Indie Week - Showcase Ezzyland

Sidharth Ezhilan blends colorful storytelling as EZZYLAND. The Dubai resident migrated to the motherland earlier this year on a mission: to raise the bar and change the game in the growing indie music scene to eventually make India one of the hottest music destinations in the world. He never refrains from left-field quintessential commentary on the current state of music, and it's consumption. He's been carving a niche for himself amidst an international audience by bringing his unique sound from the future into places that are stuck in the past. He's proving influential to generations of both homegrown and overseas artists by putting out bodies of work that are way ahead of its time. He is a curator of alien music; a seamless radio station from the 31st century. The music is riddled with elements from a plethora of SoundCloud subgenres and experimentation. His tunes have made the rounds in TuneIn Radio stations for many mornings and have recently garnered quite the attention on Spotify. EZZYLAND played at the Future Theory Festival 2017 @Razzberry Rhinoceros in Mumbai. A few other notable venues include Antisocial Mumbai, Social Bangalore, Antisocial Delhi and the Boxout HQ. He hosts his monthly radio show "ZZY" on the boxout airwaves where he educates listeners with gems from across the underground spectrum for an hour. After overcoming months of personal struggles earlier last year, he released a very own and his most mature concept album to date, titled, "DEPS X ANXIES."

1. We haven't seen you perform much. Why so? Are you planning to play soon?

I've been told that I don't get booked often because I live down south and it costs a lot to fly me up there and accommodate me. I perform exclusively only for festivals and legit music venues across the country.

2. You are one of the few in India producing good Bass Music and attaining fans outside India as well. Tell us about your early influences and the time you all first started out your production.

I'm sure I've made pretty much every contemporary genre you can name at some point. I don't think of myself as a bass music artist at all. I've only ever thought of myself as a genre-blending, international artist. Most of my listeners are from the USA, France, Canada, UK - in that order. India is #7 on that list. I grew up listening to rap music, so all I wanted to do in the beginning was to make beats like Dre. The SoundCloud community pushed me to experiment and move away from conventional genres. I've been doing this for almost a decade now. I feel like I'm closer than ever to unlocking my signature sound.

3. How has life and your dreams changed after Kryptonite?

Oh, how I wish this was the song that changed everything...

4. What is next for Ezzyland?

For now, I wanna play festivals across the country and abroad and just travel with my shawty. I only play original music. I have almost 200 songs in my discography, and it grows by the day. I rap, sing, produce, mix, design my brand. I can probably do card tricks and whisper to penguins. I'm not sure. Just book me. I might lose all my hair at some point, but musically I'll never fall off. And with that, it's pretty clear that the genre-blending, graphics interpreter mammoth is up for some ambitious goals that I'm sure he will be conquering soon! You can find more of him here.