Bangla-Sylheti-Assamese folk-synth duo from Kolkata Dindūn just released their new EP, Dindun: Vol. 3, on 25th August. The EP consists of 4 new songs where the duo consisting of Sourjyo Sinha and Rohit Ganesh have collaborated with prominent musicians like Gaurab Chatterjee and Rivu. Dindun: Vol. 3 is the third EP in this series. The second album Dindun: Vol.2 was released in 2022, for which the duo had also bagged the prestigious Toto Awards 2023, which is presented to the most promising independent music act of India.
Sinusoidal Music caught up with the duo to discuss their newest release and what they have in store for their fans next.
Two days back, the duo released the official music video for Chorai, the first track in the EP
With different visuals of birds, which look like paintings, colorful and black and white, they mention the “chorai” bird, which is a sparrow. The track uses industrial and post-rock elements to capture the essence of roughness and chaos that our cities have transformed into. Whereas “Tungsten”, the second track on the EP talks of very random but specific memories from childhood like tungsten bulbs, from which comes the name. “Cotton Green” is named after a station in Mumbai and is heavily inspired by AR Rahman’s works carrying the Bombay spirit. The last song on the EP “Aao Gia”, meaning farewell in English is the band’s way of making peace with the current state of affairs as they return to their dreamy peaceful roots.
Also check out: Listen: Underground Authority Reflects on New Track ‘Bhoole Na’
What the duo started working on in their bedroom studio, has evolved into a carefully crafted work of art. Their celebrated compositions have reached audiences far beyond Kolkata, where they saw their humble beginnings.
Sinusoidal Music spoke about the band’s influences, their songwriting and production process, the ‘Toto’ experience and future plans
In conversation with Rohit Ganesh and Sourjyo Sinha of Dindūn
1. Tell us about the name “Dindūn”, we don’t come across the word usually. What does it mean and why did you name the duo “Dindūn”?
Sourjyo Sinha: Dindūn is what I would call my grandmother. It has a nice bell-like quality to it, and our music does have a ton of bell-like instruments. So the sing-songy nature of it fit.
2. Dindūn uses Sylheti, Bengali, and Assamese languages and is inspired by folk as well as Indian film music and other artists like Sufjan. So are both of you into all these kinds of music? Tell us about your personal musical backgrounds and how that comes together and help construct this unique soundscape.
Sourjyo: Dindūn is a way for us to explore the music we love listening to and grew up listening to. The best thing about collaborating with Rohit is that he understands the musical references I have, which could be some terrible obscure bollywood song from the early ’00s that I might like some particular element of, or a regional meme song that we can agree to consider getting inspired by at a later point. I realise I’m only citing bad examples here (and there are a ton of good examples that we draw inspiration from), but it’s kind of a unique collaboration in that sense.
Rohit Ganesh: Both me and Sourjyo have similar tastes in music. And it ranges from the hindi or bengali songs we grew up with, to artists like Sufjan Stevens, Tame Impala, etc. What I find most fulfilling about working on the Dindūn songs is we get to explore ideas from any and all of our musical influences and present them in a dreamy synth-folk soundscape which is true to Dindūn.
Rooted in a philosophy of sincerity and simplicity, Dindūn crafts songs that resonate with genuine emotion and authenticity
Drawing inspiration from the rich tapestry of folk melodies that coloured their upbringing, as well as from the diverse sounds of Indian film music, Dindūn’s sonic palette is further enriched by the eclectic stylings of artists such as Devendra Banhart and Sufjan Stevens.
3. Tell us about your songwriting process. How do you come up with the songs, is there a usual process to it? Sourjyo writes the lyrics usually I’m guessing, and what about the music?
Sourjyo: Usually, I bring the song as a whole in skeleton form. And then we proceed to send each other drafts till we reach the final stage. Rohit is a master in figuring out the gaps in the composition. For Vol.3, we tried out a different approach: Rohit brought two songs, and I brought two. And we filled the gaps in each other’s songs. So this album is, by far, our most collaborative effort yet.
4. Vol 3 has 4 tracks and all of them are in Sylheti if I’m not wrong, very different from each other. Like the groovy beats of Tungsten or the mellow acoustic guitar in Aao Gia. Cotton green has this dreamy start which evolves into sort of a big soundscape, an outcry. Even though I don’t understand Sylheti, the sound itself makes an impact on me. How do you guys personally think the project has evolved and what makes this volume different from the previous records?
Sourjyo: With this one, we’re exploring our musical boundaries. This has the two heaviest tracks we’ve ever made. Chorai especially is complete chaos by the end and we love it. We wanted to see if we can still have our dreamy essence in songs that are blatantly industrial and heavy, and I feel like we managed to do it.
Rohit: Vol 3 is the most collaborative that me and Sourjyo have been in the music making side of things. Till now we have made sweet sounding songs for the previous 2 EPs, but this time we decided to explore heavier and darker soundscapes. The best examples being Chorai and Cotton Green in my mind. Chorai is indeed the heaviest song that we have made.
5. For the geeks, tell us how the songs mature in the production stage. Talk to us about microphones and recording techniques, the VSTs you love and your go-to reverbs for that iconic dream-pop tonality.
Rohit: Honestly speaking Dindūn is not really a gear heavy project in terms of audio recording or production. Or during the mixing mastering stage. We were recording vocals and instruments with phone mics and ipad mics for Vol 1. We upgraded to a proper dynamic microphone for Vol 2. But since I stay in Mumbai, we had to do the recordings long distance where I sent written directions to Sourjyo and our friend in Kolkata, Deep Phoenix helped Sourjyo set things up and record.
This time around for Vol 3 we had planned everything out and I got to record most of the EP myself together with Sourjyo. Thanks to Adrija, our manager. My approach for Dindūn as a mixing engineer is very minimal. To keep things as raw as possible. I focus on getting the basics right and not do a lot of effects processing because that gives the dreamy synths their required space in the song. For mastering as well I do not like to stress a lot about making any song as loud as possible throughout. My focus is mainly on making sure there is lots of dynamic range for all the masters, all the different songs in the EP have similar integrated loudness readings and that nothing sounds too overcompressed or overprocessed.
Around 2 months back in early July the band took to social media to announce a crowdfunding campaign for the EP
The campaign proved to be a success with the duo being able to raise 88% of their target ahead of the release. The funds raised are being used to cover production costs, collaboration fee, and administrative costs that have gone into producing the EP and all related costs such as music video production, live recordings and marketing.
6. How has the crowdfunding experience been with Dindūn Vol. 3?
Sourjyo: Crowdfunding has been eye-opening. We have received contributions from some 30-40 odd listeners. To have such a dedicated listener base that actively supports your endeavours is huge, and we are truly grateful for it.
Rohit: We decided to crowdfund the EP this time to truly be able to express ourselves as we want to, and pay all our collaborators as fairly as we can. And it’s been eye-opening to see the love we still get from our listeners after being inactive for 2 years now. We are really close to fulfilling our crowdfund targets and we can’t be happier about it.
7. Tell us how Dindun evolved after Toto Music Awards? Dindūn now has a manager unlike before, if I’m not wrong? Also Sourish joined as visual manager, how long has that been? Tell us how you all met and how’s it been working this far.
Sourjyo: After winning the Toto Award for Music, we realised together that our sweet little bedroom project might be more legitimate than we thought. And with that came the realisation that we need to do things right. Managing a band is an extremely taxing job, and especially in the indie scene where you barely get to see any money. We planned our entire year in January with a small team in place, that includes our Manager Adrijaa M. Majumder, our dedicated visual artist Sourish Mustafi, and our visual director for photography Adrija Samal. This entire process has made us realise just how much work goes into an album cycle when you truly want to do it without compromise.
Rohit Ganesh: The Toto experience was very important for us to realize that it is more than just us 2 that enjoy our music as much as we do. When Sourjyo and I started out we had no intentions to make this into a live project or one that goes on tours. Toto made us realize that Dindūn has way more reach than we expected and gave us the confidence to invest more time, money and energy into the project.
8. What are the plans for the project next? Will we get to see more volumes of Dindūn? And what about touring, any tours lined up in future where fans in different cities may witness the outfit in a live environment?
Sourjyo: We are definitely looking at more volumes very soon. Hopefully the turnaround would also be quicker next time. And maybe we will also be collaborating with a few artists we love. We are also embarking on our first proper tour in September, October and November.
What’s new in Dindūn: Vol.3?
What distinguishes their new EP is the use of urban themes both sonically and lyrically. To be specific, the EP seeks to explore the evolving urban landscapes of Silchar and Kolkata through Sourjyo and Rohit’s perspective. The sound is a blend of industrial and rock elements along with their folk origins.
“We decided to make Dindūn more ambitious in terms of sound… What I’m most excited about for the fans to find out with this EP is that their expectations of us as a very dreamy, lovely band would go out of the window with the first song itself. It’s heavy, it’s dirty, while still keeping our essence,” says singer-songwriter Sourjyo Sinha.
The new EP is now available on all major online streaming platforms.
Dindūn: Vol.3 Tracklist:
1. Chorai (ft. Gaurab Chatterjee on drums, Rivu on bass)
2. Tungsten (ft. Prarthana Sen on vocals, Rivu on bass)
3. Cotton Green
4. Aao Gia (ft. Adrijaa Majumder on lead vocals and Vishruti Bindal on backing vocals)
Read More > Taara Bazaar: Kolkata’s Multilingual Band Paridhi’s Debut Album Redefines Bengali Pop
