PD — Tell us something about the beginning of High Spirits?

Khodu Irani — We started way back in 2005. I wanted my own place to run as I didn’t want to do what every other dub was doing. That’s where High Spirits came about. I had this place, my uncle’s. We started off as a simple retro music bar, slowly started doing live gigs, and then ventured into independent artists. We were one of the first ones in India to do theme parties, mainly the Halloween Theme Parties. That’s how High Spirits took off.

PD — When did you get the idea of doing a Cookout?

Khodu Irani — What I have realized that in Pune, everything is formal, people dress up, look good for a party etc. I don’t want that formality. I want the people to feel at home, and High gives a homely feeling, with the whole backyard-BBQ party. You don’t get it anywhere. The whole point of the cookout is to give something chilled out to people on a lazy Sunday, where they are not bothered of what they are wearing, what they are doing, but just hang out, get some good food, make your own burger kind of a thing. Plus it’s also a nice way to introduce people to the underground music. That’s basically how the cookout came about. It is pretty fresh; we started off about 3 months ago, so we have done around 15 cookouts. Here at High, we don’t do a single genre. At some clubs you will find only Electronic, or only rock. We try to give diversity, try to make them experience every kind of music

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