Jash Reen & Joshua D'mello at #Escalate2 with Flux Pavillion
"The best things in life are unexpected - because there are no expectations." - Eli Khamarov
Leading up to The Coalition, we've already summarised some of Mumbai'smost interesting creative entrepreneurs and gnawing fiercely on the end of that rope happened to be a duo that's forging a brave new world for visual experimentation. Wolves visuals, comprised of childhood friends Joshua D'mello & Jash Reen, was an unexpected 'business' so to speak. In fact, the live visual project was so organically conceived and watered that neither could have predicted their unprecedented success over the past year. Having shadowed their progress since their beginnings however, we've been fortunate to witness (and take notes) firsthand, their ability to tackle each new project that's chucked their way as if it were their very first piece of meat. It's this same freshness in approach that makes their 'proto-rebellious' journey so compelling to chronicle.
Mr.Bill at BasscampAs much as we'd love to ramble on however, we promised to profile a few of the discerning entrepreneurs we'd listed out in more detail and these two happen to be the first on the list. Mostly because we're curious to know if they can ever be tamed. Animal rights crews are steady on our trail but read on as we dissect Wolves... I. Tell us a little bit about Wolves. Wolves is a live visual project that started of as a series of small experiments and then ended up being so much more - forcing us to call ourselves a collective. Josh and I have pretty much grown up together and always had an obsession with computers and videogames. Sometime last year, we picked up on 3D mapping and its prominence in the international music scene. We wanted to scale down these ideas and port it to the immediate alternative music scene around us so we started off setting up portable 3D mapping installations in some of the smaller venues in Bombay and slowly scaled it up from there. II. Do you'll enjoy being self-employed? We still haven't gotten used to the fact that we're self-employed, even though we chalk out a big part of our time away from our day jobs for Wolves. We're still just two friends trying to learn as much as we can, put on the best shows possible, and have as much fun while doing it! III. Where do you see WOLVES in the next two years? I think we're trying to produce a lot more than the current Indian landscape - be it nightlife or corporate spaces - is ready for. We can only hope that these crazy experiments we take around with us create a bigger demand for visual technology in the market. We firmly believe that in two years, every avenue that wants to make an impact will need a strong visual idea to back it up - and the talent's all here! We don't need to import solutions from other countries to raise our country's profile anymore. The future is local. IV. And your greatest visual victory till date? We recently finished 2 installations for bass heavyweight Nucleya where we bought his Koocha Monster alter-ego to life with projection mapping. Just bringing that still image to life on such a large scale was unreal! Also, we toured with Sandunes with an 'Ever Bridge Rig' to promote her last album and coming up with a unique set-up that could be ported to 4 cities in such a short time was ridiculous. But it went off so well, we can't wait to work with her again.
Sandunes : Ever Bridge Tour
V. What is one piece of advice you'd like to give creative entrepreneurs who are starting their own business?
Pick something that you're truly curious about, and stay humble. VI. Aesthetically speaking, how do you'll compromise with conflicting visions if at all?
Being friends for a long time, we don't manage to piss each other off as much as we used to in school. I guess we've both grown up enough to be on the same wavelength and see each other's vision for what it's worth. Between the two of us, I'd say Josh is the more practical one and I'm always trying to do everything at once, so we find that perfect middle ground. In short, Josh is mostly right.
VII. How do you maintain synergy between the music and visuals? Is there a technique you follow or is it mostly instinctual? For the most part, it's instinctual. But we're working on several modules for Ableton users where the visuals are directly influenced by music parameters like BPM (beats per minute), sample triggering etc, with just enough of parameters left behind for us to still have fun. We don't want to lose out on the live element completely and we think that will always be the game changer for every show that we do. VIII. If you could create interactive visuals for anyone on the planet, who would it be? And why? Kanye West! I think this world has forgotten how theatric performances should be — think big like what Queen and Kiss used to do with rock n roll. Now fast forward to modern hip-hop and Kanye's got an LED screen that rises 60 feet in the air to emulate the sky. It would be amazing to just keep up with him in a meeting and actually bring each vision of his to life. That's the kind of drive we're on now. IX. Why are you called Wolves? We need to know. A lot of travelling, illegally crossing borders, struggling to make ends meet with my art, and some of the most beautiful people (shout out to Tim and Shirin) had me believe this was my spirit animal — and I've got so much nerdy wolves memorabilia both gifted to me and that I collect that the name just stuck. Josh however just dug up a new concept based on 'Fenrir', which is a monstrous wolf in Norse mythology. Fenrir is the father of wolves and is the son of Loki. He is foretold to kill the God Odin during the events of Ragnarok, thereby causing the end of the world so yep, we're going with that now. X. With the sudden influx of VJ's using LED walls at gigs, how do you aim to stand out in 2014? Any plans for 3D projection mapping or other interesting projects lined-up? (Possibly stage design?)
Koocha MonsterI think the biggest misconception people have is that LED walls can't be used for 3D mapping. We've got some breakthrough ideas in the cave that involve interesting LED layouts and how they can be brought to life and some of that incorporates set design as well. Even if it's just cubes or jagged shapes the content will speak for itself! You heard it here first -— we're going LED in 2014. XI. We have seen various artists across the globe who travel with their own personal VJ team; would you'll be interested in working similarly with other musicians now and perhaps create Visual rigs for them? We're currently in talks with Tej Brar who manages both Nucleya and Dualist Inquiry. We like the fact that both these artists push their original music out first so it stimulates us to create this little world we can take around with them. In the end its all about their music and how we can make their fans a bigger part of the stories behind it. XII. We just witnessed Vita Motus execute the Smirnoff Experienceshow in India. With more international Visual artists coming down this year, how do you aim to stand out amongst the best in the world? Rather, what is the unique spin that Wolves can bring? We don't intend to keep following a trend but rather create something that is ahead of time and convention. Our unique spin would have to be that we bring personalized experiences for every artist that we work with.The entertainment business is so cut, copy, paste, right now that it pushes us to be more hands on and DIY with every project we take up. That's something that will never change about Wolves and you can see it right from the shows we do to the merchandise we hand out ourselves. XIII. Why would you'll need something like The Coalition? It's still weird when people call Wolves a full-fledged business but at the rate it's picking up, I guess it's time for us to accept and tame it as one. The Coalition will help us meet the right people to sharpen that skill set and to the rest, we're eager to show them how the work we do in Wolves can supplement other forms of art. We're not alone in this, and we're ever ready to collaborate and put India's creative sector on the map.