The F16s

The F16s surfaced amid India's early-2010s indie rock surge, channeling the jagged, high-octane garage and post-punk energy of 2000s outfits such as the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem before unveiling their opening EP, Kaleidoscope, in 2013. Their 2016 full-length Triggerpunkte moved further into psychedelic pop territory. Subsequent shorter releases followed the debut album, among them the 2021 EP Is It Time to Eat the Rich Yet?.

Hailing from coastal Chennai, the group belonged to a festival-drawing Indian indie rock resurgence that also featured Mumbai's the Lightyears Explode and Delhi's Peter Cat Recording Co. Three members were still attending college when the band formed in 2012. Playful guitar lines, anthemic refrains, and the intermittently biting vocals of singer/guitarist Josh Fernandez first reached listeners on the 2013 EP Kaleidoscope. Guitarist Abhinav Krishnaswamy, keyboardist/sampler Harshan Radhakrishnan, bassist Sashank Manohar, and drummer Vikram Yesudas completed the lineup alongside Fernandez. The five-piece traveled to Brooklyn to cut the next year's two-track release Nobody's Gonna Wait. Recorded in Chennai and Mumbai, the streaming hit "Moon Child" anchored their debut album Triggerpunkte, which leaned more deeply into psychedelic pop.

The band signed to Oxford, Mississippi label House Arrest for the 2019 EP WKND FRNDS, which arrived with U.S. reissues of earlier recordings. The same imprint followed with another EP, Is It Time to Eat the Rich Yet?, in 2021.