By Aparmita Das
Meghalaya has developed into a thriving independent music scene in recent years, with alt-pop duo Kbjj from Shillong being the most recent artistes to join the roster. Their first single ‘Talk of the town’, a song about teenage angst, made its debut on November 18.
Rapper Reble is featured alongside Kbjj duo Emma Challam and Erick Franky, a musician, mixing engineer, and record producer. “Talk of the town is about teenage angst and teenage problems,” said Emma as she described the song. “There are many people that we meet in life, particularly during the adolescent years, who seem to have stepped out of a ‘Gossip Girl’-esque television show,” the singer added.
According to Emma, the song is a diss tune directed against these individuals. “Eventually, everybody grows up from this but it is therapeutic to let it out while we still can,” she said.
The combination of rock and pop sprinkled with the flavours of hip-hop makes ‘Talk of the town’ the perfect recipe to be served to any Gen Z music lover. The artistes’ collective energy has elevated the song’s overall mood to a superior level. Erick believes that the camaraderie between Emma and Reble, while they were composing their verses, is what gave the song life. “They started the process, and it simply kept growing. Never a dull time could be found. It seemed less like a feature and more like a collaboration. Every step of the way, we were working on it together,” he added.
Kbjj is derived from a local term that means “Let’s chill”. Although they had intended to maintain the complete phrase, they decided that it was too long and had to be shortened to only the initials. “Erick takes my songs to places I never would have imagined they would go. We complement each other musically well, and because we would be performing together, we considered naming ourselves,” Emma said.
It was only at the start of this year did the duo come up with the idea to start a band. Around August this year, the talk of the town finally materialised. “It stemmed from the mind of Hilary Gomes who leads Boomspace. He called us up and insisted that we go all out on the song and he pushed us to give it our all and go as hard as we could,” Emma said.
Hilary suggested that it would be appropriate to include someone on the song who shares their attitude and vigour, and this is how Reble entered the picture. Reble is a Bengaluru-based rapper who recently announced the release of her debut EP and also made her stage debut at this year’s NH7 Weekender in Pune.
“Reble is a powerhouse in every manner and I felt honoured to have her on the track. She has such a cool personality and she is way more talented than she lets on. To be talking to her is such a blessing and to be working with her is beyond explanation,” Emma said.
El Dhar conceptualised and shot the video for the song. In the video, Erick, Emma, and Reble can all be seen making appearances. The artistes’ active participation in the video does credit to the song’s rebellious theme. The song has been recorded and produced at TMPros Records and was released under the Goa-based label, Boomspace.
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