Feeling the Indian vibe

Sometimes, it takes an outsider’s perspective to appreciate a culture in its entirety.

Influenced by Indian music as a teenager growing up in Germany, Prem Joshua has not only introduced a generation of EDM-listening youngsters to the Indian vibe, he has also taken our classical music heritage to a global platform.

Dividing his time between India and Europe, he spends six months of the year touring within the country and the rest of the time abroad.

The multi-instrumentalist has been on a hectic tour schedule for over seven years now — the reason why he hasn’t had any albums out lately.

“It’s been too long since I released something as I’ve been so busy with the shows. But I have something almost ready and plan to release it in the coming spring. This will be a Prem Joshua and Chintan (loops, keyboards, darbouka, tabla and vocals) collaboration,” he informs.

His co-travellers include keyboardist Robin Mattuck, percussionist Raul Sengupta, bassist Satgyan Fukuda, and singer Sukriti Sen as part of a Hydrourite event. They are scheduled to perform at Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru in the next 30 days.

Prem was a young, 16-year-old flautist when he first listened to the music of the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar and it was like nothing he had ever heard before. At the age of 18, he decided to further explore Indian culture and moved to India. He trained under great masters, before discovering Osho.

He went back to Europe with a desire to share what he had discovered in India. “It was not something they understood. They all thought I was crazy. But I was so stubborn that I managed to stick on to it.

So what if people did not get it? It was loads of fun so we continued doing it,” he laughs, adding, “Indian audiences understand us better.”

One of the biggest names in world music today, Prem’s humility surfaces when he speaks about the current music scene in India. “There are some amazing artistes in India right now; which means there is a lot of competition for us. But I really hope that these guys and their music is heard,” he says. ?

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