosing the Irish Village Brewery as the venue for ‘Gheun Tak’ was also because it has its own barricade, perfect for hosting music-based events like these, further opined Vadia. The on-ground marketing for the event has been taken over by Wildfire Entertainment with three newspaper advertisements appearing in the Pune Times, around 25,000 pamphlets being distributed, 9XO and 9XM as the official channel partners and Radio City Pune, being the official radio partner for ‘Gheun Tak’ conducting competitions for listeners to win passes for the fest. Howbeit, most of the marketing for the fest is done over digital media.
Crescendo Music also produced a promotional video for the festival which serves as the theme for the fest. A short minute-long teaser was released on YouTube, which featured Mika Singh, Aisha Sayed and Sherrin Varghese singing the Hindi, English and Marathi parts respectively. The theme track will also be performed live at the festival by Varghese featuring a never-before-seen 16-member male band, playing the Nashik Dhol. The performance will be recorded and then turned into the official promo video for the festival.
The IP went into gestation since September, with it originally being planned to be conducted during the Ganpati season. “We originally planned to have it one day before the ‘visarjan’, but had to reconsider given the religious environment,” said Vadia.
Vadia also said that Gheun Tak is scheduled to be held in five different cities across Maharashtra. He also said that similar competitions will be held at every city. And from those finalists, one music act will win at next year’s Gheun Tak securing a record deal by Crescendo Music.
“As a record label, we want to expose as much new talent from the city as possible. And, since we have about four to five films lined up, the plan is to try and get these new musicians to compose for the films,” said Vadia.
Vadia further said that Crescendo Music plans to have similar IPs in the northern and southern regions of India. The next ‘Gheun Tak’ is scheduled to be held in April, the city is yet to be determined.
