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My kind of raag
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Meet the Hyderabadi deejay whose composition is a rage in Montreal and New York
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You have to be lucky to make it big because there are so many deejays out there
HIGH NOTE DJ Prasanth wants to bridge the gap between East and West Photo: MOHAMMED YOUSUF
"I couldn't see myself doing anything else. I tried loads of other jobs," confesses DJ Prashanth. After a BA (Economics) followed by software engineering, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan alumni "I was a bad student" preferred to hang out with disc jockey friends in town before he decided to take up deejaying as a hobby. "I knew a lot about music. My mother has been a classical vocalist. I took lessons in tabla and harmonium as well. I have played with Sivamani and DJs Whosane and Nasha. I grew up listening to Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhonsle and all bands from 60s and 70s. But when I went to UK I discovered completely different music. There were underground musicians who produce music for the sake of making music," he reflects.
To Manchester and back
And now after a course in sound recording in Manchester and a successful stint on production — covers he recorded have repeat airplay and rave reviews for its quality he is all set to change the music scape with his kind of dance floor raag. At the moment, his composition Our Kind of Raag is rocking discotheques in the US, Canada and UK. A medley of Afro groove, jazz solos, tabla virtuosity and classical vocal rendition, this track will be also featuring on noted producer Joe Clausell's next cover.
Currently in town to launch his label Venus Records he has a hectic schedule, finding musicians and vocalists to collaborate with him for his albums. Music he plans to produce is going to be "dance grooves with Carnatic music and more Indian sounds. I am trying to bridge the gap between East and West in dance music," he says.
Latin guitar, jazz piano and tabla loops will feature in the compositions as also Brazilian flavour in a generous dollop. "I was living with Brazilians in the UK and got exposed to the samba, Brazilian pop and their mind blowing percussion. There are various similarities in our culture and theirs. I remixed a Brazilian track and approached Rainy City Music. We got talking and I started working with the record label. And now I want to start my own record label, establish sound for the label before I promote artistes on the same," he says.
On deejaying as a profession, "you have to be very lucky to make it big because there are so many deejays out there. You need to be a producer so that you can put your music out there and a good PR person and build up a fan following for your music," he says.
But for now, if you are interested in dance music with an Indian classical tang drop in at Ten Downing Street over the weekends as he lines up his compositions for the soccer season. Samba for sure.
SYEDA FARIDA
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
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