RDB (an acronym for Rhythm, Dhol, Bass) is a band formed by three British Indian brothers in 2001, whose style blends western genres with traditional Punjabi beats and vocals. The Punjabi DJ production group comprised of Kuly (Kuldeep), Manj (Manjeet) and Surj (Surjeet). In April 2011, Kuldeep was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and passed away on 22^nd May 2012 in Houston Texas. Nindy Kaur is the latest addition to the group and is the wife of Manjeet.

After the demise of Kuly Ral in 2012 and the recent statement from Manj which confirmed his exit from RDB in order to pursue his solo career, there were rumours about the closure of the band. However, Surj, the only existing member of RDB has taken it on himself to carry on the legacy of RDB and lead the team from the front.

The band’s specialty is that they blend western tunes with traditional Punjabi beats and songs. They also blend bhangra, house, garage, Hindi Bollywood, R & B, hip hop, and dance music into their songs.

Going back to their roots, the band is based in UK and Canada. In 2003, they won "Best Club DJ Bhangra" at the UK Asian Music Awards and are also on the Brampton Walk of Fame. Ever since their initial release in 2001, they have influenced many and as a result have also formed an international fan base of millions from all ages and backgrounds. These three brothers carved a niche for themselves as they redefined the way Bhangra music was looked and made a new genre called British Bhangra and it also gave them fame and recognition.

With almost a decade of hits under their belt, they have also conducted successful live concerts almost all over the world.

To date the band has five albums and are known hit makers in the Bollywood circuit. They also have scores of soundtracks and hit singles. They are credited for hits in Bollywood like the Akshay Kumar starrer Namastey London, Singh is King, among many others. They have also worked with rapper Snoop Dogg, and have lately done a song with singer and rapper T-Pain. 

On one of their visits to Mumbai before the split when T-Pain performed with RDB on RDB’s new song Daddy Da Cash, we met Manjeet the main vocalist and music producer of the band to know more about RDB and the collaboration with T Pain and how the band makes those fabulous hits.

How did the collaboration with T-Pain come about?

Well actually I have a friend Pratik and he’s a good friend of T-Pain’s manager and he was part of the team that worked with Ludacris and he introduced us to the managers and we told him we have this song, it’s called Daddy Da Cash, it’s all about money. T-Pain is a really cool guy, easy going, yesterday when I was chatting with him; he was speaking Hindi on MTV. So he’s okay doing all these funky things and so he met us and we decided to go to the studio and sing and record the song. S it is our track featuring T-Pain who gives the international sound to the song and we hopefully will release it this summer. We are also shooting the music video right here in Mumbai with T-Pain, and he’s gonna come out with all his Indian elements, so it’s going to be a very interesting and cool video. We are also going to make do some Bollywood dance.. (Laughs)

Can you tell us something on the collaboration with RDB on the song Daddy Da Cash?

Anything that T-Pain does is different. Those who have heard his music will know its T-Pain and those who have not heard it will know T-Pain. Same goes for the video; he’ll bring his own style into the video.

You seem to always have a success mantra for films with Akshay Kumar. What is the magic?

When I am in Mumbai I always make it a point to meet Akshay. Akshay knows what he wants, he is very specific and he just reaches out when he knows he needs a certain kind of song. Now we are under a lot of pressure from production houses to do this kind of song and that kind of song. So he knows we are just a phone call away and he can just call us or we can call him and we just go ahead and do it. Like I also said we are also working on a few Bollywood projects together.

You keep doing single hits, have you even thought of making an entire film soundtrack?

A full soundtrack yes, it is surely happening and slowly we are going to get there. It’s in the works. Everybody just comes to us like hit makers. We made a movie, we made a soundtrack, but we need a hit. So come to RDB and they’ll give you one hit and our film is done. And that is why everybody approaches us all the time. We have been approached by people who have said let’s make more soundtracks, why make one hit make 10 hits. So as I said, it’s in the process, we are working with one production house now and it’s going well for us.

Do you plan to find a replacement for your brother Kuly?

No no, I don’t we’d ever need to find a replacement. Nobody could ever replace Kuly. His input into the business is his replacement. His music that he gave us and everything he told me is his replacement. O yeah, we are going to carry on and we are very focused and we know what to do and do what we want to do.

How did you guys get into singing?

I think we just got thrown into singing and it was my dad actually we used to go with him to the gurudwara and sit with him and listen to him and he he’s to sing to us raags, but we then just kids and we never really took it seriously, we had other pastimes like cricket and games, but you know today, I really wish I had known all the raags and the things he wanted to teach us. But yeah I am not classically trained and don’t know about the raags, so I am not taught professionally but I am self taught. However we just have a vision about how music should be. So vocally I wouldn’t say that I am the best vocalist in the world, like say Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, however I can vocally deliver to the best of my extent our vision of our music.

You have not released any new album since 2007, though Worldwide an album was due in 2011. Comment?

Yeah, the album Worldwide is still not out the reason being is that we made 6 songs for the album and from there, 4 were chosen for Bollywood movies. So now if we do a few more songs, again someone will come and take the songs and then it repeats itself again and again and so we never end up doing the album.

Do you guys have any relations back home here in India?

Yeah I do have a lot of relations back here in India and so we are always back and forth travelling to the UK and India.

Tell us something about these tattoos on your body.

I have three tattoos. This one is Nindy, this is my wife’s nickname on my right side of my neck and this one on my forearm is my son’s name Anoop Singh and this one’s a tiger ‘Sher Khanda’ on my right shoulder arm which I designed by myself.

Are you guys also into some other family business back in UK?

No no, this is our full time business, music is our business and we spend all our time in music.

How did the name RDB come about?

RDB basically stands for Rhythm, Dhol and Bass. But actually before when we first started we didn’t have a name, Criminal effects and really shady and stupid names, We didn’t know what we were going to call ourselves and then we really liked R & B music and we thought about it and used the letters RB and in between we added the word Dhol and so it became RDB.

You have given so many hits for Bollywood. Any favorite stars?

They are all very good, but really actually I quite like Aftab Shivdasani, a very close friend of ours and then there’s Akshay Kumar and no really favorite film stars, but I really like Ranbir Kapoor for I think he is holding the fort for great acting skills, takes very good story lines.

What about the female actresses?

(Smiles) Bipasha Basu was my favorite actress there’s no doubt about it, but then it slowly went down from Bipasha to Chitraganda. She looks gorgeous and looks very good.

Is India or UK a bigger market for you?

Definitely India. 100 percent India. India has its own market. India does not need anything outside India. It’s got its own world.

What plans do you have for the future?

Yeah we are going to do a whole bunch of live shows, concerts, college fests and well as weddings. So we have a lot to look out for and we are already building the band right not.

Text and Photos by Verus Ferreira