Parekh & Singh: The musical duo in peppy suits combine East with West for dreamy pop

The camera pans in on two men in cheerful red suits, standing at the edge of a lake somewhere in rural Bengal, one playing the guitar and the other, drums. Sounds random, doesn't it? Welcome to the whimsical world of Parekh & Singh, the Indian pop duo that's merging the east with the west in their music and videos.

But first, let's backtrack. Nischay Parekh and Jivraj Singh are two Kolkata boys who've been making music together for six years, but released their maiden album, Ocean, in 2016. The year also saw them sign a five-album contract with Peacefrog Records, UK. On a high since the big kick-off, last month, the pair breezed through UK for their first international tour, performing in Dublin, Brighton, London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow.

Tipped by The Guardian as musicians to watch out for, Parekh & Singh have grabbed attention with their dreamy-pop lyrics, colourful clothing, and some perfectly hummable tunes. One of their popular numbers, I love you baby, I love you doll, which featured on Billboard magazine, has been viewed over 680,000 times on YouTube. Views are also soaring for their latest video, Ghost (244,000 at the time of writing). While the song Philosophize chronicles the story of how the loneliest whale in the world got his own song; I love you baby pays homage to moody love with it's opening lyrics Monday come slowly, I feel a bit out of touch / with all this daily heartache...it hurts me so much. The lyrics from their song Ghost, Change my life just upon a whim/ jump into the ocean learn to swim/ come to summer, winter, all and the seasons/ I guess that might be the reason—resonate a certain youthful preoccupation, which, one can assume, score high on relatability.

The songs could have been played out in any setting, but the musicians chose the earthy backdrop of their home, West Bengal. Surely, the contrast between the lyrics and the locales is a deliberate one? "I always wrote songs in English but there was a tipping point, when we signed with a label in UK. This pushed us to reveal our ethnic side, and where we're from. Until then, there wasn't any evidence of our culture or background. In our music, we could have this juxtaposition that we had been resisting for a long time," explains Parekh, songwriter and vocalist for the band. So a juxtaposition it was. In their videos you'll see grand old houses from the British Raj, or the pocket-sized pukurs (ponds) that dot the state of West Bengal. Palm trees flit through their video, as do village girls, wearing saris the traditional Bengali way.

Because of all the location hunting, the two now have a thorough knowledge of West Bengal's geography. "It's such a beautiful state. The landscape changes every 10 kilometers. In the north of Bengal you have coniferous foliage and then you have palm, coconut and mango trees," Parekh says.

Parekh and Singh's videos have been called Wes Andersonesque, but they dismiss the lofty comparison as compartmentalisation."If Wes Anderson were to direct our videos they would look very different," Nischay reasons.

All the same, the videos do bring out their brand of quirk, and for that, the boys have their friend, Misha Ghose, to thank. For example, while shooting for I love you baby in Puriberia, a small village, curious villagers flocked to watch the musicians crooning in the middle of nowhere, and became a part of the video.

For both artists, music is something they grew up with. Singh was introduced to music by his parents, both musicians, who exposed him to artistes such as Marvin Gaye, Hootie & the Blowfish, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, James Taylor and Stevie Wonder. Parekh, on the other hand, started writing songs when he was 10 years old, with encouragement from his guitar teacher, Tajdar Junaid. Both dabbled in accounting, helping parents with their respective businesses, before deciding to pursue music full time. Cut to their 2012 gig at a music festival in Bangalore, and there was no looking back!

"Feeding the momentum" is important to these boys who are on a winning streak, as they set out to "make new fans and reach new places". To that effect, the UK tour should put them in a good space, as Parekh & Singh had a full band traveling with them—rich bass and keyboard sounds structuring their music.

For the duo whose dream collaborations are Drake, Trent Reznor and Danger Mouse, music does not have a geographical identity. What it does have is a strange sense of wonder, that has caught the world's fancy.