An entrenched figure in the live music space in India for nearly two decades now, few knew what Sohail Arora would be up to when he started curating gigs at the erstwhile Bandra (and later Lower Parel) venue Zenzi, and later at mainstay location Blue Frog in Mumbai.
He was part of nu-metal band Skincold at one point – known for a sound informed by American act Deftones – and later co-founded electronic group Bay Beat Collective. From the days that Bay Beat Collective began playing Indian and global club circuits and festivals, Sohail was more set on the path of dance music, although his agency Krunk would see various artists managed and booked across the country.
Among the more recent excursions with Krunk was the launch of a label, called Krunk Kulture in the peak pandemic times of mid-2020.
Sohail says he barely listens to dance music at home, though.
“I guess I listen to a lot of music in general from jazz to rock to different styles of electronic music,” the producer says, in the context of the genres that inspired his recent EP New Shifts under the moniker Rafiki.
“Besides this, as a curator from Zenzi/Blue Frog days and a passionate music digger as a DJ over the years, I have definitely been lucky to appreciate many diff styles from the start. This also helps me write music in a unique way as I bring a lot of my varied influences into it,” he adds.
It might be reasoned that what kept Sohail focused on dance music over other styles is he sees a strong emotional connect, even if it’s tunes for dancefloors at the end of the day.
Rafiki’s New Shifts EP was made over the last six months, a result of a “transformative time” in Arora’s life. “Writing music in such a time is almost like therapy and I feel challenging times motivate me to write better music,” he says.
There’s an unmistakable move towards melancholy on ‘Losing You’, a track with which Sohail expresses the feeling of a difficult heartbreak. On ‘5AM Dub’, Rafiki conjures seemingly African rhythms and then offers up slinky synths for what he describes as a night owl’s jam. “I have done some of my influential work at night when the whole world sleeps,” the producer says.
There’s more charged-up energy on ‘Walk the Talk’, which Arora says draws from “setting yourself new goals in life and actually working hard on achieving them”. It arrives at the end of the six-track EP (released via Krunk Kulture on 9th August), driving home a theme of resurgence and positive changes, according to the producer. “Evolution is key and should be a constant in one’s life. I tried to portray a lot of these feelings through my music,” he adds.
Rafiki – compared to his alter-ego EZ Riser – is more doused in house, acid, breaks, and even techno. We hear a diverse influence pop up on ‘Nu Funk’, which includes a morchung running throughout. “The idea was to use an Indian morchung sound to give it an acid-Indian touch. While the music feels modern, it tries to bring in heavy tribal and acid influences on a bed of strong grooves,” the producer says.
Sohail credits the likes of Goa-based producer-drummer Aditya Ashok aka OX7GEN as a source of help in terms of music-making, mixing and “general hacks and tricks that have been super helpful” to the DJ-producer’s processes. Krishna Jhaveri (who was once bandmates with OX7GEN in prog band Skyharbor and now regularly works with producers like Sandunes), worked on the mastering, a first-time association for Sohail.
All in all, it’s an evolved sound on New Shifts as Rafiki shows us, and Sohail says he’s drastically evolved over the 18-odd years of being a DJ.
“I am naturally very quick when it comes down to arranging an idea and a track. Since I have been DJing for 18+ years, it has helped me write dance music comfortably […] I write most of my music and ideas on the road or on tour using headphones and sometimes at home in my make-do studio and then move to mix and clean up on my equator monitors,” he explains.
He’s building on experience, just like he does with the tours he’s planned over the years for himself, as well as other artists – whether they’re Indians heading to Europe or international DJ-producers making their way to India.
For himself, Sohail is on a multi-country Europe tour from July to August 2023, performing in the UK, Portugal, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, and Norway. At the time of our interview, the Rafiki EU tour was halfway done, with a few shows out of the way.
“Overall it has been a very inspiring time for me personally connecting with incredible crews, musicians, DJs, producers from across the globe, watching and reconnecting with old friends, watching some of my idols play music, and exploring club and festival culture in places which have had dance music culture for many decades,” Sohail says.
In his downtime between shows, he said he’s explored nature, food and new places in general.
On the business and booking side of things, Sohail says he’s been working with global markets – particularly Europe – since 2009 when Krunk had just started up. It’s not easy to book a tour for an Indian artist in international markets, and Sohail says very few Indian acts have that “unique yet global sound” in dance music that can take them places in a competitive scene.
“It’s particularly harder I feel being an Indian artist to go and tour on your own expense to push your brand, and it is hardly sustainable […] I think the best way for me, for now, is to play less but good shows and focus on releasing music regularly,” he offers.
It shows in the way Rafiki’s own EU tour has been booked, with Sohail holding a soft spot for UK venues and a venue called The Villa in Oslo.
“This will be my second time playing there [on 19th August, with fellow Indian DJ-producer Dreamstates]. The Norwegian disco scene has had a big impact on me musically over the years.”
Closer home, there’s an India, Nepal and Asia tour in the works to promote New Shifts in September all the way up to January 2024.
“I have also been working on an album for a couple of years and I am very, very excited about it. I am collaborating with some incredible musicians on the album which comes out early next year,” he adds.
