When I [Richard] first got into Asian music there was a club night on the last Friday of every month that I used to so I could hear the latest in desi underground sounds. I'm still doing that a few years later and Shaanti is growing from strength to strength.

So with the advent of 'Fused Rocking Beats', the first compilation coming out under the Shaanti Play Records banner, it was only right that I hooked up with the two co-founders of the label, Manga and Sharnita, at the place where it all kicks off, the Medicine Bar in Birmingham's Custard Factory.

The comments of each of them have been colour co-ordinated to help you distinguish who is saying what. The following key can be used as a guide to help you with this as well.

Richard: Ok guys, for those who don't know who you are, make them get to know by giving us a quick introduction.

Manga: I'm the Founder of Shaanti, I look after the award winning club night, Shaanti, as well as two other nights which are called Sutraaeton and Funkshaan. I'm the Music Director for a few workshops commission by Sampad in and around Birmingham, and I also work with Apna Arts in Nottingham amongst many others. I also present my own weekly radio show called Desi Dance Beats on the Galaxy FM and I'm the co-founder of Shaanti Play Records.

Sharnita: I'm the other co-founder of Shaanti Play Records; I've been working in the music industry for over nine years now, I first started out working for a PR company promoting artists like Talvin Singh, Joi, Babylon Zoo State of Bengal. In 1999, I hooked up with Manga at the NEC in Birmingham at an event that I was working on - I loved what he was doing so I joined him as co-promoter a few years after. I'm also a freelance music writer specialising in dance and Asian beats. (There is a brief pause)

Sharnita: Selling yourself is really hard!!! (Note to Richard) read my biog'? (Laughter)

Richard: The label is about to release the compilation album 'Fused Rocking Beats', tell us what the people out there can expect from it and what makes it different to all the other compilation albums out there.

Manga: 'Fused Rocking Beats' is the first in a series of compilations by Shaanti Play Records. Our main objective to the label is to bring something different to the table. Something fresh and new, which is really needed in the Asian and global music scene. Fused Rocking Beats is also the first in its kind: a series designed by a Brit-Ethnic club night, so there was a two-way need for this album to come about. Also, because of the fresh approach to the music. You will see a good representation of different styles of beats on there; there's desi dance beats, modern day R&B,

Manga

house, deep house, drum and bass, breaks and electro and hip-hop. So there's a true cross-section of dance music on there, but all with an Asian twist.

Sharnita: Being the first in a series, that advocates unreleased and exclusive music from key players from the Brit-Asian global dance scene is the perfect example of what Shaanti Play Records is going to be all about. We're a record label that champions new beats, and in regards to Fused Rocking Beats, this album is more of an introduction to present fourteen artists who are rocking it in the streets across the worlds. Alongside well-established producers and artists like Tigerstyle, Stereo Nation, Superjones, Cosmic Rocker, there are seven artists/producers who are relevantly new and up-and-coming. People like Oddme, DJ V, Prithpal Sirjeet, Shabz and Azian Empire are the ones to watch out for as we predicted they'll be big news worldwide next year.

Richard: Why choose to go for new, perhaps unheard, artists and not a list of established ones where people know the names and sounds they're buying?

Sharnita: We've used established named artists and producers on our album but Shaanti has always been about championing new sounds, it has never been about routine and we have never stuck to one genre. If we were to stick to one genre and only used big name artists who had been around for years then how can we make and support new music? So having artists like The Kalyan, Oddme, Shabz, Sumeet, DJ V, Prithpal Sirjeet and Sonic Gurus…who are making great music, or don't have a record deal, is a great way of pushing the next grade of producers/artists on our label that we think will become big in years to come.

Manga: Also, anyone who reads desitunes4u.com will know about the impact that sampling and ghost production has on the industry, and the fact of the matter is that if made up a list of well known names, many of them wouldn't be artists or producers at all. Let's get straight to the point: half the people we're referring to don't produce music, they merely pass it off as their own. They've either just taken beats from the latest mainstream record or they've just sat there in the studio with a (ghost) producer who are actually making the beats for them. So we made sure, the people featured on 'Fused Rocking Beats' are genuine. Genuine artists and producers with the technical skill and the ability to make their own music. These are the people who will be stars of the future. A great example is a track made by 'The Kalyan.' His track 'Disco Warrior' featuring Lembher Hussainpuri is blowing up on all the major Asian radio stations. They've play listing the minute the promo got mailed out. I don't think that kind has been happened in such a great effect since 'Kangna' and 'DesiRock.' The clubs are going mad for it, and DJs are ringing us up all the time saying 'Send me the tune - we wanna bust it in our sets?' People are saying 'I want this, this is different'. Which is the response we want. It's not a typical Bhangra track it's a desi dance beats at it finest. When you use up-and-coming names you get new sounds, not something that's been eaten, sampled, nicked and puked back up again.

Sharnita: Another track people are going mad for is The Nextmen track feat. Dynamite MC (Superjones Remix). They're huge, being part of the Roni Size Collective, they wanted to do something with an Asian style but they've just put a tumbi on it, they've approached it in a mainstream way. For us that great and we've reached two markets with no hype at all, just hype purely through appreciation of creatively produced music.

Manga: It's about thinking outside the box. We could all think inside a box and put compilations out which sound exactly the same, while sitting around saying that the scene needs changing and moaning that it needs new faces. We actually want to move the scene forward by bringing, presenting and introducing new sounds to the forefront. And fingers crossed we hope we have achieved that on Fused Rocking Beats. And because of that vision we get people in the mainstream saying to us that our sound will work really well in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Japan and in other parts of the world because it's not something that they've heard before, it's something that new and innovative.

Richard: Putting a compilation album together can be hard work, with getting tracks licensed and all that, so are there any stories of what you had to go through to get a track?

Manga: We took out loans to pay for four of them, we worked in death squads to get the money for four of them, I've sold my soul to two of them and I'm working all hours of the night after this interview for the others in an Indian restaurant washing dishes!!

(Laughter)

Sharnita: We're very fortunate having Shaanti, having Manga's show on Galaxy and I occasionally do reviews, so we're part of a music community where we talk music, live music and we share music that hasn't been released. We've got great communication skills and great contacts and as soon as people found out that we were putting an album together they instantly gave us tracks to consider, and suddenly we were at a point where we had too many tracks. There were so many times when we thought 'oh my God this is a great track, but we just can't squeeze it on' - that's why 'Fused Rocking Beats' is going to be a series. As there is too much good dance music out there that shouldn't be ignored.

Richard: Putting a compilation album together can be intense, have you got any stories you can share with us?

Manga: There are some stories though…

Sharnita: Yeah, The Nextmen's people went away just as we were finalising everything and getting contacts locked down before the CD went to press - that got us on the edge.

Manga: All in all, it wasn't that bad because it's our own label. If you're compiling an album for someone then we're up against deadlines and label bosses 'want it done by this date' and if its not sorted you have to choose your reserves which can weaken your product. But the beauty of doing it ourselves means that we can change our deadlines if it means we have to do so to make the product stronger.

Sharnita: Another good thing about being the boss is you can tailor the tracks when you feel necessary. For example in one of the tracks on the album I felt that one of the lyrics wasn't quite right, so we asked the artist to re-record it to make it more clearer and he did exactly that. Our producers turn around is so quick that they can respond to remedy tracks, which we feel need some adjustments. For me that's a good sign as it proves they are real producers and not a ghost producers as Manga mentioned before.

Fused Rocking Beats

Richard: How does 'Fused Rocking Beats' (click here to view album review) -differ to the 'Urban Underground' compilation you guys were involved with a few years ago? Sharnita: 'Urban Underground' was a really fantastic project to work on with Ministry of Sound. At the time everyone was going crazy for desi beats, it was everywhere with Panjabi MC and the crossover was really exciting and everyone wanted to have their piece of pie. Ministry of Sound gave us quite a lot of control over the product, and they also got tracks which we so wanted on the album, like 'Super Sharp Shooter' by the Ganja Kru and 'Body Rock' by Shimon and Andy C' and the results were fantastic. We loved that whole experience, putting together a 3

disk CD, and working with MOD but still something was missing. It still didn't quite didn't represent what we were about, and what Shaanti represents, and that whole experience was one of the main reasons why we wanted to set-up Shaanti Play Records.

Manga: I totally agree with what Sharnita says, back then it was a different time, different place and mindset. Like I said earlier, we love thinking outside the box and we weren't quite allowed to do that on 'Urban Underground'. I mean, when you look at the names of our club nights like Sutraaeton, Funkshaan and even our flyers, they're not your normal type of thing. Because of where we come from and our experiences it is only right to do our own thing - our own way. We could easily carry on compiling for other people and getting big compilation fees but we don't stand for that - we don't like being told what to do, how to do it… when we have great foundations in-house ourselves. Don't get me wrong. It was great doing stuff with Ministry Of Sound; we learned so much from them. Our main objective from that deal was to learn from them. While we researched the market while setting up Shaanti Play Records we noticed a lot of people went bust or set up a label the wrong way. Some labels don't really know what they're doing and within eighteen months they go bust, stop-producing albums, stop investing in artists and in the end stop taking risks. We're in this for the long term, just like with Shaanti, which has been in existence for seven years, and has now grown into a internationally renowned brand. So for the label we're going to use the same strategy and template as we learnt from MOS and Shaanti.

Sharnita: 'Urban Underground' was also an exclusive project not only to us as a collective but to the scene as the whole. At that time we were the first to produce three CDs, which cost a tenner featuring over 16 exclusive unreleased tracks from Asian artists and producers from the scene. It also had club tracks, desi beats, drum and bass - there was every genre represented from each scene and each CD had its own innovative style, which was a big result for us.

Manga: A lot of labels could've put that together and asked for £18 or so, but because we know are markets we knew that the majority of Asian people aren't going to spend that amount of money on an album, even if it does have three CDs and 30 tracks. That's one of the reasons why Ministry of Sound/Decadance are a great label, they understand their markets and they give value for money for their customers.

Sharnita: We're still great friends with people at Ministry of Sound and we took 'Fused Rocking Beats' to them and asked for their feedback, because they know about what works in the mainstream and that helped us to reach our markets further.

Richard: What kind of release is the album getting? Where is the best place for people to get hold of it?

Sharnita: It'll be available in all the Asian stores as well as a few independent dance outlets as well. We might make it into HMV, but our website will be a good way of getting more information on how you can get a copy. We're also in the midst of setting up a mainstream deal with Internet music provider as well with a legal downloading service but more will be announced soon.

Richard: Cool, ok we'll talk a little bit about the actual sound of Shaanti now. I've reviewed desi underground albums and described a track as having an actual 'Shaanti beat', but I've always found it difficult to explain that and put it into words. How would you describe that?

(Manga starts cackling)

Sharnita: It's right you can't put words to it because Shaanti hasn't got any words to explain what we are. We're not this, or that; we're a bit of everything. What we've always said about Shaanti is that it's about the future. We create a buzz around beats, its like when you go a club for the first time and the DJ plays that track you really wanna hear and you get up and start jumping on the dance floor - cause the beat is driving you insane. Well that's what we try and capture, plus we want that type of element, that kind of excitement in everything we do We can mix global dance music with an Asian twist, or Asian dance music with a mainstream beat, bhangra with rock, or Eastern rock fuelled with Bollywood chants. So how you categorise it - you just can't and that's the beauty of Shaanti. We're indescribable and a lot of people don't get that!

Manga: We don't do too many interviews, and you don't see us (as individuals) in the press too often, for our own reasons. As the more comments you make then the more you commit yourself to be promoting one sound. People's taste generally change and we change a lot and it wouldn't be correct for us to come out and one week say "we stand for this" and then do an interview two weeks later and say something totally different. There isn't a genre that can describe us, it's an experience you get when you walk through those club doors and you either hate it or you love it. If you don't like it then that's ok, we can't force you to like it, we will just advise you to check out Funkshaan or Sutraaeton as both club nights have their own unique vibe. But the people who love Shaanti and connect with the music might come back the next month and see that it's a totally different sound being played. So even if you came to one of our gigs and weren't feeling it, come back again as there's a chance you'll love it because it's always a different sound and experience each month. Our music policy always changes and that's why you can't describe our sound.

Sharnita: We're a hotbed of new music. I mean, the words 'desi beats' is kind of dying out now and now people are talking about fusion and which represents a bit of everything. Fusion with black music, fusion with raggaeton music, fusion with Asian sounds and bhangra. Call it what you wanna call it, it's your interpretation really.

(Richard looks both of them in the eye with a wry smile before starting his next question)

Richard: Underground Asian music…(Everybody laughs)

Sharnita: Ok, we're gonna crack this now. Underground dance music.

Richard: All right, Underground dance music with an Asian twist - is that ok?

(they both nod but look a little unsure, so Richard shakes his head knowing he's fighting a losing battle)

Richard: THAT music has had a good year in 2005, with Nitin Sawhney, Asian Dub Foundation, Midival Punditz, the Nasha guys all releasing good product. What has been different this year compared with previous times? Is it the quality of output from artists, people becoming more receptive or is it something totally different?

Sharnita: All music is different. Plus it's the progression of any great music scene. We're striving right now as a community be it Bhangra, fusion, drum or bass or remix's work the UK's never been better for producing great music. Right now there are these names like ADF, Visionary Underground and the Dhol Foundation who are out in the scene with new releases. They haven't been around with new stuff in the last few years, because they've been locked away in the studio or touring the world. Now their products are finished and are out on the shelves alongside other names who are championing and placed under the fusion banner. It's not a case of bhangra versus fusion or who has a good year, it just happens that right now there's been a lot of fusion music released all within this year, which is attracted a lot of publicity. The reason being is because most of these artists are being managed better and promoted properly. Plus artists like Nitin Sawhney, TDF and ADF have a unique sound that can never be copied or sampled and that is why their music is more receptive, plus there target audience is worldwide - they don't just limit themselves to the Asian market.

Manga: It has been a fantastic year and some quality albums have come out, for instance Asian Dub Foundation, Nitin Sawhney and Talvin Singh's first album for four years is coming out in India, Joi's album is supposed to be coming out next year, Gaudi's album is out this year and a lot of fusion compilations on lots of different labels will be surfacing more in 2006. From 2002 to 2005 there was this whole desi beats madness and we had some serious crap being released and it's a shame because the crap overshadowed some great music being made people from the Bhangra scene. I think it came to a point when some people in the industry realised we need some quality music and they chose to get behind ADF's album and music like that. Mainstream labels were waiting so long for the next 'Mundian Tho Bach Ke' and in the end it never happen and it resulted in disappointed, which eventually mucked up a lot of deals for other Bhangra producers being signed.

Sharnita: The scenes are different as well; you can't really compare bhangra DJs and producers to a band. ADF are a great example because they're more respected in the industry as a great live band. They can take their time in the studio and work on tracks as a band, whereas a solo producer with a vocal can knock out something very quickly. The mechanics of putting a album or single together are a lot more faster for an individual. Hence the reason why bands and musicians have one album released a year.

Sharnita

Manga: The people in the bands all have their own musical talents within our section of the Asian industry, whereas some of the bhangra producers aren't even producers at all, and have their engineers to most of the work for them. You hear these stories of them saying 'I was up till four o'clock in the studio cooking a beat' when really they was up till four o'clock in the morning making coffee for their engineer to keep him awake because they had a deadline to meet. I'm not knocking the engineers, they've probably all been trained and gone to music college and are talented individuals. But the problem we've got is that in comparison with the number of Asian people in this country there aren't enough of these trained and talented people to make the quality music needed.

Richard: There are people out there who are anti…THAT type of music, and say it tears traditions apart. What would you say to those haters?

Sharnita: That's rubbish. I'm Punjabi so what's wrong with me using Punjabi lyrics in a modern dance, club beat? So its ok for hip-hop beats to be used with Bollywood lyrics, its aright to have a tumbi paced over Brit-Asian MC - people think that's cool as it's been done by a famous producer but when people like us are doing it they say we're tearing traditions apart?! That does annoy me. My parents came over to the UK in the sixties and they needed to entertain themselves so they brought in the tabla and the baja, they sat around and sang their boliyan's and that was how they made their music. As kids we heard that, but when we turned on the radio we heard popular music AKA pop. As we was growing up we went through different movements like the new romantics, to dance, to acid jazz as well as Hip Hop, soul, R&B and of course Bollywood and Bhangra. All we're doing is taking modern day influences while amalgamating it with our motherland vibes so how can anyone say that's wrong? I mean, if you take a Chamkila or a Lember track and mix it with an old two-step beat then it's going to be a bit of a mess and I don't support that. But if your making new music and new beats is what I'm a massive supporter of. Sampling and regurgitating something with the same old tumbi riff or dhol beat that everyone's doing is something that can be criticised for because it bastardises and insults the original. But regurgitating and mixing it in with a heavy new beat like Tigerstyle, Trailblazers and The Kalyan well I'll support that as I'm feeling their vibe.

Manga: Everyone's entitled to constructive criticism, but half of the people making those criticisms should be taken with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day, music is music and it can divide and unite people and everyone has their own opinion, but unfortunately sometimes we get too divided over music. The world is f***ed up and its not right to make it more f***ed up because we have a difference of opinion over what sounds nice. I don't listen to, say, French African rock music for example but I'm not saying it's good or it's not good. There are people who there who refuse to listen to any other sound - especially in the desi beats market - but what they don't realise is that most of the tracks they buy are mixed up against old and tired samplers. Going back to our album, there two tracks on there; one by the Kalyan and the other by Prithpal Sirjeet feat. Banni Sandhu. Both use Punjabi lyrics over a hard dance beat, it's a modern Punjabi track but I bet you there'll be people from the Asian music scene (especially artists and producers) slaggin it of because it doesn't fit in and sound like there 'desi beats' they're so used to. These two tracks are gonna hit the scene hard and stand out so much, with good and bad publicity cause people either don't want to hear anything new or are so for it - there're will be a divide. Which will be a shame, as the people who aren't into it will go back to buying music made by ghost producers. If you don't like something then leave it to the people who do. People seem to spend too much of their time slapping other people down when really we should all be focusing on improving ourselves as a music community. And that is why are album is a mix-mash of Asian Dance Beats - there's something on there for everyone. It a collection of Asian and global dance beats. We're from a club dance scene so its only right that we produce a dance album all fused up!

Richard: This genre is fuelled by club nights and Shaanti as a club night has been going since 1999. What is it that gives Shaanti its sticking power? We see so many 'regular' Asian club nights start up and a few weeks down the line they're a piece of history.

Sharnita: We don't insult the clubbing community. We give lead acts and high cut profiling and when people come to Shaanti they are treated as if there're coming to a superclub. It's like going to Ministry or Fabric or any of the big club night that the mainstream can provide. Our clubbers pay money to get in and have a good experience and that's why we've been going so long. We're not here to make money by packing the venue out with door-to-door people, we're here to entertain people for the six hours the minute the doors open and closes.

Manga: We're the duttiest desi disco!! (As quoted by Touch Magazine) A lot of the other club nights are run by jokers, that's the honest truth. It's all about money for them and they don't realise that when people pay money you have to give them a good experience. For example the venue we use for Sutraaeton is Chi, which is a converted terraced house that we don't try and just pack it out. Sadly we turn away a lot of people from that night as we try to emanate a fun, non-attitude free party in a danceable environment. With Shaanti you've got a different sort of thing, the entrance is more expensive than Sutraaeton but you get great visuals, a great sound system - Function 1 sound system to be precise - it's the sort of system that Massive Attack uses for their live sets! You're talking the level of equipment that proper music-heads use and it all adds to the clubbing experience. If you pay ten pounds to get in to any venue, you don't want to hear speakers crackling, someone miming because the mic is broken. When we book live acts are clubbers hear the actual sound. We don't turn anything down, we get the engineers and whatever's necessary to made out night and their performance or DJ set to sound good. So when people pay to see ADF, they get and hear ADF, when people come for Talvin Singh, they get Talvin Singh and if they pay to see Nitin Sawhney - be it a DJ set or an acoustic set - then that's exactly what they get. No Asian club in one year has accomplished what we've done. We're not boasting about it, but a lot of people who have try it have said; 'we're going to put together a regular club night', but what they don't realise is what a hard job it is, and if you put the effort into it then you can succeed. We're also very passionate about what we do, we've got a great team involved and we always plan ahead to make sure it's something different. We shake that box with the music policy because we know that everything has to change. That means the DJs change, the resident's change and the main acts change, but at the same time we nurture DJ talent and help these up and coming people become the big names. Because we're on the pulse people still keep coming through the doors and it's also good when they stop on the way out and think 'I didn't get bottled in the head today'. Sometimes it can happen unfortunately, but its not like it's the norm. And there are people who go out clubbing and they expect to get beaten up and get into a fight, but I say drop that mentality because we're not about that. That's what those jokers are about, it may happen because if there's one bad pea then something can happen but it's definitely not the norm. People should drop that attitude because it's about the music at the end of the day.

Sharnita: Our club regulars are very demanding as well. I've known DJs who have walked into Shaanti (Birmingham) thinking it's an easy gig but when they're on stage they get scared because the people on the dance floor force them to up their game. If they are playing a bad set then our clubbers will stand and look at them and let them know that they demand more. I'm from London and what I love about Shaanti in Birmingham is that you're not just getting a normal set, you're getting a shit hot hard dance set because our crowd demand it.

Manga: Dropping that mix CD you made last night isn't going to work because you need to adapt to what your crowd wants. You can't hide your laptop with your iTunes behind the decks people know about it and your reputation can go down hill fast when everybody calls you DJ Laptop Joker.

Richard: I've seen Nitin DJ at Shaanti using a laptop.

Manga: Yeah, but he uses the laptop to enhance his performance and make it sound better. I don't ban laptops, but you can't press play and sit down and have a drink, or play a pre-recorded CD and pretend to be playing. It does happen...trust me I've seen it all at other events.

Sharnita: When we did the Asian Dub Foundation live concert, we drained the pool and had the marquee set up. At first they were like 'what the fu** is this?', but after the gig the guys came up to me afterwards and said that this was what the UK needs. They had a five-date UK tour and they said our date was one of best they have done. They're sound engineer also said - bear in mind it was at the beginning of April - it felt like they're performing live someone where in Europe at a festivals with an open eared, mixed multi-cultural crowd to whom they had to deliver.

Manga: When you've got artists who want to come and play at your gigs, that's when you know you've got something good. I can say "my club night is the best" to everyone but when artists agree then you know you've got weight. We get people like Martin Morales and Transglobal Underground who go around the world across continents and when I give them a ring to book them and they're about to play a superclub in Japan or something they've said "I was waiting for you to call me, when are you getting me on?" They see all the top clubs but they enjoy the challenge of Shaanti. Even Tigerstyle who play at loads of desi gigs, they love Shaanti because it's different but in a totally positive way to what they're used to.

Sharnita: We also market ourselves with acts who make music and have been signed to big international record labels alongside up-and-coming names. We don't say we're an Asian club night, we say that we're just a club night. We open our doors to everyone, and you don't see a straight brown crowd at Shaanti. That makes us different to a bhangra gig, few weeks ago we were in The Times newspaper [www.timesonline.co.uk] as one of the top 5 (no 4 to be more precise) events nationwide. They explained our night really well as they realised we weren't a night just for people with an ethnic background; we have an ethnic background that can be experienced by everybody. We're a niche club night that stands proud alongside any other superclub plus we are the only global fusion night to have been going strong, every month (without a break) for more than 6 years now.

Manga: We try and cater for everyone, and that's why we launched Funkshaan and Sutraaton because we love some music that for one reason or another just wouldn't work in Shaanti and for the people who want to hear that music they can go to one of the other gigs and experience that style of music there.

Sharnita: Funkshaan was launched as commercial desi beats and R&B, and next month it will be celebrating it's second birthday is in November 12 at Digress with Bobby Friction from Radio 1 and 3 Style from Galaxy, I have to say that night is growing into a really nice brand. We not like other promoters, we don't have twelve acts on the flyer and only three turn up, we don't have two DJs in two rooms playing the same music, we set ourselves higher standards than that and I think that's what people like.

Richard: If you had to pick one night that you guys put together which was the best, which one would it be? Who was playing and why was the vibe so firing?

Sharnita: For me it has to be the ADF live concert because it was such a challenge for us. We'd never done anything on that scale before and we had to get everything in. From the rig, to the soundsystem to the lights, the stage, we'd never had something so complex before. It went smoothly, and I remember sitting back in disbelief and thinking 'this is our night' and moving from DJs to live gigs was amazing. It's something we want to do more of next year and succeed at it, because it's such a magical experience. Not just from the vibe on the night but the feedback we got from them as well on our first attempt at something like that was just amazing.

Manga: They're massive anyway and that put more pressure on us to provide them and their fanatical supporters with a good experience.

Sharnita: Musically, Midival Punditz were awesome and to see everyone jumping up and down with their hands in the air was brilliant as well.

Manga: For me it was when we drained the pool and had Nitin Sawhney live outside for the first time. It was the Jubilee weekend so everyone had a long weekend and on the Friday we had the idea to have a Shaanti type of fest with stalls around the edge and we got the marquee out on one of the hottest days of the summer and it was mad. We had the Dhol Foundation playing, live tabla players, as well as Nitin and it was great to have fifteen hundred people all having a good time. Then when it finished we got to take it all down and take it to Cargo for the same thing again the next day. It was just a mad weekend.

Manga and Sharnita

Sharnita: My funniest memory was just before the Medicine Bar got refurbished. We'd set up the first fusion club (Shaanti) in Poland and some Polish guys had come over to experience Shaanti here in the UK, which they loved, especially the warehouse space where the main acts place. In that room we have a high stage and this guy from Poland who was so hyped from the night just got up on it and did a stage dive right in to the crowd! Of course everyone moved out the way and he just went plonk onto the floor!! How rock and roll!! (laughter)

Manga: There are loads more but the police would have to get involved so I won't say anything. (laughter)

Richard: Within the desi dance genre, the club nights are firing but the record sales are a little behind. What would you put that down to?

Manga: Internationally the sales are huge, like in Japan. I think it's just the UK were they're behind because there's the shadow of the urban and desi beats vibe, and because of that people have more exposure to that type of music and not so much to our (fusion & Asian dance) type of music. When young Asians wake up they listen to Usher or to bhangra and it just kind of stops there. They're not opened minded enough at the moment. Asian music has always been behind in the UK, and it doesn't get promoted enough. Abroad, you'll see governments putting money into showcasing Asian music from a classical level up, so that the people in those cities can experience it as a massive genre but in the UK we don't get that.

Sharnita: Piracy, bootlegs and the Internet are also playing a vital role in sales as well. It's something that we realise more than we did before because as a label it hurts us directly. What you get is too much ease for people to go on the Internet, download it, burn it and give it to their mates as well as distributing through MSN and it just all adds up and it's the reason why sales have fallen so dramatically.

Manga: Some artists in our genre have sold an awful lot of records, for example Nitin and Talvin Singh, but there has been a time when many artists haven't been managed and promoted properly and hopefully this year and next year managers will come into play, and PR campaigns are locked down and the sales will pick up. Everyone needs exposure and if a good album is sent to a magazine, Internet site or newspaper and they tell their readership it is great and then hopefully people will buy it. Self-promotion is also involved. We're very lucky because of our (Shaanti) brand we get a lot of people trying to obtain our CD through a website, club nights and I know we get more enquiries than any shop on Soho Road does.

Richard: Manga, you also front the Desi Dance Beats show on the Galaxy radio network, tell us when people can catch you and what to expect from the show.

Manga: Yeah, I'm on Saturday mornings from 2 till 4am, and the EXCLUSIVE news is that very soon people will be able to listen again on the website - www.galaxyfm.com. The bosses have decided that the specialist shows will have this opportunity, which is great to move the scene forward. You'll have to register and be a member at Galaxy but you'll be able to check out Desi Dance Beats at your convenience through your computer. The great thing about my show is it stands for everything the club night stands for, which is pushing forward new talent and playing great music.
Richard: Sharnita, you started out as a dancer with Joi, before going into PR and…and…and there's a long list. In your professional career, what has been the best experience and what's it like being independent in the industry?

Sharnita: I think the best experience is being able to hear new music. I met Joi at an the first ever Asian DJ competition back in 1987, and I've always loved hearing new music and it's always been there for me. I feel very privileged to have been part of projects that have worked. I love being part of things that are new. Touch wood, everything what I've done from promoting to what I do now just makes me even more passionate about working in music. My next step is making beats, I want to make music now and that is where my passion is going, and I wouldn't have been able to do that without everything else I've done in my past.

Manga: Sharnita is also representing for all the Asian sisters as well. People need role models and Sharnita has proven that passion and effort can make you successful. It's mainly the Asian girls who are buying the CDs out there and the role models they have aren't that big, so as they have the power in the market it is only right that they are represented also.

Sharnita: (to Manga) I won't able to get my big head out of the door!! (laughter)

Richard: Where do you guys see yourselves in the next few years?

Sharnita: We want to be the biggest and most successful independent record label in Asian and global dance music. We want to continue and push the music we believe in especially new music. As long as there's new music, producers and DJs around then there will also be Shaanti.

Richard: Have you any final words for the desitunes4u readers out there?

Sharnita: Thank you to everyone for your support with the club nights and I hope we have given you a great experience with Fused Rocking Beats Vol 1. It's our goal to deliver our unique sound to all our supporters across the world. We have an obligation…we haven't forgotten that it's all about making the dance floor jump.

Manga: Yeah, everyone who enjoys Shaanti will enjoy the album, it's out on the 31st of October and for those who don't know about Shaanti, check out the album and you'll get a feeling of the buzz we create. And Richard is drawing some really weird pictures in shorthand because the tape has ran out, I'm confused but they look pretty cool!!

A big thank you to Manga and Sharnita for speaking to us, you can get more information on Shaanti at their website, www.shaanti.co.uk e: music@shaanti.co.uk