Image credit: Steve Peter
My Alternative Pop, better known as MAP, is an alternative pop outfit from New Delhi. Their music, as front-woman Manta Sidhu describes, is "a joyride through a seamless confluence of floating melodies and inspired lyricism." Since the group’s inception in 2011, they have taken the indie music scene in India by storm and released their debut album 'Rear View' in July 2013. The band recently put out their new single titled Figure It Out and a peppy five-minute video to go with it. We catch up with singer/songwriter and front-woman Manta Sidhu who tells us more about the song, shooting the video and what you could expect from the outfit this year.
1. You just released your new single Figure It Out. What inspired you to pen it down?
Figure it Out is a story about a man who takes short-cuts in life, to get to anything. Be it time management, handling relationships or even following traffic rules – he is certain that he’s the smart a** to beat. All of us meet such people every day, don’t we? On the by-lanes, at the office or at the bank. The city is teeming of this intellectual breed and it had been poking my cheekbone for a while. Plus, we thought this was a fun character to write about!
2. Any reason why you wanted to release the video, or thought visual content would be ideal for a song like this?
The group had not made a music video so far, so we thought it was high time we did. Initially, it was not certain which song, among our bunch of singles, would get an accompanying video. But when Figure It Out wrapped up, we knew we had something fun in our hands that could be given an interesting visual representation.
3. Challenges you faced during the shoot. Fun and not so fun things you might remember from the sessions?
Getting our drummer, Reuben, to put on a blue bow was the mother of all challenge. He wondered why just the blue suit wasn’t enough. Plus, getting the scooter up a narrow stairway, which turned at three places was a tough nut to crack. It might not have been the funniest, although I had no role to play in it (laughs). The boys had foundation dripping down their foreheads and probably some mascara too! Nonetheless, there was never a dull moment. We were all excited out of our minds (smiles).
4. The video reminds us of Bollywood movies in the 60s and 70s. How did you come up with the visuals? Can you talk a little about the theme, please? Any challenges there?
Wow, it never struck us that this had a retro Bollywood appeal. It wasn’t planned with that in mind. When I started writing the story and the concept for the video, I was thinking about lot of colours, distinct characters, good use of simple props and a lot of motion. I tried to stick these ideas together to try and recreate the story on a visual platform. If you pay attention to the lyrics of the song, you would notice that the story is narrated visually too, through the characters played by the band.
I was certain that our biggest challenge would be to have all band members get into character and perform a type of mini skit. I think we under estimated ourselves. We went all out, had fun doing what was asked of us; and did okay in the acting department, I believe!
5. How much time did it take to finish Figure It Out – right from writing, recording and shooting the video?
The song had been with the band for a while before we decided to take it to the studio. We were writing new songs and wanted to track Figure It Out along with the newer material. And then the plans of going ahead with a music video for the band also took some time to shape up. You know how it is... planning the funds etc, right? So I think it’s fair to say that executing a project doesn’t always happen over a few weeks.
6. Has the invent of gadgets like DSLRs and editing consoles made it easier of indie artistes to release visual content?
For independent film makers, I would certainly assume, yes. They can always get something going within whatever budget they have. It might not be the best in production quality; but with creativity, one can do so much with so little. Speaking for us independent musicians, I’d say we need more such creative, independent film makers – so we have a huge pool of talent to choose from, in line with our own respective budgets. It’s a win-win situation for both sides.
7. Future plans?
We have another single coming, which should be out by February end, and another on in March, hopefully. We do plan to make another music video soon. You will get to hear a lot of new music from MAP this year, for sure.
Song: Figure It Out
Artiste: MAP (My Alternative Pop)
Music: MAP
Lyrics: Manta Sidhu
Recorded & Produced by: MAP
Mixed by: Jishnu Banerjee
Mastered by: Tyrone Fernandes
Video Concept & Screenplay: Manta Sidhu
Video Shot, Directed & Edited by: Steve Peter
MAP is:
Manta Sidhu: Vocals
Jishnu Banerjee: Guitar
Shivam Khare: Keyboards
Reuben Narain: Drums
Rahul Rai: Bass
Follow the band here.
Buy Figure It Out here.
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