Chandigarh band Rawmats’ ‘refix’ music recaptures the 1990s vibe

Growing up in Ludhiana, vocalist Krishna Singh dreamt of having a musical band. “I was never interested in performing solo. It’s magical to see a group of musicians performing together,” says Krishna. His journey began with drummer Robin Raturi in 2015, with guitarist Amit Rawat coming on board two years later.

The trio formed the band Rawmats, that saw a steady rise in the indie music circuit. Rawmats derives its name from the concept of ‘raw materials that are ready to be processed and packaged to reach perfection’. That, essentially, is how they create their music as well, taking inspiration from the musical 1990s. 

“We love to create a retro vibe,” says Krishna on the band’s love for music by Lucky Ali, Mohit Chauhan, Euphoria and Falguni Pathak. Their idea is to recreate songs that were huge hits but are forgotten now. Named ‘refix’, this experimentation with retro tracks has so far worked like magic. Krishna explains, “We play ’90s hits with a new sound set.”

The band also creates ‘reply versions’ to songs sung by female singers. For instance, a reply song for Falguni Pathak’s Choodi Jo Khanke presented a boy’s perspective. “We used to do covers thinking that will make us popular. But the 37 million views for ‘Choodi…’ was an encouragement to explore,” shares Krishna. Rawmats has created more than 25 refix and reply songs to date.

While the pop trio is self-taught, Amit takes guitar lessons from Sabil Mehra and Anand Pawar online. Last year, they launched Since 2017, comprising all their songs since 2017. Over the last four years, they have released Since 2017 and five music videos. They describe their April release, ‘Kyu Kehti Ho’ — a romantic single directed by Manish Chauhan with more than 1,79,000 views on YouTube — as a ‘creative expression emanating from thought process and experiences’.

Though they met in Ludhiana, the trio’s bond goes back further. “We are natives of Uttarakhand and bonded easily over common interests, ” shares Krishna. Now, it has been a year since they shifted to Chandigarh to pursue a career in music. “The pandemic has made a big difference and sometimes we are restless staying at home. Arguments happen a lot but we give each other time and space, so that we are together in this journey of music,” Krishna signs off.