It's music that brought five friends together while they were growing up in Aizawl, Mizoram around 2016. Sanga Ralte, Stephen Hnamte, CK, Khos and Ruata lived close to each other in the Mizoram capital, and started jamming at a friend's home studio that year. It laid the foundations for not just their friendship, but also Avora Records — the band that they would go on to form with time. But the initial years at that home studio were just about having fun together, Hnamte says. It's only when they signed up to a music competition on a lark that things, suddenly, turned serious.

Comedians on Drugs, the band's recently released debut album, reflects these roots. Hnamte says, "Around 80 per cent of the album comes from what we learnt from the experience of taking part in those contests, and 20 per cent comes from our jams in the home studio." Overall, their efforts helped the younger generation in Aizawl move beyond the church music that dominated the scene in 2016, the vocalist adds. The kids stood up and took notice.