Sid Khosla: Music's new zing thing in the US, UK

London: We all remember Goldspot, the orange fizzy drink of the 80s. Well what we don't know is that it actually inspired an Indian American to form a band.

Yes, Siddhartha Khosla named his band after the drink. And now Goldspot's music is creating fizz in radio stations in the US and UK and will soon be in India also.

The young singer, who can sing a Rafi song as easily as English pop, has sung a song called Friday, which has been simultaneously released in Hindi and English by Khosla and his band, Goldspot.

“I grew up singing in Hindi. I used to sing bhajans even at parties. I love singing old Hindi songs by Mohd Rafi, Mukesh…so from the album this song was most suited as it has a Bollywood melody, an old sound to it,” says Khosla.

The musical arrangements for the Hindi version has been done by composer A R Rahman.

“Rahman is brilliant at what he does. When we got signed, the record company said, ‘let’s turn this into an album,’ I said, ‘wait, I need to go to India.’ They said, ‘why not do it with the LA Philharmonic Orchestra?’ I said, ‘this has to be the Chennai orchestra.’ So we went there. He oversaw the arrangements and worked with Srinivisan Murthy,” says Khosla.

Goldspot, formed in 2001, has now been signed on by Britain’s Mercury label. It plans to release its debut album, Tally of the Yes Men in India early next year. So, is Bollywood on the horizon?

“Depending on the film will do it. If it looks like a cool thing to do will do it. To tell you the truth, I have only seen one Hindi movie in my life and that's Mera Naam Joker,” says Khosla.

Not surprising then that when we asked him to sing, he obliged us with Jaane Kahan Gaye.

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