We spoke to the lads from DLT Mob to understand who they are and what they represent. The chat was very insightful and informative and here is everything we talked to them about:
What is DLT Mob for you all?
DLT mob is a Hip-Hop crew, I mean we already were friends with each other while being a part of J Block and making tracks together. But, J Block would not have suited Bangalore, so we thought of our personas and a way to translate that into something of our own, and as a result, DLT Mob came into being. The dragon force behind DLT is the urge to experiment and make things we’ve always wanted to.
How do you think a collective like yours or Wanandaf or J Block help in shaping the culture?
First of all, it’s the influence. The realm of influence you have results in the potential of making things happen. Once you see someone in your vicinity doing something cool and unique, you want to be a part of it. So that is how it works. We’ve observed that you need a proper atmosphere or ethos in order to make solid music, which is a pro of being in collectives. It’s like a resourceful thing, you observe talented people making music and creating original stuff around you, and it helps you learn and understand a lot of things that otherwise would have been harder to learn (by yourself). Another aspect of it is the energy, if a person is rapping, you feel that energy and it’s the same with live performances. There is so much diversity in Bangalore, you get to observe and learn from a lot of unique things. Also, the feeling of not being “isolated” or alone while tryna experiment with new stuff is relieving, you know there are more people involved in making that vision into a piece. It helps a lot.
So Circle Tone, you are a part of both the collectives from Bengaluru; Wanandaf and DLT Mob. What difference do you think both gangs have?
While Wanandaf might be considered as a collective, we prefer to term it as a movement. It is like a platform or a community thing. We’ve done workshops, and we’ve set up meetings with known producers and artists. The idea was to build and inspire a scene out here in Bangalore. It doesn’t function as a collective, it’s a community. We help in distribution as well, we set up cyphers and all those things. The way DLT differs is that we (the members) live in close vicinity, our whole idea was to go beyond what is present here, and we wanted to restructure or rebuild the scene. And, to rebuild, you have to identify the problems, and one of the biggest problems are the record labels signing independent artists into shitty deals. They’ll sign them for a release or two and then just backtrack, they don’t focus on them anymore and that drastically affects an artist. We, on the other hand, try our best to provide upcoming and talented artists with resources and help them curate their vision. Also, another aspect that differentiates us is the musicality, the soundscapes and sonics are prominent factors.
Tell us about the members, so is it like a strict group of friends coming together or are you all open to new admissions?
I mean it is a group of friends making music, however, if you are willing to work and you are lucrative (even though that’s a very corporate way of saying it) you can definitely be a part. There are talented peeps like Ojas Creates and dexter_rk who have done visualizers for us and many more creative people who associate with us solely for the creative liberty we provide. We have 5 performing artists right now, Agaahi Raahi, Paras, me (Akx), Adam and Circle Tone, most of the tracks are produced by Circle, although we have some pieces from Yung Satya, alchemy and Faizan as well. We also have Afeef(cumcurator) and Vaishnav who help us with creatives and visuals. This is the primary group of DLT Mob. We do work with friends and artists like Acharya on Pilot, so we do have an extended member list as well *laughs*.
So how do you all operate as a crew? What’s the creative process for your pieces?
Circle: It mostly starts with me working on sounds, I’ll find something cool, say a melody loop and then start ideating on how it would fit in with our sound. Then I start building from scratch and what follows is kinda labour intensive, like we have everyone in the room with their ideas and styles that we pour in.
AKX: From a songwriting point of view, we do try to play with different kinds of flows and keep our lyrics engaging. At times just one guy is taking the lead and we get inspired by the idea to create our parts, so it’s quite collaborative like that.
Circle: There is also an interesting process of “being honest” that follows throughout the making of music, we are completely honest with each other and bluntly suggest if something is not perfect. We keep rewriting and keep working until we are satisfied.
AKX: There are pieces like ‘Raccoon’ as well, which were recorded in one take and there were no changes made. So we keep trying different processes and experimenting with our styles.
Circle: I remember, while we were working on Raccoon, we had like 5 hours and the whole vision was to produce and write a full track alongside creating a music video for it. First I made the beat, and Akx and Paras were writing to it on the go while having some practice takes to it. I had an Insta 360 and I just handed them one of the 360’s to record themselves while recording the actual verse. We wanted to inculcate that unfiltered and raw experience into it, and it was one of the most fun recording sessions I have had,
Adam: Well my process is pretty simple, something comes to mind while I am driving to Circle’s place *laughs*. I have been kinda struggling to find that writing style that I like and fits in my persona as an artist. So I don’t have a concrete creative process, but I am still figuring out the process.
Creativity-wise, What is the difference according to you between a collective and mere collaboration between artists?
I feel it’s more like a brand thing. If you collaborate, the brand value is distributed amongst the collaborators. But when I am in a crew with five other people, the branding stays stagnant because we represent us, the DLT Mob. More often than not, collaborations become brands too, like in the case of Rawal and Bharg. The other difference is how well the styles work together, if Akx and Adam are rapping on a track, we both bring different perspectives and approaches into a track. In a collective, I feel it usually matches over time, you build that synergy gradually. Once you get used to the idea of having multiple people in the room, then everyone feels like they are a part of one hive mind, and that’s where the magic happens.
Tell us about the projects, do they follow a recurring theme? Is there any DLT Exclusive Effect?
One thing that makes DLT stand out is Circle’s production, I feel that stands out pretty well. If you get invested in DLT through Pilot, you will get to know about all of the artists and the characters that they play. For example, Agaahi uses a Haryanvi flow and vocal cadence in Chaka Chaund and he implements it again in Mob Aa Gaya.
The projects have been a pretty interesting aspect of the crew’s artistry. We have a lot of fun while making something cohesive like that, a lot of ideas fly around the room when we brainstorm. As far as the recurring theme goes, maybe later on, when we have released enough projects in this episodic structure, the stories hopefully tie together and collectively make a whole new meaning, you know?
Tell us about the plans of DLT Mob, what’s cooking this year?
A bunch of singles, we’d say up until the summers since we are planning another project by then. But yeah there will be a lot of singles from the crew and probably individual pieces too. Agaahi is leading episode 3 and we are still ideating on it, of course, we can’t reveal much about it, but yeah a lot of singles, for now, is what we’d say.
Listen to DLT Mob’s public playlist on Spotify:
