What's next for The Raghu Dixit Project? The singer reveals details

Raghu Dixit and his band The Raghu Dixit Project (TRDP) are widely hailed as India’s biggest cultural and musical export. Over the years the band has seen some of the finest musicians in the country collaborate with Raghu Dixit and give his songs their unique flavour. The band‘s happy, infectious brand of music has earned them a loyal fan base across the country and beyond, which has only grown exponentially year on year. From playing for over 100,000 people in his home state of Karnataka, to slots at every major music festival in the country, to playing at Glastonbury festival in the UK, to even a historic concert for the Queen of England and the Royal Family, Raghu Dixit has already accomplished a phenomenal amount in a career that spans less than 15 years.

He ventured into film music by composing a song for 2009 movie Quick Gun Murugun. Then followed movies like Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge (2011), Bewkoofiyan (2014) and the latest being Saif Ali Khan-starrer Chef. 'Sugal Laga Le' from Chef had that particular TRDP music feel that will always open the doors of your heart.

Ahead of his Red Bull gig in Mumbai on Friday, the singer talks about what keeps him going even after more than 1500 shows, his next step in Bollywood music, and what's next for him and the band.

What can fans expect from the show in Mumbai? What will the set list be like?

It’s been a long time since we played a Red Bull Music show in Mumbai on the bus. The last time we did that, it was one of our best Mumbai shows and the view from up there was fantastic! We are expecting nothing less than that.

We are going to debut some of the new songs we have released that not many Mumbaikars have heard before, and of course all of our crowd favourites. It’s going to be a fun party!

When is the third TRDP album coming out?

I don’t know if it makes sense to do albums anymore. New music is coming out of my studios every 3 months. I’m making music for movies in the Kannada film industry that I am really proud of. That will be something new and fresh for the rest of the country as well.

There are some lofty plans for the next set of songs that the band releases and those plans are being worked on.

What keeps the happy vibe of your music alive even after more than 1500 shows across the globe?

The core of the music and the belief has not changed. That remains the same. So then it’s easy for us to maintain the vibe. I am still doing music I love, and it still makes people smile.

Does your training in Bharatnatyam still come in handy to get that beat going?

Always, and Bharatnatyam training is not only about dance. There is a very interesting component around emoting and translating emotion from the performer to the audience that has become a mainstay of how I plan performances.

Was it a deliberate decision to keep the music of Chef close to the sound of TRDP? Do you think that helped increase your fan base?

Well, TRDP is as much my music as the music I make for films. There are some songs I want to play live and many that I don’t and that is how we differentiate. I don’t think there was a conscious thought to make the sound of the movie in one specific way. I thought it was just something that suited the film and that’s how those songs came about.

Regarding the fan base, Chef did mean that our music went to a very wide audience base and a lot more people did discover the music of the band and I hope they have converted into fans. We’re usually not counting :)

How was composing for Chef different than your previous Bollywood projects?

With Chef, I had a lot more flexibility on styles of music I could experiment with and also got to involve a lot more live music and musicians than a typical movie project, and I think you can hear that in the final music that came out.

How your nomadic travels have added value to how you play the folk music?

Travel exposed me to various different styles of music and some incredible musicians that I got to collaborate with. They have shaped my sound in more ways than I could otherwise.

Also, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures gives you a brand new perspective on life and music!

How do you and Gaurav Vaz plan on increasing the Bollywood project load?

Well, not just Bollywood, I am very keen to increase the work I do and add more variety. For example, just this year, I am working on a couple of projects in the Kannada industry, a Malayalam film, some work in the Telugu industry and a potential Bollywood movie. 

Apart from that, there are some exciting projects lined up for the band. What more do you need as a musician?

Do you make any changes in the process when composing for a movie and when composing for Raghu Dixit Project?

Not really the process of composition. But there are a lot of things around the composition that make the difference. Movies require specific songs for specific situations and that is a small part in the bigger project. Whereas with the band, it’s exclusively me and it’s only about the song, and there is all the time in the world and as many revisions!

What's next for TRDP?

I hope I get a nice long break and a nice breather so I can come back with renewed vigour, new music and a fresh perspective! That said, we are going on a gruelling tour of the UK in March, and have a potential tour of the US coming up, so I don’t know how far my dream of a break will come true!

What's next for Raghu Dixit?

One day at a time, and if everything falls in place, there are some really cool announcements coming soon.