When Chai Met Toast’s new minute-long song has hints hidden in it as to what the band is up to next ‘Lovin’ U’ is that cute little song you can’t really get enough of! And for very good reasons.
When Chai Met Toast’s new minute-long song has hints hidden in it as to what the band is up to next
When Chai Met Toast’s music has always been about love, hope and positivity. This time, the folk-pop band has come up with a peppy, minute-long Instagram song, titled ‘Lovin’ U’.
‘Lovin’ U’ is part of a larger campaign by Instagram to promote one-minute songs, says Achyuth Jaigopal, who plays the guitar for the band. “ They are helping artists release music through Instagram. A lot of artistes are doing the same and we were part of the campaign,” he says. This in turn expands the IG music library.
Founded in 2016, the band also consists of Ashwin Gopakumar on vocals; Palee Francis on keys and Pai Sailesh on drums. Their debut album Joy of Little Things was released in 2017. Their songs are multilingual in nature with over 4.9 lakh listeners on Spotify, 3.45 lakh subscribers on YouTube and 1.02 lakh followers on Instagram.
Cover image of the 1 min song – Lovin’ U
Breaking off from their normal style, ‘Lovin’ U’ features all the band members as part of the video’s imagery. And clearly, the song and its mood have caught on with the listeners. Since its launch on October 15, the song has 150K+ views on Instagram.
“Apart from the home jam sessions and Nature Tapes series, we have not represented ourselves or our faces in any other song’s imagery. We got this one chance and we thought of having some fun. Apparently, all four of us are cute. I think we might be in more videos now,” says an amused Ashwin.
The band says that this was a new experience for them. “Our songs are usually three to four minutes long. This was all about getting across a simple message in a very short duration. The message is that of unconditional love, in a time when people tend to forget values like trust and being there for one another through thick and thin. It’s a reminder to tell someone you love how much you care,” says Achyuth.
“We love telling stories through our songs and the fact that we had to tell the story in a minute was challenging. Also, the fact that people should like it in a minute’s time was something we had to keep in our head while making this. But it just came through. It was very organic,” says Ashwin.
The idea was in our song bank for a few months, says Achyuth, adding, “We had a rough idea which we developed into a full song in the studio.”
According to the band, the song is laden with ‘Easter Eggs’ — there are hints hidden for the fans for what’s to come next. An EP with four songs is in the offing.
“It’s all about love,” says Ashwin. “What ‘Lovin’ U’ actually means will get conveyed through the rest of the four songs that will come out. The EP isn’t connected to the social media campaign. We only conveyed a short message through the song. But the rest of the four songs will convey exactly what ‘Lovin’ U’ means,” says Ashwin.
The EP will be released later this year. It was recorded in the UK last month with a producer based there.
According to the band that began its journey from Kerala, streaming platforms as well as social media has helped give a fillip to artists. “The kind of music we create changes depending on the emotions that we are going through,” says Ashwin.
“Though we write about similar topics like love, hope, positivity, and belief it has been put across sonically in different formats through the years,” says Achyuth.
Ashwin says that the biggest dream is to connect with every single person in the world through their music. “The fact that we get to play our original songs and tell the stories we like to, is what brings joy. It’s always exciting to release more music. We just want everybody to be happy,” he says
