Kochi-based band When Chai Met Toast are set to perform in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Dubai and Vancouver – to name a few cities – for their ‘Joy Rooms’ tour from August – November 2026.
The four-piece act comprises vocalist Ashwin Gopakumar, guitarist Achyuth Jaigopal, keyboardist Palee Francis, and drummer Pai Sailesh. They sat down with Billboard India to answer our On The Road questionnaire.
1. Where are you touring and how many stops are there?
Europe, UK, Dubai, Canada, Australia and USA with 22 stops between August and November of this year.
2. What is it called the ‘Joy Rooms’ tour?
Gopakumar: One major reason it’s called ‘Joy Rooms’ is for the rest of the world to know that “Joy Of Little Things” is our song. The tour is intimate and warm, with us talking to people and understanding the small joys. The aim of the tour is to fill up small rooms with 500-700 people and make them feel like home.
3. What essentials go in your tour suitcase?
Jaigopal: Sailesh (Pai) will want his own towel over a hotel towel
Gopakumar: Sunscreen
Francis: In-Ear Monitors
Pai: An medical kit from my wife
4. What’s on the tour rider?
Pai: We’re the kind of a band who try to keep minimum wastage while on tour. We have some energy drinks and bare minimum snacks backstage. Otherwise we have these promoters come in with packets and packets of biscuits and sandwiches which go waste. We try to bring in as many things ourselves. If it’s a 12-city tour, we’ll travel with the equipment, and use the same equipment. We pack it, we put it in the van, next venue, we unpack it. It’s sustainable.
5. Share your must-dos while travelling
Jaigopal: That’s where the band splits. Ashwin (Gopakumar, vocalist) will go sit in one place with good food and maybe a drink, and the three of us will go exploring the city.
Gopakumar: It’s not just restaurants, it’s shopping at grocery markets for me.
6. What is the band’s On The Road snack?
Gopakumar: I don’t know why, but these guys are obsessed with chilli chicken and kungpao chicken.
Pai: But I think that era is done. We’re more into protein bars now. We got a bunch of yoga bars which we’ve stocked for the tour.
Jaigopal: We also make biryani on tour.
7. What are your jetlag hacks?
Pai: We’ve developed the skill of power naps on the tour, even if it’s 5-10 minutes. We can close our eyes for 10 minutes and sleep in small sessions.
8. How do you take care of gear when you’re on tour and travelling?
Gopakumar: Sailesh (Pai) is our tech in charge. He is a bit obsessed with it. With him, your band is sorted for life in terms of what you’re carrying, what weight you’re carrying, what dimension it is, what kind of bags we have, what material it is, what kind of cloth we have put inside, or when we cleaned it last.
Pai: I just made a list of all the adapters we need to buy. We all have custom cases that we maintain for all weather conditions. In India it’s very difficult to keep instruments considering the moisture. We replace the humidifiers and we make sure it’s properly cleaned so it doesn’t wear out.
9. What is the band’s pre-show ritual?
Gopakumar: There are two kinds of shows. One is when we are relaxed and have time. We have so much time on our hands that people are waiting, but the organiser says let’s wait for another half an hour to 45 minutes and do the show. We sit and eat snacks.
We go onto stage right before and we huddle up and say ‘Swamisharanam’ which is not meant to be religious at all in the band, but it’s something that we’ve come up with over the years and it’s not changed.
Then there’s the other kind of show where we’re probably changing in the bathroom of the pub itself and getting out and doing the show right there. At that point it’s only ‘Swamisharanam’, get on the stage and just do the show.
10. What song of yours is the soundtrack for this tour?
Jaigopal: The album that we are releasing right now is called Small Town, Big Love, Little Homes. We’ve released three songs from that and one of them is “Dreamland” and another is “I’m Coming Home” – which speaks to the emotion of missing home. We wrote the song when we were on tour. It resonates with a lot of people who have settled abroad and are missing home. It talks about Kerala being our dreamland.
11. What is special about the ‘Joy Rooms’ tour?
Jaigopal: We have small things like chart making and people can make friendship bracelets when they enter the show. Then during the show we give them a lyric book. It is a grown-up version of Taylor Swift shows. People can look at the lyrics and sing along because the shows are at a smaller scale. We try to meet as many people as we can after the show and do some signed merch.
Gopakumar: We also wanted to do this for a while – we’ve got a chai break in between the show. We’re also wearing shirts made out of our mom’s silk saris during the tour.
12. Which region are you most excited to tour in?
Gopakumar: I think Pai (Sailesh) is really excited about the States and Australia. I’m looking forward to going and seeing London.
13. What’s some travel advice you’d like to share with readers?
Gopakumar: It’s okay to be tense before your visa comes in. Also, carry a neck pillow.
Jaigopal: Some noise cancelling headphones for me and some great sunglasses or an eye mask.
14. Which songs are you most excited about performing on this tour?
Gopakumar: The entire album, which has seven tracks.
15. Do you prefer hotels or BnBs?
Pai: Airbnbs – one of the best advantages of Airbnbs on tour is that we can cook.
16. Do you prefer flights or road trips?
Jaigopal: Road trips for short distances.
17. What is a food item from any of the tour destinations you’re dying to try?
Gopakumar: Looking forward to having some pickles and hummus during the US tour. Some baby carrots and hummus from Marks & Spencer’s for the UK tour as well.
