The MEET BROS are all set to expand the limits of indie music, says MUSKAAN SHARMA
Some musical duos have lasted the troughs of ego tussles and the need for individual freedom to keep appearing as a brand. Others have split along the way, giving into the industry’s competitive pressures. From Shankar-Jaikishan to Vishal-Shekhar, we have been attuned to their consistency and surprises. Then there are the Meet brothers, low-key yet steadfast, who know how to plot their lastability. Churning out film hits one after the other, they are now working on an indie album.
Starting out as actors in popular daily soaps almost a decade ago, Harmeet and Manmeet Singh are not limited in their talent. This duo from Gwalior is today one of the most talked about music directors and composers in the film industry. Working together for almost 15 years, they are immune to clashes. Reassuringly, Manmeet says that they have never had a problem. “We are like a compatible husband and wife in our workspace. When anyone talks about a successful marriage, the credit goes to both the halves. The same goes for us. We don’t divide our tasks. We do it together with each other’s help. Our synergy is our strength. We are equally creative. We never shun each other’s opinions and criticisms. At the end of the day, a song is a collaborative product.”
Adds Harmeet, “Honesty is the key in any relationship and is vital in this one too. There’s no place for bias.
The brothers work with a beehive mind. “We are like twins. We don’t calculate and categorise the music we produce when we work together. If inspiration comes for a song, we’ll put our heart and soul into it and not limit ourselves to the particularities of genre and technique. Music is a feeling. We let it flow through us. We enjoy creating music so much we are here to enjoy this journey. We have no rigid destination in mind,” says Harmeet.
Having witnessed the ever-growing music industry for over a decade and a half, the duo feels that change is inevitable but not quite drastic. “I don’t think anything has changed in its entirety. There is still an audience for old Bollywood songs and they prefer those songs over everything else. There are radio channels still playing songs by Nadeem-Shravan and there are listeners for that even after all these years”, says Manmeet.
Harmeet agrees. “No music is outdated today. Everything has an audience. The change has been in the lyrics. Today we hear songs with both English and Hindi words fused together. But the melodies and ragas are still the same. The only change is that the audience for music has expanded.”
They acknowledge the need to identify a suitable audience for one’s music or widen the scope of it by continuing to experiment so that it caters to numbers. “It’s crucial to stand out with the kind of music you produce but it has to stick with the listeners,” they say.
Elaborating further, Manmeet remarks, “The scope of music today is so huge that you don’t have to compete with anyone because there is so much not done yet. There is an undiscovered audience for the music you create. This is why we never felt the need to compete because we are always doing something new and the audience has responded positively to it.”
Their creative ambidexterity has successfully led them produce hits swivelling from biographical films like Paan Singh Tomar to the horror-erotica Ragini MMS 2. They owe this success to their schooling. “In school, we participated in a myriad activities like drama, acting, horse-riding and debates. In the hostel, we lived with a 1,000 kids who were from different corners of the country and the world. That diverse crowd gave us an eclectic vibe.”
As diverse as they are, when asked about their favourite kind of music to work on, they chorus, “This answer might surprise our fans but when we would like to be remembered for our romantic numbers.We have this image of being party guys but our soul is dedicated to pure melody.”
The brothers are planning to go back to their roots. “We want to re-focus on independent music and bring out singles like the old days. We want to produce videos for such music and have concerts.We believe we are stronger performers than musicians. We are energised and love to see the same energy flow through our audience as they listen to our music,” says Harmeet.
Hopeful for a wider reach in times of a digital revolution, they are thinking out-of-the-box. “Our country deserves top-of-the-line music which we don’t believe is being delivered. We do shows around the world. We’ve performed in different places so we know what works for the audience of a certain place. We know both global and local rhythms.”