Tigerstyle
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Tigerstyle

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom | INDIE

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom | INDIE
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"Beat Construction"

“This echo thing’s pessin’ me off. I can’t speak like, fluently….” Pops, one half of Glaswegian Bhangra crew Tigerstyle, keeps talking anyway, in disjointed snatches of Scottish hood-speak. Besides the echo on the line he is periodically interrupted by female-robot voices narrating the demise of my 500-Rupee fonecard (“Ap Ke Card Ki Limit Hai: 446. Rupees. 2. Paise”). Pops sits in the afternoon sunlight of a Birmingham hotel room while on my end, night falls on smoggy, tropical, conniving-ass Delhi, where bomb blasts throw the city into silent panic on the TV screen behind me. Our convo is split between talking beats and navigating the gaps between these night and day worlds but the two streams of conversation are really one. Punjabis born and raised in Scotland, trained in both folk and classical North Indian styles on the tumbi, harmonium and tabla, brothers Raj and Pops by definition negotiate these kinds of gaps in their music. “I don’t think bein’ in Scotland affects our sound. The influences have all come from overseas, different places.” Says Pops. “Scotland is home, but we’re travelin’ so much that it kinda becomes irrelevant where you are. We’ve been workin’ with artists based in India, Bikram Singh, (from New York) for the last couple of years, We’re workin’ with a crew from Toronto; Asian Empire, we’re workin’ with Gunjan, a female singer from North Carolina and recently we just finish a collaboration with London based Drum n Bass MC, UK Apache”

Early DJ experiments mixing Bhangra with Dancehall and HipHop lead to tracks like “Nachna” and although their full-length “The Rising” LP for UK’s Kismet Records brought fame in the Bhangra circuit, they split ways with the label over money. After some legal hurdles they began “tryin’ to get a name back” with on-spec remixes and an active program of bootlegs. “Over the last three years we had a body of work which was all totally illegal, apart from one or two remixes here and there.”

White labels actually brought more enduring fame than sanctioned remixes for profile artists like 50 Cent and Lisa Mafia; Tigerstyle interpolations of Bashment rhythms got so many spins on UK Desi radio that reggae label Greensleeves started supplying them with their newest tunes directly. In line with this kind of legal piracy, evident on their remixes of Macka Diamond (“Mi Nuh Dun”) and Elephant Man (“Girl From Pakistan”) the vocal talent lining up to complete their new LP for Nachural records are often weird niche-to-niche jumps that bypass the mainstream altogether. Official refixes of reggaeton tracks like “Rakata” and “El Tiburon” (for Machete Music)-- filthy minor-keyed oriental melodies laid flawlessly over crushing Reggaeton drums—have even prompted inquiries from Daddy Yankee and his El Cartel crew. “Even as a concept it works, like: Spanish music is getting a lot of heat in that territory and Bhangra’s getting’ a lot of heat over in this territory.” These overlapping territories mapped within a single Tigerstyle beat demonstrate that Bhangra is not just a new set of sounds for rap dudes to sample…it is a movement unto itself, folk music for folk that live in the gaps.

www.tigerstyleonline.co.uk
www.nachural.co.uk
- FADER


"Beat Construction"

“This echo thing’s pessin’ me off. I can’t speak like, fluently….” Pops, one half of Glaswegian Bhangra crew Tigerstyle, keeps talking anyway, in disjointed snatches of Scottish hood-speak. Besides the echo on the line he is periodically interrupted by female-robot voices narrating the demise of my 500-Rupee fonecard (“Ap Ke Card Ki Limit Hai: 446. Rupees. 2. Paise”). Pops sits in the afternoon sunlight of a Birmingham hotel room while on my end, night falls on smoggy, tropical, conniving-ass Delhi, where bomb blasts throw the city into silent panic on the TV screen behind me. Our convo is split between talking beats and navigating the gaps between these night and day worlds but the two streams of conversation are really one. Punjabis born and raised in Scotland, trained in both folk and classical North Indian styles on the tumbi, harmonium and tabla, brothers Raj and Pops by definition negotiate these kinds of gaps in their music. “I don’t think bein’ in Scotland affects our sound. The influences have all come from overseas, different places.” Says Pops. “Scotland is home, but we’re travelin’ so much that it kinda becomes irrelevant where you are. We’ve been workin’ with artists based in India, Bikram Singh, (from New York) for the last couple of years, We’re workin’ with a crew from Toronto; Asian Empire, we’re workin’ with Gunjan, a female singer from North Carolina and recently we just finish a collaboration with London based Drum n Bass MC, UK Apache”

Early DJ experiments mixing Bhangra with Dancehall and HipHop lead to tracks like “Nachna” and although their full-length “The Rising” LP for UK’s Kismet Records brought fame in the Bhangra circuit, they split ways with the label over money. After some legal hurdles they began “tryin’ to get a name back” with on-spec remixes and an active program of bootlegs. “Over the last three years we had a body of work which was all totally illegal, apart from one or two remixes here and there.”

White labels actually brought more enduring fame than sanctioned remixes for profile artists like 50 Cent and Lisa Mafia; Tigerstyle interpolations of Bashment rhythms got so many spins on UK Desi radio that reggae label Greensleeves started supplying them with their newest tunes directly. In line with this kind of legal piracy, evident on their remixes of Macka Diamond (“Mi Nuh Dun”) and Elephant Man (“Girl From Pakistan”) the vocal talent lining up to complete their new LP for Nachural records are often weird niche-to-niche jumps that bypass the mainstream altogether. Official refixes of reggaeton tracks like “Rakata” and “El Tiburon” (for Machete Music)-- filthy minor-keyed oriental melodies laid flawlessly over crushing Reggaeton drums—have even prompted inquiries from Daddy Yankee and his El Cartel crew. “Even as a concept it works, like: Spanish music is getting a lot of heat in that territory and Bhangra’s getting’ a lot of heat over in this territory.” These overlapping territories mapped within a single Tigerstyle beat demonstrate that Bhangra is not just a new set of sounds for rap dudes to sample…it is a movement unto itself, folk music for folk that live in the gaps.

www.tigerstyleonline.co.uk
www.nachural.co.uk
- FADER


"Interview with Tigerstyle"

What changes have you seen in the UK Bhangra scene since you
first started out?

We first released our debut album “The Rising” back in 2000 through Kismet Records. Since then there has been a huge change in the industry. For a time there was a trend of using a lot of commercial samples illegally within Bhangra songs, and the label at the time encouraged us to do the same. This has now gone full circle with BPI investigating labels which illegally release music containing samples of other artists copywritten work. So artists like ourselves who are at the forefront of British Asian music need to be creative and original as possible to retain our place within the market.

Back in those days albums would sell off the strength of radio promoted singles and artist hype through performances. These days, unless you have a video playing on TV it is very difficult to capture the attention of the public. Physical piracy was a huge problem back then, but now with the rise in internet use and the availability of fast broadband at cheap prices we’ve seen a great decline in physical sale, there’s huge consumption of our products but only a fraction of it being through legitimate sales.

How does the Bhangra scene in Scotland compare to England?

The community is Scotland is smaller obviously than the community based in England. We only have one radio station in Scotland (Awaz FM) and very few shops selling Asian music and not many shows/clubnights so the promotion is a lot less up here. Its improved in the last 10 years but I do think there’s a long was to go.

Can you tell us abit about the forthcoming album and what we
can expect from it? And how does it compare to your previous album?

The forthcoming album has been 5 years in the making. We started recording some of the tracks back in 2002/2003 straight after we released “Virsa”. As artists we have developed our style and strengthened our technical capability. Our music is a lot more original these days, although we do still mess about with samples and put together bootleg remixes for our DJ set, we’ve now got involved in the writing of the songs, subject matters and recorded directly with the vocalists and musicians involved. Being part of the scene for so long, we’ve managed to build a good repertoire with our contemporaries, and so a lot of artists who we respect are featured on the album.

Who will it appeal to?

I think our support has grown tremendously over the years. As the sound has matured so have its followers and the younger generation are also now in tune with Tigerstyle!! In recent years Bhangra has had a lot of limelight, with Panjabi MC breaking through and then major Hip Hop artists like Missy Elliot, Timbaland, Dr Dre and Jay Z all taking influence from Bhangra / Asian music. We’ve been fusing Bhangra with Hip Hop, Breakbeats and Drum n Bass for years but the attention that major artists have brought to our scene has helped us build bridges with artists from other scenes. So the new album has features from recognised artists from other scenes such as UK Hip Hop/Grime, Drum n Bass, Jamaican Dancehall and Reggaeton.

Can you tell us abit about Soldier Sound recordings and its
vision?

On our travels while promoting our material in many different countries we have come across artists facing the same struggle we face, to get our music out to the public. One such artist was Bikram Singh from New York. We met up in 2003 and soon after started recording his debut album American Jugni. In the process of doing so we realised that the industry was not structured correctly, artists were not being paid publishing royalties, artists were neither being promoted by their record labels through radio and publications. We decided to set up Soldier Sound Recordings which would be our production label, to record and produce albums for artists we felt deserved our attention. Recently we have produced and released the Blitzkrieg debut album “The Rhymebook” in a joint venture with VIP Urban.

You recently signed a new artist Blitzkreig, how did you
discover him?

Blitzkrieg featured in an online radio show presented by Panjabi MC some years ago. We heard him on the show but never heard anything further. While on tour in Toronto some years later we discovered we had mutual friends and so we came into contact and things developed from there on.

Will you be signing any more artists in the near future?

At this stage we have a number of projects in development. We’d like to give as much attention to the artists we are responsible for and so for now we don’t think we’ll be taking on any more artists. The are in the process of completing Bikram Singh’s next album and we are fortunate enough to have been selected by Gunjan to produce her forthcoming album. We’re also producing for a number of other artists, full albums and also feature productions.

What do you look for in an artist when you sign them?

With Bikram and Blitzkrieg it was ver - Eastern Eye


"Interview with Tigerstyle"

What changes have you seen in the UK Bhangra scene since you
first started out?

We first released our debut album “The Rising” back in 2000 through Kismet Records. Since then there has been a huge change in the industry. For a time there was a trend of using a lot of commercial samples illegally within Bhangra songs, and the label at the time encouraged us to do the same. This has now gone full circle with BPI investigating labels which illegally release music containing samples of other artists copywritten work. So artists like ourselves who are at the forefront of British Asian music need to be creative and original as possible to retain our place within the market.

Back in those days albums would sell off the strength of radio promoted singles and artist hype through performances. These days, unless you have a video playing on TV it is very difficult to capture the attention of the public. Physical piracy was a huge problem back then, but now with the rise in internet use and the availability of fast broadband at cheap prices we’ve seen a great decline in physical sale, there’s huge consumption of our products but only a fraction of it being through legitimate sales.

How does the Bhangra scene in Scotland compare to England?

The community is Scotland is smaller obviously than the community based in England. We only have one radio station in Scotland (Awaz FM) and very few shops selling Asian music and not many shows/clubnights so the promotion is a lot less up here. Its improved in the last 10 years but I do think there’s a long was to go.

Can you tell us abit about the forthcoming album and what we
can expect from it? And how does it compare to your previous album?

The forthcoming album has been 5 years in the making. We started recording some of the tracks back in 2002/2003 straight after we released “Virsa”. As artists we have developed our style and strengthened our technical capability. Our music is a lot more original these days, although we do still mess about with samples and put together bootleg remixes for our DJ set, we’ve now got involved in the writing of the songs, subject matters and recorded directly with the vocalists and musicians involved. Being part of the scene for so long, we’ve managed to build a good repertoire with our contemporaries, and so a lot of artists who we respect are featured on the album.

Who will it appeal to?

I think our support has grown tremendously over the years. As the sound has matured so have its followers and the younger generation are also now in tune with Tigerstyle!! In recent years Bhangra has had a lot of limelight, with Panjabi MC breaking through and then major Hip Hop artists like Missy Elliot, Timbaland, Dr Dre and Jay Z all taking influence from Bhangra / Asian music. We’ve been fusing Bhangra with Hip Hop, Breakbeats and Drum n Bass for years but the attention that major artists have brought to our scene has helped us build bridges with artists from other scenes. So the new album has features from recognised artists from other scenes such as UK Hip Hop/Grime, Drum n Bass, Jamaican Dancehall and Reggaeton.

Can you tell us abit about Soldier Sound recordings and its
vision?

On our travels while promoting our material in many different countries we have come across artists facing the same struggle we face, to get our music out to the public. One such artist was Bikram Singh from New York. We met up in 2003 and soon after started recording his debut album American Jugni. In the process of doing so we realised that the industry was not structured correctly, artists were not being paid publishing royalties, artists were neither being promoted by their record labels through radio and publications. We decided to set up Soldier Sound Recordings which would be our production label, to record and produce albums for artists we felt deserved our attention. Recently we have produced and released the Blitzkrieg debut album “The Rhymebook” in a joint venture with VIP Urban.

You recently signed a new artist Blitzkreig, how did you
discover him?

Blitzkrieg featured in an online radio show presented by Panjabi MC some years ago. We heard him on the show but never heard anything further. While on tour in Toronto some years later we discovered we had mutual friends and so we came into contact and things developed from there on.

Will you be signing any more artists in the near future?

At this stage we have a number of projects in development. We’d like to give as much attention to the artists we are responsible for and so for now we don’t think we’ll be taking on any more artists. The are in the process of completing Bikram Singh’s next album and we are fortunate enough to have been selected by Gunjan to produce her forthcoming album. We’re also producing for a number of other artists, full albums and also feature productions.

What do you look for in an artist when you sign them?

With Bikram and Blitzkrieg it was ver - Eastern Eye


Discography

The Rising LP - Tigerstyle

Extended Play EP - Tigerstyle

Virsa LP - Tigerstyle

Mixtape Vol.1 (Bootlegs CD)

Mixtape Vol.2 (Bootlegs CD)

Bhang Goes Tha Riddim (Bootleg EP on Vinyl)

American Jugni LP - Bikram Singh (Artist Album)

The Movement Vol.1 (Digital Download Compilation)

The Rhyme Book LP - Blitzkrieg (Artist Album)

Balle! Shava! - Tigerstyle (Single)

Tip Top LP - Bikram Singh (Artist Album)

Mystics, Martyrs & Maharajas LP - Tigerstyle

I Swear - Shizzio (Artist Single)

Goonj: Echoes from Gunjan LP - Gunjan (Artist Album)

BIK.I.AM LP - Bikram Singh (Artist Album)

Kudi (Digital Single) taken from the forthcoming LP Digi-Bhang

Ik Banere (Digital Single) taken from the forthcoming LP Digi-Bhang

Bollywood film soundtracks which feature songs by Tigerstyle:

Mausam
Delhi Belly
No Problem
Action Replay
Aakrosh
Crook
Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Dil Bole Hadippa
Love Aaj Kal
Singh Is Kinng

Photos

Bio

“They are without doubt the next Asian/Bhangra act that will break through into the mainstream - it is only a question of time.” “Tigerstyle’s new album will be massive, and ……… will make sure Bhangra doesn’t die quality wise.” (Bobby Friction BBC Asian Network)

Coming from a traditional background where religious adherence was the call of the day and learning to play instruments from a young age so that they could perform at their local temple have now turned this young Sikh outfit into the most sought after act.

Creating waves within the music industry, pioneering their new unique music genre, and preparing to release their highly anticipated album by the same name, “Digi-Bhang” for a worldwide release.

“You’ve got two very devout Sikh Punjabis from Glasgow, who know their Bhangra music more than anybody. I mean they absolutely know their stuff. They’re young, they’re the right generation. If you listen to some of their earlier albums they were ground-breaking then. What they do and what they’ve done is, they still play the traditional stuff, but they will effortlessly fuse it into Dancehall or Hip-Hop. And the beauty of them is that they both know their genres of music……It all works together, it sounds great. And they can perform live……I think that is really interesting, really clever. We’ve still got the traditional Punjabi music. We’ve still got the element of live and it’s still taking it forward.” – Adil Ray (BBC Asian Network UK, excerpt taken from “Bhangra” written by Dr. Rajinder Dudrah)

But Tigerstyle’s journey has not been an easy one. After two albums of more traditional Desi flavours, Tigerstyle became embroiled into a legal dispute with their previous label (Kismet Records) which left the duo unable to release material for three years. But this hiatus allowed Tigerstyle to develop their musical talents as they were asked to do white label mixes for Ms Dynamite, Busta Rhymes, Eminem and 50 Cent.

Further recognition came in the form of official remixes for other mainstream acts such as Lisa Maffia (Independiente), Lamya (J Records),and Raghav (A&R) where Tigerstyle contributed with a remix on the hit single Angel Eyes which charted at No.4 in the UK charts. They fused Bhangra with Reggaeton championing the unique “Bhangraton” genre, providing remixes for Machete Music artists Luny Tunes, Wisin Yandel & Don Omar. They worked an exclusive remix of M.I.A.'s "XR2" for the BBC Asian Network and have recently just completed a remix to "What she came for" from Franz Ferdinand's 2009 album release.

Nachural Records also announced the placement of tracks from its catalogue onto Project Gotham Racing 3 the game to be launched by X Box (owned by Microsoft) in the winter of 2005.

Two tracks by Achanak (“Teri Muhabbatain” Produced by Tigerstyle and “Lak noo” remix) and three tracks from the forthcoming Tigerstyle album (“Boliyan”, “Akh mastani” and “Maan doabe da”) were identified as key representations of the worldwide appeal of Bhangra music.

This was the first time that Bhangra tracks had been placed on any interactive game and endorsed the mainstream opinion that Bhangra had finally arrived in the ever increasing music market.

Recent Success: Tigerstyle ft Kanwar “Son of a Sardar (part 1)” was the first Sikh Hip Hop track to be playlisted in the A list on the BBC Asian Network. It charted at No3 in the station playlist chart, was No1 in Friction’s Top Five tracks, and was No7 in his Top 40 songs of 2007.

The success of Tigerstyle has taken them touring all over the world including USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Dubai, Singapore and Australia, all in the time span of the last 4 years. They have shared stages with the likes of internationally reknowned artists Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney, The Dub Pistols, Fun-Da-Mental, Misty in Roots, Gunjan, Asian Dub Foundation, Badmarsh & Shri, Truth Hurts, Panjabi MC, Future World Funk, Raghav, Johnny Kalsi & The Dhol Foundation, Hans Raj Hans, Jazzy B, Malkit Singh, Jassi Sidhu, Channi Singh (Alaap), Andy Gangadeen of Massive Attack, DJ Semtex, Bobby Friction & Nihal from BBC Radio 1 and Panjabi Hit Squad of BBC 1Xtra.

Tigerstyle are one of the few Asian acts to have ever recorded a live session for the legendary late Sir John Peel. They were given the opportunity to showcase material from their forthcoming album supported by a full live band and feature vocalists at the first ever BBC Electric Proms in September 2006, and were selected out of 1000s of bands to perform on the first ever BBC Introducing Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in July 2007.

Their Bollywood debut came in the shape of exclusive remixes of "Bas Ek Kinng" and "Bhootni Ke" under the guidance of hit music director Pritam, on the soundtrack of the blockbuster movie of summer 2008, Singh is Kinng. Further work for Bollywood is imminent. The same summer saw their previously released hit Nachna Onda Nei b