#trackdrops

Yo dudes! Can you introduce yourselves? Where are you from and when did music start seriously influencing your lives?

Vikram: I am a Canadian who moved to India just so that I could miss the T dot. An erstwhile investment banker turned entrepreneur, I'm best known as the reason why women stay single. Music was instrumental to my memory of childhood. I was surrounded by a healthy variety of genres from the inimitable Rick Astley to ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali. The fault of which lies with my parents, both of whom had a schizophrenic record collection that would play out every evening. I became extremely active (bordering on obsessive) around the time Radiohead launched their "In Rainbows" album. 

Steve: My name is Steve Abraham and I'm from Mumbai. I'm pretty sure music started playing a serious role in my life ever since I was a kid. Much like Vikram's upbringing, my parents would play all this great music in the house ranging from the Beatles to Doo Wop to Jazz and the Blues. I probably didn't fully understand what I was hearing at the time, but I knew I liked it. Ever since then, music has been a part of my daily life. Everclear's "Sparkle and Fade" was the first album I really "got into" as a teenager. 

You created Trackdrops. What's the general idea, who's the team, and who should come listen to your site? 

Vikram: The team is Steve Abraham, aka Punkflop; and myself, Vikram Ramchandani, aka Nika. It must be noted however, that the chicas dig da Nika. True story. 

Steve: Trackdrops is a simple idea - a daily dose of one song each from our individual tastes with no restrictions on genre or time of release. What sounds good to us goes on the site. Vikram and I have always had these long conversations about artists we like, so we were hoping to take that conversation online and hopefully get people to see the reasons we like a certain song. Two songs a day are more than enough. In this day and age the amount of information you're exposed to is overwhelming, so this way people can actually take the time to focus on and hopefully appreciate the music. All are welcome of course - whether you're a music junkie or a person just looking for something new to listen to. 

What is the music scene like in Mumbai? Should we all start booking tickets to come out there? 

Vikram: Of course you should book your tickets, given the state of the economy we are in desperate need of dollars and pounds. The music scene in growing at an incredible pace with the advent of new music venues, schools and concerts. We have also burnt all remaining copies of any Venga Boys trakcs. 

Steve: Like Vikram said, the music scene is definitely picking up. We have had international artists play in the country who I never thought I'd see live in India. However, we do have a long ways to go in terms of catching up with other international music havens. There is a local music scene, but I find that the same handful of bands is circulated throughout the year, which tends to get boring after a while. So unless you're into specific Indian bands or want to visit India, I would save my money for another city if it is the music you are chasing. 

Do you have any plans for the future of Trackdrops? Anything we should look forward to in 2014? 

Vikram: We are extra excited to get a playlist out for the people who visit our site on a daily basis. So our fingers are crossed in hope that the super stellar team at Whyd get a Wordpress plug in sorted out. Till then we're just gonna keep dropping some aural goodness.