Genevieve Looi
UrbanWire had a chance to chill out with music duo Jack & Rai at the Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest where 12 funky flavours (reviewed by UrbanWire) were specially flown in to the Marina Barrage. We grilled the producers on the music scene as well as their favourite Ben & Jerry’s flavours and were amused by their tight chemistry (they could finish each other’s sentences) and their crazy antics even before we were through with the interview.
UrbanWire: As producers for the Chunk Tunes CD, released in conjunction with the Chunk Fest, what qualities do you look out for when picking the best bands?
Rai: “We’re going to record an original song from one of the chosen bands. So essentially, we’re looking out for good songs. Primarily, we’re looking at their technical ability and whether we think they’re good enough to record ‘live’, because if they’re not tied [in terms of chemistry], it’s going to be very difficult, and, of course, going in line with the whole Ben & Jerry’s theme of…”
Jack & Rai: “Peace, love & ice cream!”
Jack: “Most importantly, with that vibe. We’re looking at bands which are already quite tied, because we’re going to track all of them live, we want everybody to sound good and the CD to sound nice. So, I guess these are the qualities we look out for.”
UrbanWire: What else will you be busy with, apart from the Chunk Tunes CD?
Rai: “Well, basically we do a lot of regular bar gigs, which are at Wala Wala and Timbre. Usually in the day now we’ve undertaken some production work. We do songwriting…”
Jack: “And we do some commercial work here and there, for okto channel and Channel 5 to keep us busy in the day time.”
UrbanWire: Is there anything that you find weird about working with each other?
Jack: “I don’t find anything weird about Rai, but the only funny thing I find about him is that he likes to eat Chinese food every time… and I always eat prata!” Prata is a type of flat Indian pancake.
UrbanWire: What’s your favourite Chinese food, Rai?
Jack: “Wanton mee. (A dish of yellow noodles with barbecued pork slices and vegetables). Ask me and I’ll answer for him!”
Rai: “Jack always eats prata. He normally eats cheese or plaster.”
Jack: “I like it fresh, I don’t like the one where they all just… (motioning someone taking prata that’s been pre-cooked vs freshly made). Soon we’ll get Ben & Jerry’s to put 1 scoop over our prata!”
UrbanWire: Speaking about Ben & Jerry’s flavours, which flavour would you say describes yourself best and why?
Jack: “Okay, I go first! I was gonna say Cherry Garcia because I knew I always liked that. But after we started hanging out with Moe Moe, Daniel, Benjamin from B & J’s and all the guys helping out, it’s got to be Chocolate Macadamia. I like it because I like the white base, because it’s like a white-based ice cream… And it’s got nuts! It’s got brown chocolate salty macadamia nuts! And I like that…”
UrbanWire: So why do you think it represents you?
Rai: “Why do you represent Chocolate Macadamia Nut? Do you have 2 chocolate macadamia nuts? (Chuckles)”
Jack: “It’s just cheeky, and it’s a nice combination. It’s nice!”
Rai: “I would like to think that I’m like Peanut Butter Cookie Dough. I just had it and it’s nice. It’s a nice blend of savoury and sweet, and I’d like to think I’m a blend like that. Because… I’m savoury like most Indian guys, but I’m also sweet.”
Jack: “And to take things to the next step, if there was a Ben & Jerry’s flavour for Jack & Rai,”
Rai: “It would be a Chocolate Vanilla Swirl.”
Jack: “Yah!”
UrbanWire: What about your favourite flavour?
Jack: “It’s gotta be the same. Chocolate Macadamia!”
Rai: “For me, it would be Cookie Dough. Or… Cake Batter.”
Jack: “Yeah, Cake Batter is nice.”
Rai: “I think I’ll change…”
Jack: “Yeah Rai changed, it’s Cake Batter!”
UrbanWire: You two have been working with each other for quite a while already, right?
Jack: “Too long!”
UrbanWire: If you couldn’t work with each other, which other musician(s) would you work with or would you just go solo?
Jack: “If you ask me that question now, I’d go with the fact that if it wasn’t Rai, I’d be solo. Seriously. I don’t know, we didn’t plan for this to go this far, come this far, be here today, being the music producers and all that… Continue leh!”
Rai: “Oh, yes, but I think before I met Jack I was actually solo and personally, I’m very picky about the people I work with so I would probably just be resigned to staying solo.”
Jack: “I guess Rai is right. We started off solo, so coming together as a duo, even then back in ’02 when we started, we were very cautious and I guess things just went on, we just found our comfort zone. And we’re here today where we are. If we weren’t together, we’d be solo!”