Named after a nearby neighbourhood, Weston Estate is a 5-member group from North Carolina. The band members are: Srikar Nanduri on guitar, Manas Panchavati, Tanmay Joshi and Marco Luka with the vocals and Abhi Manhass on bass, who also produces their tracks.
A recent track of theirs which has been gaining loads of attention is titled Pears, a lo-fi indie beat paired with wistful lyrics creating a mellow song which is easy on the ears. The acoustic version of the song has been going viral on TikTok exceeding a total of over 3 million views collectively from all their promotional videos, whilst their full video garnered over 500k views on YouTube making it the band’s most viewed video on their platform.
Pears consists of a steady lo-fi drum beat with seamless uses of both traditional and synthetic drums and finger-plucking style of guitar. Removing the drum beat during the first half of the chorus allows for momentum to be brought to the hook of the song, which puts emphasis on the melancholy lyrics which project a longing to hear back from someone that was once part of your day-to-day. Despite its short appearance, the woodwind instrument compliments the melody perfectly as the backing vocals and harmonies are almost floating in the back of your head and make you feel like you’re floating, making it the perfect headphone listen.
How does this change in the acoustic version? A noticeable difference lies upon the drum beat which was previously removed from the first half of the chorus and has now been taken over by a synthetic drum beat which exhilarates the most hype to this new recording of the song. Who would’ve thought that such a melancholic song lyrically could make you want to jump around in a crowd full of people (post-covid of course)? But that is what is so unique about Weston Estate; their unparalleled ability to make you forget all the despair going on in your life for the 2 to 3 minutes you spend listening to their music. With the visuals of them out in a grass field, mics in hand, playing the electrical instruments, paired with being able to see the artistic synergy between the members, it adds new and different elements to the already wistful studio version of Pears.
For the past 10 months the band have been steadily uploading content to their YouTube playlist; starting with their first single Close The Door. Their most popular videos being their acoustic videos. Their rise in popularity over the years is certainly creating a path for more South Asian and Cuban-American indie-pop bands to come out and make music. Describing themselves as ‘ya’ auntie’s favourite boyband’ has definitely stuck as their music continues to be universally enjoyed.
The band’s next single Outside comes out on the August 13th. However, for now just have a little me-time, hit play and relax whilst listening to their angelic voices.
Written by Nicole Ndlovu