Rishab Joshi showed the country that Lost Stories is killin’ it by grabbing a spot at the prestigious Global Citizen Festival India.
No music festival in India, till date, has had an impact as Global Citizen Festival has. Ofcourse it’s not rocket science to understand why. They were bringing one of the biggest bands in the world to our backyard for the very first time – Coldplay. And not just that, big names like Jay Z, Demi Lovato, The Vamps, A.R. Rahman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and several Bollywood celebrities were added to the roster. But Lost Stories also cemented their place in this star-studded line up and that’s saying a lot. After all, they took their place in DJ Mags Top 100 rankings this year, which doesn’t make them anything less than star performers themselves. We chatted up with Rishab just a day before he was about to take the stage at Global Citizen Festival India 2016.
The Sherp: Hey Rishab. So, Lost Stories has come a long way, right to this point where you will be sharing the stage with Coldplay and Jay Z. Did you ever imagine it?
Lost Stories: Not at all! In fact, I was one of those guys who signed up for the free tickets and I still get mails from them asking me to share links in order to win a ticket. But honestly, this came as a surprise for the whole team. Ayushman, my manager, arranged the whole thing and he broke the news casually over a drink one evening.
The Sherp: As you’re performing for the Global Citizen Festival, what does the festival’s mission mean to you?
Lost Stories: To be honest, I wasn’t too sure about the initiative before they announced they will be coming to India. But once that was announced, I started doing a little research and the kind of difference they make as a festival is huge. India, as a nation, needed something like this so people could come together and make a difference. So, for me, Global Citizen is one of those festivals that we should have every year to address the country’s issues. Celebrities and the public can come together and it was a big crowd. You cannot ignore such a voice.
The Sherp: So the Coldplay dream is getting fulfilled. But, if you had the choice to share the stage with any artist in the world, who would it be?
Lost Stories: Chemical Brothers or Daft Punk. But Chemical Brothers more. They are true performers when it comes to Electronic Dance Music. If you’ve seen their show called ‘Don’t Think’, you’ll see 80,000 Japanese people trippin out to the music, their brains reduced to just jelly. Plus, they’ve had more hits to their credit like ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’ and ‘Horse Power’. So we’ve grown up listening to Chemical Brothers, so it would be great to play with them one day.
The Sherp: Talking about festivals, what’s in store for Lost Stories for the season?
Lost Stories: I’m performing at all the big festivals in the country. I am going to play at Enchanted Valley Carnival, which is our home turf. Just last week I played at Electric Daisy Carnival. If things go well, I’ll be playing at Sunburn and Supersonic as well. We just signed up with a new agency in South-East Asia. They are the guys who handle EDX and Alok. So we have a lot of shows lined up in South East Asia as well.
The Sherp: Tell us about your last festival performance, in this case, the first Electric Daisy Carnival India.
Lost Stories: I always tell people that the first edition to any festival is always the best. There isn’t much of a crowd and only people who truly appreciate your music, your fans, they are the ones who make the effort to attend. It happened with Enchanted Valley Carnival too and the vibe was insane! At EDC, I had my close knit people around me. Also, all us performing artists got to attend each others sets. The programming was great. The artists were spot on. The production was out of this world, the best I think so far for any festival in India. During my set, I had a drop and immediately there was a big fire that came on, which was really cool. The Brew District, which was organised by Budweiser, was also really good. I just didn’t want to go home but I had another show the next day.
The Sherp: I’m sure the fans would love to know how Lost Stories prepares for their performances.
Lost Stories: Before every performance I think, “What would Skrillex do?” He always surprises the audience by probably bringing out a track which you’ve heard 10 years ago and just tease the audience with it, just a little bit, before bringing it back to their set. In fact, I want to combine stand-up comedy and dance music together. So I keep dropping funny shit in the middle of my set. I don’t want people to take my sets too seriously. I used to be a very serious musician. I would play trance music which is very serious. People would make heart symbols and cry at times. I’ve had that in my share. Now I want to do something which is more casual where people can come and just have a good time. So basically I try to make my set unpredicatable. So much so that I surprise myself as well. I do a little bit of homework but when it comes to playing, I go haywire.
The Sherp: Any big collaborations to look forward to?
Lost Stories: We just had a release on Friday, a remix of a track by these guys called ‘Cheat Codes’ who are from L.A. They made a track called ‘Turn Me On’ which is the same track as Kevin Little’s. It’s our first release with Spinnin’ Records and the song has a very different style. With this track, we’ve convinced listeners that we are not bound by one particular genre. We also have another remix coming out for One Republic, one that Ryan Tedder himself asked us to do because he loved the first remix we had done for him. Another track with Armaan Malik is due. There is a lot in the pipeline.
The Sherp: That’s all for now. Thank you so much for your time Rishab.
Lost Stories: Thank you.