Kochi based indie-rock/folk band, When Chai Met Toast has released their first single “Maybe I Can Fly” off of their upcoming debut album “When We Feel Young”. The band which was formed in 2016 and was quick to garner mass followers. When the band initially started touring, they had put out a string of songs which became crowd favorites which was followed by a four track EP in 2018, which also received a lot of acclaim and love from the critics and fans alike. Since then they have taken the entire industry by storm and have been one of the most successful bands out there due to their music being emotionally-rich and dance-able.
“Maybe I Can Fly” is an up-tempo song where we see an expansion of the sound WCMT is known for. Right at the beginning, in the intro, you can hear a sweet and crisp electric guitar riff which immediately throws one off their feet and makes you want to break into a jive. The use of electric guitar is not something we are familiar with in WCMT songs and the striking guitar riff happens to be one of the defining features of the song. The use of vocal harmonies throughout the song serves as another definitive feature as it adds to the feel and a sense of tranquility to the song. Talking about whether the new elements added in the song were pre-decided, the band says “Never pre-decided. In that regard we consciously keep ourselves genre agnostic and treat each song as it comes by. The only place where we consciously take a call on what to put out is when there are like 15-16 tunes made and then have to decide which makes the cut.” The added brass section towards the end, makes the song sound pompous and brings about a sense of grandeur towards the closure.
On being asked what was the most exiting part of working on the new song the band says “We as a band are in a lot of ways influenced by what we listen to. The origin of the melody and then its progress into the sound it has become was really exciting and midway we were pretty sure that this should be where we begin to showcase the album.”
The song sounds wholesome. It sounds fresh and new yet it retains the ‘happy go lucky’ vibe of that band that they are known for.
Finally we asked the band how the pandemic changed the plans or goals with respect to their upcoming debut album and this is what they said “While of course the pandemic stalled shoots and release plans by a bit, we had started working on the album long before and had a basic strategy in place much earlier. Only thing that’s really changed is how we shoot videos – so there has been a bit of overhauling there.”
