This interview with Siddhartha Khosla first appeared in the third and last issue of the PDF version of dfuse.in It was originally published in 2010 and has been maintained in its raw state ever since.
Aniket: I love the song Friday.How did the hindi version (of Friday) happen?
Sid: Friday made a splash in the UK radio airplay charts, coming in at #20, and we decided that it might cool to do a Hindi version, as the melody lent itself to being sung in Hindi. A friend of a friend and tremendous poet,Arun Krishnan was kind enough to do a translation in Hindi, and after some lyrical fine-tuning from family in India, we recorded it. The Hindi version ended up at #4 in the BBC Asian Network Charts.
A: DJ Nic Harcourt has been instrumental in promoting you guys and has compared you to the likes of George Harrison…how does it feel?
Sid: Many have regarded Nic as the most influential DJ in America, so you might imagine how gratifying it was for him to embrace our music. He received a pre-released copy of our last album “Tally of the Yes Men” and immediately began spinning it on his Los Angeles radio station, KCRW. Since then he’s been a fan and supported our career. Nic’s initial play of “Rewind” started it all. Record labels followed suit, and next thing you know, we had a an album out in stores and in the charts.
A: How did you end up writing Friday?
Sid: Friday was a joke song, to be truthful. I wrote it 10 years ago, with jibberish lyrics about the urge to eat fast food on fridays. An early recording of it sat on my desktop for a year or two; I returned to it, realized that it actually had potential to be a good song and finally finished it (with much better lyrics!).
A: Tell us more about the new album “And the Elephant is dancing”
Sid: The new album “And The Elephant is Dancing” is the best work I’ve done to date. It’s an album about love – workong on it, letting it go, searching for it, not finding it, then having it come to you on its own. It’s the most honest work I’ve every done, and brings in SD Burman-esque string arrangements and some Western 1960’s sounds, giving it a retro 60’s old Indian film quality. The press has been overwhelmingly supportive of the new album – and I thank them for that! The album is now available online and through our website www.goldspot.net.
A: What is your opinion about releasing music online?
Sid: When 20% (or more) of the world’s population is online, it makes perfect sense.
A: How was it working with Jeff Peters.
Sid: An honour. He worked closely with the Beach Boys for 30 years, so you can imagine the kind of knowledge he brought from both an engineering and production perspective. He’s a gifted man, and it was real-lee an amazing experience working with him.
A: Gold Spot…what made you adopt the name?
Sid: It was my favourite drink as a kid. I lived in Delhi when I was really young and spent a lot of childhood summers there with my cousins. I always preferred it to Limca.
A: How did it feel touring India?
Sid: Incredible. Nothing like playing in the motherland!
A: Tally of the yes men… was pretty successful in India. How did the whole indianizing(in terms of music) of the act happen…
Sid: Somehow the music travelled from the UK to India, perhaps because of our silly youtube videos and our videos on Vh1. I’m glad that Indian audiences embraced the music.
A: Your songs have been used in numerous places in the media; how do you feel when you hear them.
Sid: Even though I know before-hand when a song airs, it’s always a surreal experience to hear your music on TV. That excitement never dies.
