The launch story of city-based indie boy band Twin Strings can be included in the passion-turned-profession category. Twin brothers Sagar (guitarist) and Sahil (keyboardist and lyricist) founded the band during their engineering days in 2017. The duo was later joined by Manav (vocalist and lyricist) and Mohit Deen (percussionist), who completed their quartet.
The band’s music is made up of a number of love ballads—their popular 2019 track, Dhalti Rahe; Doorie (2021), which is a heartfelt love song; and Baat Itni Si Hai (2022), with a recently released unplugged version. Twin Strings have collaborated with other artistes including Nupur Sanon, Pavitra Krishnan, and others.
In this edition of Soundscape, we speak to the musical quartet about their sound and influences, and more.
Take us through your journey… How did the four of you meet? Sagar: Our journey started back in college. Sahil is my twin brother and we would make music (and music videos) for fun. Soon, many friends started appreciating them. That is when Mohit—our cousin who used to often come to Delhi—joined our band, and we would make sure to post our music on YouTube. Later, others [they knew of wanted to join in. We thought, why not collaborate with more friends?
It was during this phase of collaboration when we met Manav; we did one of our first collaborations—the song was called Raabta. That is how our journey started, and now we are here. We are always together, travelling to multiple cities and countries [for gigs and concerts], and it is so much fun.
What inspired you to start creating original music along with covers? Manav: We always had a thing for creating original music. Even when we were performing covers, we were certain that we wanted to create our own music. It was only a matter of time before we wrote our own songs and released them.
Tell us about the band’s musical style and influences.Do you have a favourite musician? Sahil: Since we are four members, everybody has a very different taste in music, so it is a combination of everything. But we are really into experimenting when it comes to our music. We are inspired by Coldplay.
What was the inspiration behind your latest song Aise Ho Tum, which was released in January this year? Also, how does it differ from your previous work? Manav: It was actually written way back—it is one of the very first songs that we wrote. I think there is a very nice way to summarise this song with a couple of lines from the song itself: “Ek pal na laga khud ko khone main, ek pal na laga tere hone se.” It is about the feeling of losing yourself in love. So, that was the inspiration behind the song Aise Ho Tum. It is a soft song, almost like a lullaby. In fact, I think Aise Ho Tum is the softest song that we have made till date, and unintentionally. I think that’s how it differs [from other songs they’ve made]. Many listeners have said that the song brings a lot of peace to them.
The song Baat Itni Si Hai, which you released in 2022, was very well-received. Tell us about creating it. Mohit: Our music is the pure emotion of our feelings—that is why all our songs are different from others. Doorie (2021) is more mellow, while Baarish ka Asar (2020) has a happy, cute vibe. But somewhere, we feel our forte is acoustic music, and that is what each and every listener of ours connects to the most. So, we might stick to this genre for a while for most of our tracks. But, there are a few peppy numbers in the pipeline, and we look forward to exploring more genres in the future.
TRACK - BAAT ITNI SI HAI - Unplugged BAND - TWIN STRINGS
