'The time we all have been waiting for has arrived'

Musical duo

Prayag Mehta and Rishab Joshi, together known as Lost Stories, made it big with their single False Promises that was released on Tiesto’s Black Hole Recordings in 2009.

They have performed at music festivals like Tomorrowland, Sunburn, and Supersonic and made it to the annual DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs — a publicly voted poll — this year. The duo recently performed in the capital as part of Baleno Wicked Weekends, a party marathon with 40 performances by independent musicians at different venues across six cities in the country. Metrolife spoke to Joshi, who shared more about their performance and future projects.

Excerpts:
Tell us more about your performance here.
It was a great party with vibrant people all over the floor. We had an amazing time. However, I had specially prepared a music set for the event which I was going to play. But I later realised that I left all my USBs containing the music in the airplane. So I had to prepare a complete new set in just two hours before the show. It was thus, a little adventurous.

Share the experience of your first gig.
As far as I remember, my first gig was at All India Radio as a side percussionist. I was 10-years-old that time. Prayag, on the other hand, doesn’t come from a musical background.

How did music happen to you?
I’ve always been involved in music since my father is a musician. My mother tells me I always used to make a drum set out of everything and play it for hours. Music happened to me naturally. However, dance music attracted both of us because of the sheer scale of it. We wanted to be the best duo to come out of India when it comes to the genre.

What is your music philosophy?
Know the rules well enough to break them effectively.

What inspires you?
Music from different genres. I take pride in listening to a wide spectrum of genres and not being pompous about it. There is so much music out there. I don’t know how some people just assign themselves to one genre all their lives.

What do you think is the present scene of independent music in India?
With so many producers and DJs making it big internationally as independent musicians, I think the time we all have been waiting for has arrived.

If not a musician, what would you have been?
I still would have been someone who has something to do with music — a sound operator, studio cleaner, or the guy who brings coffee for the big musicians. Anything that would get me closer to music.

What are you working on next?
Loads of new releases are lined up. Our debut release on Spinnin Record is going to be out soon. We have officially remixed One Republic and Ryan Tedder loved it so much that he asked us to do another one. So that’s coming out too.