Scott Lingley

Open Up Your Brain And Party | Delhi 2 Dublin says they don’t make “world music”; they just make “good music.

DELHI 2 DUBLIN
w/ Kush Arora, MC Zulu, Shamik. Starlite Room (10030-102 St). Sat, Oct 17 (9pm). Tickets available through Blackbyrd, Foosh, Ticketmaster.

It’s Thanksgiving Day when I catch up with Delhi 2 Dublin’s Tarun Nayar, the Vancouver band’s tabla-tronic soul. But rather than spend the day, as tradition dictates, with family and friends, dining on turkey and watching a gridiron classic, he’s at home ... alone. It’s not as bad as it sounds.

“I’m just sorting through my record collection,” he says. “We’ve been on tour for the last three months, so I am loving it. I actually just got a shipment of Indian classical music on vinyl, which I have a penchant for. A buddy of mine in Bombay sends them over. I actually used to spend half the year there, but now I can only manage about a month and a half.”

Again, that’s not as bad as it sounds — after all, Delhi 2 Dublin’s ongoing progress is what’s keeping him away. The success of the band, a Gaelic-by-way-of-Calcutta world fusion jam outfit, still admittedly surprises Nayar. Three years ago, he and members of his Beats Without Borders DJ collective put on a St. Patrick’s Day party and wanted to incorporate live instruments. Nayar took the helm of the Indian electronics, Kytami came in hot on fiddle, and everything else just fell into place. It was a last-minute arrangement that nobody in Delhi 2 Dublin expected to last.

“We were only playing to an audience of about 250 people,” Tarun recalls, “but the audience reaction was just off the hook. Really, it was just a total mashup set, but we started getting booked.”

What’s been nice about the bookings to date is that they haven’t pigeonholed the group. Just as Delhi 2 Dublin’s sound speaks to a broad range of influences — from bhangra and breaks to hip hop and the Highlands — tour stops have included a diverse range of raves, clubs and festivals. Along the way, the band has released two albums: their self-titled debut and Delhi 2 Dublin Remixed. Both can be found at finer music retailers, though Nayar does bristle at the thought of them showing up in the “world music” section.

“I think we have trouble classifying ourselves at the best of times anyway,” he laughs, “but we prefer not to identify ourselves as or with world music. I think it’s kind of a stigmatized label. There are a lot of people out there who look at any music that is anti-Occidental as world music, which I think is wrong. To me, it’s just good music. There are a lot of great artists out there who are breaking down those stereotypes, like Ozomatli from L.A. or M.I.A., who is probably the best example. For us, we just love a good time. We are proponents of opening up your brain and partying.”

Letting go of preconceived ideas is one thing, but fear is quite another. Nayar doesn’t mind admitting that he and the rest of the band were shitting themselves after being booked to play Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill a couple of years ago. In the end, it turned out to be an amazing day ... even if he did have to shake hands with the PM.

“We were playing in front of 40,000 people and only had three songs rehearsed. Then Stephen Harper introduced us. I think he’s a dickhead, but it was a trip because, hey, he is the prime minister. After that, I knew we were really onto something.”