In Conversation With The Yellow Diary
Written on November 27th, 2019 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}The Yellow Diary is a Mumbai-based indie musical group rapidly growing into the Indian music circuit. The band, consisting of five members, has been taking the country by storm through their powerful lyrics, evocative music videos, and emotive music. The Yellow Diary performed at BITS Hyderabad on the 19th October, during ATMOS 2019. After their scintillating performance, we at Journal Club caught up with them to find out more about their story.
Q. You’ve often spoken about how each of your songs is linked to an experience. What story is “Marz” linked to?
”Marz”
wasn’t linked to a particular story; its source was a conversation
that I once had with a friend about the story of how he met a girl
he’s dating right now. Many of us don't believe in love and
"feelings". This guy would always deny the fact that his
feelings existed. He was always in denial until the girl asked him
out one day and he realized that, "Oh shit. This is real."
The
idea of the song struck me when I thought about what would’ve
happened if that girl hadn’t asked him out. He might, or might not
have figured out he was in love later. I wondered if he would’ve
found anybody else, or ever understood what love was.
Q. The idea for the music video is incredibly bold- not something one expects when they listen to the audio first. How did you come up with that stark contrast in the concept?
The
video was conceptualized by our amazing director. Marz, like most of
our songs, has very layered lyrics, and at its core, is about a
dilemma between the heart and the mind. We wanted to talk about a
different side of the song and focus on the dilemma from a different
perspective. That's what you see in the video; the girl's dilemma
over whether she should save the people or not. It was our director's
concept and it came out beautifully.
Q. How did you come to collaborate with Sony Music and how did that change your life as a band?
The
beauty of today's day is that the Internet allows our music to be
available to everyone at the click of a button. That's exactly what
happened with Sony: they found out about us through our music. They
came across Marz, Bhawri Chori, and Sada and realized that there was
a lot of potential in the band. Marz was actually the song that made
things happen for us.
A
great thing about having Sony Music India as a partner is that, even
though they're in a mainstream landscape, they're willing to back an
indie band and push their sound out to the masses. They're also super
artist-friendly. Everything we have is a collaborative effort based
around a discussion. People usually have some prejudice built up
around artists vs labels, but the reality is that it is a very
peaceful collaboration.
Today,
people were singing along with us. Had it not been for the exposure
Sony has managed to get for us, that would not have been possible.
Sony has been the best partner we could have.
Vaibhav Pani is the guitarist and co-composer for the Mumbai-based band. His journey to the band involved a huge leap career-wise, going from an IT consultant to a musician.
Q. (To Vaibhav) You had a stark change from your previous job to what you do right now. How did you make the switch work?
It’s
interesting, because when I was working as a consultant I knew that
when the time was right, I would make that leap of faith as a
musician. I guess the moment was right, and more importantly, the
people were right. Our music is a by-product of our friendship and
our instant chemistry meant that there was no other choice left for
us. Honestly, I haven’t regretted one moment since then. When the
time is right, you just know to make that jump.
Q. In our college, several people are trying to progress in different non-academic fields apart from their domain, like music or writing. What advice would you give those people pursuing their passion as offbeat career choices?
The
best thing you can do is to just continue doing it and to try and
strike a balance between what you are in for and what your passion
is. But primarily, just have fun with it. If you stop having fun with
your passion, then the passion is going to die out on its own.
Moreover,
I think patience is one of the most important things you need to
have, especially with an offbeat career. People tend to look up to
people who have already achieved a certain amount of success and when
they don’t get that in their first few years of trying, it’s very
frustrating. Everyone goes through a different journey to get to
where they reach. Living through that journey only makes the success
a lot more enjoyable. Weighing it out, having faith in oneself,
pushing through, coming out and talking is very important.
I
think there is one more thing that’s crucial and that’s to stay
aware of what’s happening around you. Besides knowing what your
passion is and working towards it, you should also know what you
deserve and where you’re at. In our minds, we dream of immense
success, but it is equally important to know how much of it we can
grasp and hold on to.
Q. At some point, you'll have to take that leap of faith to plunge yourself into your passion. How would you know when it is the right time?
There is always a right time. The thing is that all of us have really supportive parents and that's been really helpful. Pani's parents are from the film industry and his sisters are actors too. He lives in a family of freelancers, so they were very understanding. In fact, he was the odd one out doing engineering. I was always that one kid who was doing his own thing but after a point, when you show growth and commitment towards your work, things fall into place. That cliche they say that if you make your passion your profession, you will never work a day in your life holds very true for us.
Article by Sanket Bhatt and Shreya Guda. Edited by Shuddhabho Nandi and Vamsi Nallapareddy. Thanks to Department of Photography, BITS Hyderabad for the images used in the video and thanks to Department of Professional Events, BITS Hyderabad for making this interview possible. Music owned by respective copyright holders. Visit The Yellow Diary's Instagram page here.