Exclusive: I was a big fan of AR Rahman way before Slumdog Millionaire, says Cigarettes After Sex‘s Greg Gonzalez

“In my hometown, El Paso, Texas, we played at my university, and they had to call us CAS. They couldn’t call us Cigarettes After Sex. One of the funniest things I saw, might’ve been in India. Someone had a placard at one of the shows that said, ‘Cigarettes After Sex After Marriage’”

As the American band Cigarettes After Sex gears up to perform in Mumbai tonight, founder, lead vocalist and guitarist Greg Gonzalez speaks to Bombay Times, about his India connect, love for AR Rahman and why the name of his band often evokes funny comments.


Excerpts:

You have been to India a couple of times and even performed in Mumbai earlier. What fascinates you about the place?
India is so vast. Every time we’ve been here, it feels like it’s way too quick. That’s a shame because it feels like we should spend a month there to see everything you’re supposed to see. We’ve been to Mumbai a few times and Pune was great, but it’ll be nice to visit some new cities like Bengaluru and Delhi. In Mumbai, we went on this great boat ride around the Gateway of India, and I’d like to go back there. It was so pretty being out there. There’s a lot about the city that I don’t know yet. We should probably get a tour guide this time who can show us around.



Are you familiar with Indian music?
I was a big fan of AR Rahman way before Slumdog Millionaire came out. I loved Bombay’s soundtrack and some of his older tracks, so I was excited that he got his due in the US for Slumdog Millionaire because that was a huge soundtrack. I also admired sitarist Ravi Shankar. I was obsessed with the first two records of his daughter, Anoushka Shankar. There’s such a rich history of Indian music and it’s so distinct. Every piece of Indian music that I’ve heard has a beautiful style.



Someone from El Paso, Texas, being acquainted with Indian films and music is rare…
I haven’t seen many Bollywood films, but I am aware that Amitabh Bachchan is a big star. Being a big film and music fan helped. Since I was a little kid, I would just dig and dig and find new things. I would look at film soundtracks from all over the world. I’d look at German and French soundtracks from movies and any obscure kind of music for the US. Then I kept seeing a bunch of the Bollywood stuff and felt it had a definitive sound. It was so imaginative and interesting. Coming from El Paso, no one knew what that music was at all in Texas, where I was growing up. My fascination and appreciation of world music, outside of the US, led me to Indian music.



How would you define your music and what do you think explains its longevity?
It’s honest and meant to paint a picture of what romance really feels like to me. People seem to identify with that. Some of the songs I’ve written for Cigarettes, like K. or Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby, those are memoirs, they’re like journal entries, which is just writing down exactly what happened with me and the romance that I had. I thought it was too detailed, almost like I’m oversharing. But after the shows, people would tell me they could relate to the storytelling. They saw themselves in that. It’s just music about romance that’s very honest and hard to find. That explains the longevity, I guess.



While your music is intimate and honest, there’s also a criticism around it that it can be a tad slow or depressing. How would you assess that sort of criticism?
I guess it’s supposed to do that. I feel happy generally. I’ve never been depressed in my life. But if I’m heartbroken about something, then that can be heavy. In order to deal with something, you have to really be sad about it. You have to have that pain in order to heal. If you get cut and are bleeding, you have to rub alcohol on it, and that’s going to hurt for a second. Then you put a band-aid and it heals. It’s the same with music. It might be painful to listen to it. Music might help you cry but then you start to heal, and you start to get better.

Talking about your band name, there was a funny tweet that said, ‘How do I tell my parents that I’m going to the concert of Cigarettes After Sex’? Do you wonder if you should have perhaps chosen a different name for the band?
That’s funny. When I first came up with the name, it was already getting censored. In my hometown, El Paso, Texas, we played at my university, and they had to call us CAS. They couldn’t call us Cigarettes After Sex, which I thought was funny. We still have to do that sometimes, but as long as people know it’s us, it’s fine. I don’t have a big problem with that. One of the funniest things I saw, might’ve been in India. Someone had a placard at one of the shows that said, ‘Cigarettes After Sex After Marriage’ (laughs).Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”