The brainchild of Niralji Ravishanker and Rakesh Daniel, MONORIFF is what happens when an electronics-rock group meets pop sensibility ob the dancefloor.
Putting aside their experimental indie rock style to evolve into catchy dance beats, the duo strengthen their music production capabilities with this new setup.
Nirajli, with a filmmaking background, met Rakesh from the engineering faculty and formed the band while attending Multimedia University. Starting off as a five-piece band, the group began playing unreleased demo tracks at live performances including Fresh Bottle, MMU Cyberjaya and World Youth Festival, Putrajaya.
However, opening for Estranged at Music Republic, MMU Malacca in 2012, propelled them into public consciousness, growing enthusiastic local fans.
Being a band that played only original tracks landed them a radio interview and an on-air debut of “Back To Me”, a track described as a pop R&B single.
“We wanted to hear more authenticity and artistic expression in the music scene so we decided that we would not do covers while forming our band”, remarks Rakesh.
The band continued playing and released “Killing Your Own” and “Take Me Down” which was well received and the latter topping Hitz FM’s MET 10 program charts for several weeks.
Musically, the duo draw their inspiration from specific moments in their upbringing.
Niralji’s links his early exposure to films to his father taking him on five trips to the cinema to catch Jurassic Park, drawing him to the art of film music.
“An element which is the heart of all films”, remarks Niralji.
This passion further enhanced his technical ability in composing soundtracks for filmmaking.
Rakesh’s percussionist training which he started as a child, paired with his recent self-taught sound engineering skills, make up the electronic beats to Niralji’s occasional high-pitched falsetto vocals, in which he developed a liking from his father’s Bee Gees karaoke home set.
These distinctive styles now define the underlying tunes of MONORIFF.
The duo cite their other large influences being Avicii’s country-infused electronica tunes, original soundtracks from the Star Wars saga, Lord of the Rings trilogy and melodious Tamil music, notably A.R Rahman, Harris Jeyaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja.
The band later released their single, “Away From You” under the project name Human to be more accessible publicly, however later returned to the original name MONORIFF, by popular request.
After a one year break as a band, MONORIFF is back as an electronica duo, prepared to release five singles that explore the melancholy attached to the modern pursuit for love.
Followed by hints of an upcoming album with their present music influences from instrumental, symphonic and orchestral music. Armed with love-struck beats, MONORIFF continues propelling as a volatile wave of musical genius with the momentum they have built to date.