Feeling the pulse of the generation

Techno tunes

With technology advancing by the day, techno and electronic dance music (EDM) are ruling the music scene these days. However, Arjun Vagale’s affair with this part of the industry started around 20 years ago. Over the years, he has experimented with sounds and today, he is one of India’s most acclaimed techno DJs and producers.

“From 1996 to now, it has been a progressive climb. I have evolved and so has the scene. There is a do-it-yourself culture in music these days and a lot of the younger producers play really good music. The new guys are doing cutting-edge work and it’s interesting to see them grow  So it’s a mutually inspiring thing — they play my music while I play theirs,” says Arjun, who performed in the City recently as part of RESET, a music festival that was organised by Phoenix Live and UnMute. 

Though he moved base to New York last year, Arjun has had a long association with ‘namma’ Bengaluru. “I have performed in Bengaluru many times. In fact, I was brought up in various cities and Bengaluru was one of them. So I consider it home,” he says.

“It has changed quite a bit. It has always had a good crowd and music is evolving here at a rapid pace,” he adds.

Currently, one of the brightest sparks in the underground music scene in the US, his passion for music began during childhood. “I used to be part of the school choir.
Eventually, my friends got me into electronic music and I enjoyed listening to bands like ‘The Chemical Brothers’ and ‘Underworld’. I was also into heavy metal and would play the guitar and have long hair,” he laughs. Bands like ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Metallica’ and ‘Guns N’ Roses’ had a lot of influence on him too. “I also learnt drums and took piano lessons. I wanted to master at least one instrument but I never did as I realised that I was bad at playing them and that it was easier to play music than make it,” he laughs. However, today, he makes widely-acclaimed music and every single of his has hit various charts all over the world.

His productions are consistently played by DJs and producers like Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Dubfire, Adam Beyer, Christian Smith, Stacey Pullen and Paco Osuna all the way from Ibiza to Berlin. Calling himself a techno producer more than EDM, he reminisces, “The sound was different in the 90s and the scene was niche back then.” When asked about the popularity of dance music that is slowly pushing out other forms of live music acts, he says, “EDM is the pop music of this generation. But it’s just a phase much like rock and hip hop were sometime ago. It will die soon and something else will come up. It’s all a circle.”

Having played around the world, South Africa is one place on his must-visit list. “I have heard that the scene is really good there and hopefully, I will perform there next year. Of all the places I have played at, Spain is an amazing one. It has a super intelligent crowd and it’s a pleasure playing there.”

Apart from touring across the country and the world, Arjun is working on some new music too.

Later this year, he will release an EP on Octopus Recordings. He also runs a global record label, MakTub Music, where he discovers fresh talent. “India has got amazing talent and we need to showcase it. Why should we simply get international artistes to perform,” he signs off.