Bio
“Neofunk is what I call the music I make” explains S-Endz (also known as Casey Rain). “My sound has elements of pop, funk, hip-hop and industrial dance within it, but that’s too much to say every time I do an interview!”
Success in the music industry came early for the Birmingham born-and-raised vocalist, songwriter and producer. After being expelled from high school at 16, he immediately joined forces with his cousin, legendary producer Diamond “DJ Swami” Duggal – the most successful British Asian producer of all time, and the man who – along with his brother Simon “Subs” Duggal – was responsible for some of the most enduring and biggest selling highs of the global Asian music scene, including Apache Indian, Stereo Nation, and the international edition of Shania Twain’s multi-platinum selling Up! album.
Together, DJ Swami and S-Endz resurrected the band Swami (which had been on hiatus since it’s original line-up disbanded in 2000) and proceeded to change the face of Brit-Asian music with 2004’s global crossover smash album DesiRock – which after dominating Asian radio in the UK was picked up by Sony BMG for an international release in 2005 under the title So Who Am I?
“The album took a few months to sink in” muses S-Endz; “but when it did, it went supernova!”
To date, the title track DesiRock has appeared in video games (EA Sports FIFA World Cup 2006), movies (Raspberry Magic, Mischief Night) as well as appearing on countless TV shows and compilations the world over. Even Bollywood icon Akshay Kumar choreographed his own dance routine to the song at India’s Star Screen Awards. The success of the song – and album – took the band around the world, with performances at the MTV Style Awards, a frenzied Glastonbury Festival headline slot on the Roots stage and numerous festivals across North America, Asia and Europe – including a memorable slot at French festival Les Transmusicales, sharing the bill with the Beastie Boys and Kraftwerk. A growing profile in India afforded DJ Swami and S-Endz the opportunity to remix O Sikander – the popular title track of the Bollywood movie Corporate starring Bipasha Basu.
More hits were to come – the band followed up with 2007’s Equalize on Virgin/EMI – the two singles for the album Hey Hey and Electro Jugni racked up millions of plays online, leading Asian media portal DesiHits.com to anoint Swami as “Band of the Year”, and the BBC once again came calling as the band recorded a second live session at the world famous Maida Vale studios for BBC Radio 1. After two more years of touring, 53431, Swami’s first Greatest Hits compilation was released, featuring two new songs, Tonight and Sugarless – the latter would become their most popular song to date, sitting at the top of the BBC Asian Network’s year-end charts and becoming their most played song throughout 2010.
Yet things weren’t all good for the man described by BBC Radio 1’s Nihal as “one of the most electrifying performers I have ever seen!”
“It seemed almost too easy to just be reckless, party and drink in between tours. I needed more focus. So I started working on a solo project” states the artist. That project would bear it’s first fruit in 2009 with the release of Outer Space – an electronic funk-pop workout described by blog The Musictionary as “incredibly fresh…..like a cross between Trent Reznor and Kanye West….. it works and sounds like nothing you’ve heard before”. DesiHits.com described the track as “truly one of a kind!” and together with the single’s B-Side, an industrial dance blast entitled Electric Man that was heavily championed by BBC DJ Bobby Friction, the world witnessed the introduction of Neofunk.
Now, in 2012, and with a forthcoming Swami album UPGRADE in the pipeline, S-Endz returns with a new EP entitled Chapter 0 : REINKARNAL. The 5 track EP, which will be released one track at a time every few weeks, showcases a range of skills, with S-Endz wearing the hats of writer, vocalist, producer, singer and rapper. There’s collaborations here too – the uptempo dance-funk anthem Do U Wanna Come? and the radio-friendly pop-rap Alone, feature co-production assistance from Subs, and the EP also features a bhangra remix of Do U Wanna Come? by world-reknowned bhangra producer Tarli Digital. This year will also see another cross-continental collaboration with S-Endz trading verses with Pakistani-Canadian rapper Urvah Khan on Universal High – the first single from the brand new Subs album.
“It’s time for the world to get a fresh injection of Neofunk!”