Why Must Everything Be Garbage?
That was a trick title, not everything is.
The first time I went to Goregaon was in April 2007. I ended up walking along the beach to Bandra all night with four other people. At one point we had to wade into the “sea”, and I remember my legs trawling through ankle-deep plastic and other objects that were too poorly lit to discern. I can’t remember the names of those I was with or what they looked like, the sun rose and we parted ways.
He can’t DJ, so he won a DJ competition once. He played some random-ass Sunburn event in Bombay when he was 17 and then a label in Italy put out his music. Then he sent every act on the Tomorrowland lineup his music via email saying “yo play this” and some idiot did, and then he realised that industry was completely vapid and devoid of any talent or vision and so he decided to make some very patient, deliberate music. He has hundreds of these songs on his laptop. He just moved to Goregaon from South Bombay, and there are a lot of McDonalds out there so he had a veggie burger and I had two chicken somethings and a mocha frappe. (Editor’s note: McDonald’s does mocha frappes? Why must I be the last to know everything?) Then we went to a mall, and then another one, because there are a few out there.
If you are 19 in 2016 that means you probably had access to a smartphone since you were 16, which means you could basically hear every song ever made whenever you wanted. This is not limited to urban India - over 700 million use these devices, and just under half are in rural areas. The capacity to absorb music in such a context cannot even remotely compare to what someone just eight years ago had (or didn’t have) access to. You can’t fuck with someone who listens to everything all the time. They know better, and they won’t take any bullshit because they have cultivated tastes and don’t have time to be distracted by pedestrian garbage.
It’s a great time to be alive.
Maybe you are really “good” at whatever you do, or maybe you just hate everybody because they are idiots, but who knows - we come across shit and a week later we forget but hey — chances are it’ll be a great week and then it’s anyone’s guess what happens next because as long as you keep putting it out all the time all kinds of shit can happen. You just have to keep posting it, people are insecure and we’re all going to die, it’s great.
I stopped doing whatever I was doing when I first heard his music. Soon after I saw him play his debut, and we hung out for a day. I didn’t record our conversations because I don’t really know this guy, because, you know. His friend was six feet tall and her size intimidates him and I ate cheesy chicken fries and he and she went to buy clothes at Forever 21 and we parted ways and I went home and ate some leftover pad thai because I will still hungry.
On this trip I spent one morning walking in some garbage in Versova beach, and I edited something that deeply offended a friend of mine. After I left those two, I left Bombay in like six hours, and then I slept all day but I bought some Goan sausage in Juhu and I made a really good curry last night. So overall it was pretty cool.
Words, banner photo, and video by Rana Ghose — REProduce Artists
Sparkle & Fade plays his second show ever today at Coral Studio, Bandra ‘round 6pm.
