DJ Rekha
As host of the monthly Bhangra Basement party in the New York City club S.O.B., DJ Rekha has been mixing the music of her Indian heritage with the urban sounds she grew up with. With her forays into Bhangra, she is part of an ever-growing musical movement in the United States, one that has crossed the world with the path of the immigrants who have carried this form, which has found its way into American pop dance music by the likes of Madonna, Missy Elliot and Jay-Z.
Bhangra is originally a form of folk music that comes from the region of Punjab, which is divided by Pakistan and India and, following World War 2, was carried over to England, where a good portion of its modern version is produced. The form has rhythmic elements based in Indian folk percussion instruments — most notably the dhol and the tumbi — and has, in more recent musical history, been embraced by creators of dance music.
Another area of Indian music that has gained attention in the United States is termed Bollywood — more specifically, this is Indian film music. Most Indian films are musicals, regardless of their genre, and these soundtracks have gotten some attention in the United States — often for kitschy reasons, but also for the unusual nature of its structure, often juggling several Western music styles within one composition and then mixing in traditional Indian sounds and orchestral arrangements.
Rekha has released a CD compilation of Bhangra, “Bhangra Basement.”
JM: How’d you get introduced to Bhangra?
DJR: My mom brought me a tape back. Culturally it’s the music of my parents and my community — they’re from India. I was born in London. She brought it over in the early 90s when this music had its first explosion and that was my first deal with it. I started dee-jaying around the same time I developed my interest in Bhangra. I grew up on old school hip hop and I was always interested in music, but I started it at the same time.
SB: Bollywood has allure because it’s so its own thing — mixes styles in one composition. Does that make it easier or harder for you to dj?
DJR: My theory is that Bollywood is a sponge, it’s the comercial pop music of India, we’re speaking of Hindi speaking India. They’re just trying to mimic what they think is hip and danceable, and they’ve always had this history of mimicking the west in whatever style, so a lot of the 70s stuff is very influenced by 70s disco, whereas the modern stuff has a lot of hip hop stylings or dance hall. It is very easy to mix in and mix out of, but I also find that some of the music translates better to a crowd that more familiar with it, because it’s inherently a little cheesy. My experience with Bhangra is that the music is compelling in a different way, the lyrics don’t matter as much. For me, Bollywood has always been a point of nostalgia, especially for people who are second generation, South Asian American who grew up on it, watched the movies. Bollywood is like kung fu for India, it’s over the top, surreal, it’s got a cult following, there’s all this quirkiness to it. Some of the songs today are a lot of fun, they’re more together. The sonic quality of some of those songs from back in the day are tough to play sometimes, they’re very tinny and you have to layer them with other stuff, or I don’t play the whole song because they’re what we call the casion interludes, they’re long and unnecessary. Because they are using Indian elements, they’ll put in a lot of vocalizing and they’ll stray from the little 4/4 pattern that us dee-jays are comfortable with. It’s a different experience.
JM: How many songs ahead is your mind?
DJR: I’m about a song ahead at most. I have a general idea, kind of, what I want to play and I have my repertoire of the moment where I have my favorites, what I tending to play these days and songs I’m really feeling, I’ll think that at some point in the night I want to definitely get that in, but it’s also a question of not playing it too soon and when is the right moment and then also seeing if the crowd is with you or where are they at with what I’m hoping to play. In terms of actually figuring out what I want to play, that’s part of the fun of it for me and I just really feel the moment and see where the crowd is at. A lot of what people will dance to is based on what they’re personal history is and what they connect with. Because I happen to do so many diverse gigs — this weekend I opened up for Michael Frente and for Rezelle — you couldn’t get two more different audiences, you’ve got one of hippies and then really young, college hip hop kids, and so I’m still trying to inject my own brand of music but in a context that that audience is comfortable with. You give them something they know and then you give them something they don’t know.
JM: What has the reception outside NYC been like?
DJR: I think it varies on the demographic of the audience more than on the geographic location of where the event is. I’ll do a party in another city but it’s full of South Asians, they’ll have a certain familiarity with the Indian repertoire, so I can play certain things — and I actually have to push them in that regard, like I can’t just play the supa I have to take them deeper and give them something extra in that genre, whereas with audiences that are not South Asian, I’m just pulling stuff that I know works and really translates universally. It just depends on what’s in the room and the context. To ease people in, I play a lot more instrumentals and build a vibe up more if I feel like the audience isn’t that familiar with the music.
I did a gig at Dartmouth a few years ago and I’m always surprised at how many people actually know, when you think they wouldn’t know. People who come out to these gigs, I think that though the town itself might not be close to an urban center, I think the people who come to cultural institutions in general are more open, are looking to hear different things, want to experience something different, and I can really take a lot of chances.
JM: 20 years, world music was confined to traditional sounds. Sounds have really opened up to those you didn’t hear two decades ago.
DJR: It was very anthropological. I think I’m part of a larger movement. I think that because I have the benefit of having a bi-cultural experience of having parents from India and growing up here and not actually relating to a lot of what was being sold as Indian music — that being classical stuff, which has also had a long tradition in this country and opened people up to music, talking about Ravi Shankar and the Beatles’ fascination with Indian music. There’s also that history. Having the benefit of that and, also, internationally, the rise of other styles of music that have come into our consciousness, like dance hall, this little island in the Caribbean has so much power and influence over music today, is fundamental. Most dance music has its roots or can trace itself back to some dub aesthetic. I think there is more openness in international styles and a lot of that is pushed forward by hip hop — commercial dance music that’s looking for something different, what’s in different flourishes of different things.
JM: It’s the way that certain invisible populations become seen
DJR: Absolutely. I think that definitely it helps. I would take this case in point strongly with the Haitian community. You’ve got Wyclef Jean, who grew up as an immigrant here — this was one of the things we bonded on personally. I grew up in a suburb of New York which also had a large influx of Haitian immigrants, refugees many of them. They were totally looked down upon, there were a lot of cultural differences. They were ridiculed — HBO, ‘Haitian Body Odor.’ Kids in Queens were also called HBO — “Hindu Body Odor.” Wyclef Jean has made the Haitian people legitimized and made it open in his own way, and on some of his own albums that were not as well-received or as well- known, he really delves in and explores Haitian and he’s in a position that can shed light to that.
JM: Is this all the kind of stuff that was influencing you started?
DJR: I was just trying to play cool music and gets gigs, learn as much about dee-jaying technique as possible. When I started, there was no book or internet, we were just trial and error.
JM: A lot of people don’t know how someone becomes a DJ.
DJR: I think it’s random. I think now people are more conscientious of it, because, very simply put, the definition of a dee-jay is someone who plays continuous music, and then you get into levels of skill, but that very simple level and definition, anyone with music can be a dee-jay, so it’s good and it’s bad. It’s good in the sense that people with deep collections are out there putting out great music in the world, especially like things we hear on independent and public radio, but it’s bad because every idiot who has bunch of records thinks they can do it. It’s good and it’s bad. Turntables outsell guitars these days. You need to know a little bit more about hitting chords on a guitar than just a simple, basic technical execution of dee-jaying — and because it’s a one-person show, to get a gig in the beginning, you’re not bringing a band, no bass amps, there’s some basic equipment there and you can wing some.
JM: What was the point that you were ready to do live?
DJR: I did it before I knew what I was doing, I just jumped into it. I wasn’t home practicing and saying, ‘Oh, let me do a gig,’ I was like ‘Let’s start dee-jaying and figure it out on the way.’ You’re nervous, but ignorance is bliss. When I started with my cousins, we basically were inspired by other little boys in our community that were doing it that we had very little respect for and we surmised that we could do it better because we liked the new music better. The whole technical aspects of it were learned along the way.
JM: Is home practice helpful?
DJR: For me it’s helpful, you spend time getting to know your music, getting to know how the songs break down. I definitely come up with ideas on the fly, but with certain gigs and certain situations, if I’m doing a mix for a radio show, I’m doing it at home, and that’s a luxury of playing around. You want to play around at home, hear the different versions of the songs and see which ones make sense and which songs go with what song. Once you know that and file it away, you have it at your disposal when you think it’s right.
JM: There’s a lot of preparation for improv.
DJR: It varies person to person. I know a lot of dee-jays who are meticulous and anal. The days before laptopping, you’d meet these guys with their records, they would organize the crates by beats-per-minute, which means you have to tediously count the BPM of each record and then you can go song after song after song by BPM. Now that’s all well and good and obviously you want to keep in the same tempo range, but that’s kind of boring to me. If you know what you want to play, then just feel it and play it. If the BPM’s on or off, you should just inherently know that.
JM: If someone wants to get further into the music, where would you point them?
DJR: I think when I like to go out to listen to music, in New York we have a great number of dee-jays — and I’m not necessarily listening for Indian dee-jays — I listening for people who have great styles. One of my favorite crews in New York is the Turntables on the Hudson Crew. They do an eclectic mix of groove and world stuff, a lot of Latin sounds, a lot of Arabic sounds. I really like Gogol Bordello. I just really like different beats. Bollywood is crates and crates deep. Type Bollywood and you’ll be guided somewhere. There are producers that I like more than others — for the 70s sound, I highly recommend R.D. Berman.
In terms of Bhangra, one of the reasons that I wanted to put this record together is that Bhangra is so scattered, it’s really hard to consolidate there’s a lot of product. There’s a lot of product, there’s only one song that’s good on an album, the rising stars are Punjabi MC. He’s only had one record released here, which I do recommend, but it’s old. You have to surf the Web, it’s kind of hard to get hold of. The way to get this music is to go to the Indian ethnic stores, but if you don’t know what you’re asking for, the guy behind the counter is going to sell you what’s not selling and tell you it’s great — and probably sell you a bootleg of my CD.
You have to figure out a couple names and then ask for that — and even then it’s a gamble. I have boxes and boxes of Bhangra CDs that I’ve never, ever played, because I just buy everything.
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Tags: Bhangra, Bollywood, dance music, dee-jays, DJ Rekha, India, Pakistan
