Rhythm of Love: In conversation with “5 Minutes”

Meet “5 Minutes”, the band that took social media by storm with their Hindi song, “Udaan”, which was released recently. The members of the band talk about their musical journey, the factors that brought them together, and more, in today’s Rhythm of Love. 

Eastern Mirror: Can you tell us how the “5 Minutes” band came about? How did you all meet?

5 Minutes: “5 Minutes” band came about in 2017 after talking about the possibility of working together as a band. We — Akup Ezra Noklang, Hentick Konyak, Akun Wanghum, Joseph Konyak and Yenwang Konyak — were friends even before the band started. Some of us are childhood friends and met some at a reality show before becoming friends; and the love and passion for music brought us all together.

Eastern Mirror: How did the name “5 Minutes” come about?

Well it’s funny! You know the band used to have a jamming session in the evening and every jamming session, one or the other member of the band came late, and when contacted, he used to go like, “hey guys I’m almost there, just 5 minutes”. The next day, the other member gets late and says the same thing. So the words ‘5 minutes’ keep popping up every now and then and finally, we just decided to call ourselves as “5 Minutes”.

Eastern Mirror: Most of you started as solo artists. So how did coming together as a band occur?

Yeah we all were working as solo artists before “5 Minutes”. And as mentioned earlier that we all have the same love and passion for music and have the same dream, we felt like if we all come together and work as a band, we can do much better and we don’t regret about it. We all are happier as a band then being solo artists.

Eastern Mirror: Which is easier- working as a band or solo? Why?

Working as a band is more fun when you have these amazing friends around you as your band mates and do everything together. But yeah, sometimes, obviously it’s harder being in a band because every individual is different from the other. There comes a time when you have to try to adjust in order to fit into the environment of the band. But nevertheless, we understand and respect each other and sort out every little thing together and enjoy every moment of our time together as a band.

Eastern Mirror: Tell us about the song “Udaan”.

Everybody has a goal; everybody has a dream in life. “Udaan” talks about that dream and the motivation one gets while moving towards achieving that goal.

Eastern Mirror: Who are your influences? Why did you all start off with a Hindi song?

We love Bollywood music and we also love any kind of music apart from Bollywood. We all come from different music background, like Akup whose inspiration comes from Western and pop music. The rest of us, even as Hindi singers, we all have different styles and inspirations and all of us try to add a little bit of our ourselves into every music that we make and we feel like that adds to the uniqueness of the band. We started off with a Hindi song, taking it as a big challenge, and we’re happy that we did that song.

Eastern Mirror: Coming from a background where Hindi is not your first language, you have been receiving positive comments on social media for your diction. How did you all polish your Hindi?

Well, it’s just our love and passion for the music that helps us to sing in Hindi. And it’s the love of these people who support us and make us feel like we’re doing it perfectly even though it might not be so. We really thank God for giving us the ability to sing in Hindi even though we never had any formal training.

Eastern Mirror: Working as a group may not be easy as each individual can have different ideas and tastes. How do you work it out? Any issues you faced initially?

Yeah in the beginning, there used to be some issues among us but we’re all learning and understand each other now, and growing together as a band. We’re like brothers first, and only after that, we’re a band.  We respect and love one another so much.

Eastern Mirror: Is “5 Minutes” band formed out of sheer fun or for long-term? What’s the ultimate direction of the band?

“5 Minutes” has a long way to go from here. We’ve other projects coming up soon and we’re still working and we’ll just keep working. We have shows coming up in a month or two. We have so many things to do as a band. We thank the Lord Almighty for making this band happen and we thank everyone who always supports us by showing their love and stand by us. We love you all.