I recently covered Indiginis and their dope official M Machine remix. After listening to that edit I was curious to learn more about the duo so reached out to them and sent over some interview questions. Below you can read our conversation + stream their NEW official remix for Adventure Club's record “Breathe”, enjoy!
Did you guys grow up in Tibet? If so, what was that like?
We were born in India and came to the U.S. when we were children. So even though we grew up in America, we've always embraced our Tibetan culture and beliefs. When we were younger, our DC Tibetan community only comprised of about 100 people. We were all very close and instinctively looked out for one another. This taught us the importance of a “tribe”.
Now, when we come across people (online or in person) who enjoy our music and reach out, we try our best to respond and keep the conversation going. This is our effort to recreate that sense of community and family, which we call the “#indiginistribe”.
Were there any musical influences in your family/ upbringing?
Our parents didn't have the same luxury to even consider exploring or pursuing music. Although they knew very little about music, they did everything they could to support our fascination (and borderline obsession). We took most of our early influences from our surroundings, but also from each other. We started off having very different journeys in music, but our paths eventually collided.
What got you guys into producing music?
We arrived at producing after trying many different forms of writing, playing and recording music. While one of us was writing piano nocturnes and etudes, the other was creating hip hop beats and selling them to local rappers to pay the bills. We made a little bit of everything (separately): classical, trip hop, trance, electro house, etc. The music we make as Indiginis is where we fully see eye to eye; it’s the perfect blend of our personalities, our strengths, and our influences.
What’s the music scene like currently in Washington D.C.?
DC's music scene is tight knit but ever growing. We have amazing venues ranging from small bars to arenas, so a lot of great artists come through. This provides local artists various opportunities and platforms to get their start. We've been lucky enough to have support from the community, having played fun, packed shows for artists that we really respect.
Who are some of your main musical influences?
In Electronic music: Justice, Lido, The M Machine, Tennyson, Fantastic Plastic Machine, FKJ.
In Hip-Hop/R&B music: Nas, Outkast, Dre, Funkadelics, Musiq Soulchild, Parliament.
In Classical/Orchestral music: Shostakovich, Ravel, Chopin, Nobuo Uematsu, Phillip Glass, Joe Hisaishi.
Both of your recent remixes (for M Machine & Adventure Club) blended together various genres of music, did you guys always create EDM?
EDM was only a recent musical influence in our life, to be honest. During the early wild west days of the internet, we frequented a site called Newgrounds where we submitted music and got exposed to an enormous variety of genres. We went through many phases of other genres like Shibuya-kei listening to the likes of Fantastic Plastic Machine, Capsule, Yasutaka Nakata, and FreeTempo. Had a brief Drum & Bass phase with Spor, Ewun, Evol Intent. We’re quickly gravitating towards R&B and Neo Soul these days. We’re kind of all over the place.
If you could remix anyone in the world (officially) who would it be and why?
Gallant. We saw him live a couple of times and his energy and passion was so infectious. He represents the potential in new music that is inundated or derivative. He takes influence from hip hop and R&B, but always seems to make it his own. The fresh spin he gives really claimed a place in our hearts musically. So it would be a dream to remix his upcoming records.
What software do you produce music in?
We started off on Cubase and FL Studio back when it was Fruity Loops v.5, but we currently work in Logic primarily and sometimes in Ableton.
You’ve been doing some pretty big shows as of late in the DMV area; do you guys prefer DJing or producing?
It's a bit of both, really. We’ll always love working in our cozy studio surrounded by our retro synths, our puppy, and a cold beer. But lately it's been great getting out the house, preparing edits for our sets and taking random ideas and trying them out live.
What type of gear do you use live?
We've been using the Traktor S4, which was a great entry piece of hardware/software to introduce us into DJing, but we've been experimenting a lot with the Roland SPD-SX, Launchpad, NI Maschine, and we really want to incorporate our physical synths: Prophet 08, Korg Poly 800 II, Yamaha DX7, etc.
What is the best album of all time?
Always a tough question to answer. Novelty and cultural significance is crucial to us, but at the end of the day if it doesn't make us move, then it's too much thinking and not enough feeling. We’ll say Justice’s “Cross” album is our favorite, mostly because of how influential it was to our musical paths crossing. That album played a tremendous role in the events that led up to the inception of Indiginis.
What would be your dream collaboration?
Our dream collaboration would be Jusice, but not 2007 “Waters of Nazereth” Justice, current Justice. What they did with the “Woman” album was inspiring and really good for the culture. There progression has been amazing to witness, and has been our proxy since day one in dance music to always push the envelope and treat every song as an opportunity to try something new and fun.
