JUNE MUSIC SPOTLIGHT: "THE MXXNLIGHT" ON THEIR LATEST SINGLE "GOOD THINGS"
It was a usual busy day on Hollywood blvd, where we met up with Akash and Krish Chandani, the identical twin duo behind, THEMXXNLIGHT. Within a matter of five minutes of walking across the street with the brothers — we were stopped multiple times by the public who were taken by their eye catching presence. We finally got to our location and were able to sit down and chat with the duo about their journey with music, inspirations and their latest single “Good Things.”
You may have heard of THEMXXNLIGHT, when they debuted last year with their collaborative work with Wiz Khalifa on his album, "Rolling Papers 2." The brothers have been in the studio since and are continuing to make waves in the music scene. Check out our exclusive Q&A with the talented brothers below!
What was your inspiration when writing "Good Things"?
"Good Things" was one of the very first songs we ever recorded on from our producer Sledgren's team. Sledgren has a group of very talented producers, so directly after Sledgren discovered us online and started tweeting about us, we got sent beats by his fellow producers and one of them was the beat for "Good Things" which is produced by BatmanOnTheBeatz and DZY who have produced for artists like Roy Woods, Ty Dolla $ign, MadeInTyo and more. When we hear beats we love, we automatically get inspired and the song meaning/theme/direction just happens to form itself and fortunately our two minds think the same way, so we went along with an idea for the song. When we first heard the beat, we knew the track had to be emotional and a story. Most of our songs are love stories of some sort, but this one is more of a specific story of a certain kind of relationship in which one partner is disloyal to the other and the other person ends up trusting them twice by giving them a second chance. Eventually at the end of the relationship, they end up being good things for each other.
What was the biggest challenge you had while in production with "Good Things"?
The biggest challenge was working in a different software program to be honest. The song itself was coming along beautifully, but we used GarageBand until a few weeks ago. This song however, was recorded over a year ago in Logic and we had a tough time working with it and finding the same sound, but luckily our audio engineer Charger was there to save the day. We use Logic now and are a bit better at it, but we are thankful that the song/vision came life in the end.
Who are your biggest musical inspirations?
Some of our biggest musical inspirations are The Weeknd, Majid Jordan, Roy Woods, Drake, PartyNextDoor, Sade, and more, mixed with Bollywood singers like Atif Aslam, Arijit Singh, Lucky Ali, etc. So in our tracks, we basically write and sing what naturally comes to us and it ends up being a unique mix of all these inspirations.
Did you watch Bollywood movies growing up? If so, what were your favorites?
We love Bollywood movies and watched so many while growing up. Some of our favorites are Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, Koi Mil Gya, Dhoom, Main Hoon Na, and Don.
What are your favorite TV shows? Are you binging anything right now?
We used to binge watch shows like The Office, Breaking Bad and Dexter, but currently not binge watching anything. Whenever we get some free time in the night or something, we will watch an episode of Sacred Games starring Saif Ali Khan, it's pretty interesting.
What advice do you have for young South-Asian artists trying to break into the music industry?
As Indian brothers growing up in a heavily populated Asian community, there were always struggles in terms of thinking outside the box and pursuing different things in life other than purely academics. We definitely know what it's like to receive the worst kinds of hate, bullying, unsupportive attitudes from our closest friends to random people that don't even know who we actually are as people or musicians. The advice we think is most valuable is to pursue your passions no matter to what extent, at least do something that you love and have it be a part of your life at the very least. You don't have to be a full time artist or athlete, as long as you try many different things from a young age, so that you already know what you love to do by the time you are in high school and college, then you can prioritize your interests and make sure to save time for your favorite activities and hobbies. And along with this comes with the advice that you should not listen to any hate or negative energy towards you pursuing your passion. If you become well-rounded, time manage yourself, keep pushing your passion without listening to the haters, then you have a high chance of being successful in whatever it is that you love to do.
THEMXXNLIGHT - Good Things (Official Audio)
