Exclusive Rainforest World Music Festival 2011 interview: Kissmet of United Kingdom

Just barely a week after the Rainforest World Music Festival 2011, the heat and aura of the festival still lingers amongst the festival goers as well as the performers. How well did the event go? As the saying goes, “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” But as for me, it was a five star event that none of you out there should miss the event next year. Here I have, an exclusive interview with one of the favourite groups from the festival, Kissmet from UK, giving some info and background about their band and let us check it out what they have to say about RWMF 2011!

        

Hello and aloha! It's great to hear from Kissmet again after the recent Rainforest World Music Festival 2011, and crowds loved you for rocking and crumbling the stage down! How and when did you guys founded Kissmet?
Buzz and I used to be musicians in a Bhangra band where we only sang backing vocals (Hoi, HOi, HOI!!!). But, we always knew we could play Indian music but sing in English as well so we decided to do our own thing with Kissmet. We wrote our first album, "Destiny" and everyone liked it so much that they encouraged us to get a band together and to play the material live. So we got together with a few friends in our home town and had a jam session. After that first session, we knew we were able to create a lot of power and positive energy and just then, Bhangra Rock Fusion was born. That was a few years ago but, from those first steps, we're still on our journey.

Why Kissmet? What does it mean?
Kismet means Destiny or Fate, and we added another S in there to create something new, something not quite Indian, not quite English, but still very passionate, positive and powerful.

I find it rather interesting, a mixture of Bhangra and modern music. What were your inspiration?
Some of the bhangra songs we perform are taken from the fields of India, written many years ago and these work so well with the rock we grew up with. Led Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix mixed with A S Kang, Gurdas Maan. Who'd have thought it, and yet it's pure energy when it all comes together.

 

I thought initially, Kissmet is going to be members of Punjabi musicians, but there I saw Alex, Lloyd and Lucas, three young English chaps in Kissmet. Truly awesome combination! What were some of your memorable stories when you first started?
The makeup of the band reflects the different styles at play. Max, Buzz and I are brothers and we bring our Eastern influence. Alex, Lloyd and Lucas bring their western influence and together, we make it work because we all say we're not 3 brothers, we are 6 brothers, we just come from different families. We eat together, laugh together and share together and it really is like a little family.

   

It was just a week after the Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia. Many festival-goers still talked about how Kissmet rocked the crowd for the final concert night. Can you share with us, your perspective of the festival and what were your best experience?
The festival just shone with a lovely glow. Everyone was smiling, the people were happy and everyone was so enthusiastic. Everyone wanted to be involved, to make a difference, to learn and to help make the whole thing a very special event for everyone involved. The more you put in, the more you get out. We're not talking about putting money in, we're talking about putting effort in, passion in, life in. When that happens, the benefits are for all to see and we found the people at the festival were the ones who really made it. The musicians, performers and bands were just the ones directing the energies but without the vibrancy and generosity of heart from the audience, the festival would have been nothing. What I take away with me the most was how the audience made me feel. We always say, the name of our last album isn't a song title, or just the name of the album, we say it's a way of life for us. Trippin' The Life Fantastic is exactly what we did in the rainforest, and we hope a lot of people tripped with us.

You do have a few albums out, do you? Any future plans for the mean time?
We have lots of plans for new material. We already have the next album planned out and after that, we'll be doing an acoustic, unplugged album as that will allow us to explore a whole different side to our music. It'll still be east/west but it'll be more chilled, mellow and calm. We're also working on an album of Shabads, Sikh prayers taken from the holy book of the Sikhs, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. It's not like anything else we've heard before but really, all our music is a bit like that.

Thanks for sharing, Ron! Last but not least, what do you want to say to your fans out there, especially those from Sarawak, Malaysia?
We would really like to thank the beautiful people of Malaysia for taking us into their hearts and accepting us so enthusiastically. We were honoured to be asked to attend the festival and represent the UK and India and were extremely flattered and humbled by the reception we received. Please relay our thanks to all to saw, supported and liked what we did. We'd love to come back to Malaysia so if anyone knows someone who knows someone, can their people talk to our people (me) and sort it out please! @;o)

 

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