It’s unexpected to hear someone like Donn Bhat say that people chatter too much during his performance. The Mumbai-based composer, producer, guitarist and vocalist crafts some of the most immersive audio experiences with his band, Passenger Revelator, mixing electronic, pop, rock and more. Yet, at his recent shows launching the third album Connected , Bhat and his band were met with a crowd that surprisingly didn’t shut up. That’s when Bhat realised that perhaps, some of the newer material is much quieter.
When he played in New Delhi after facing a distracted crowd in Mumbai, Bhat says he was sort of dreading that he’d get the same treatment. “It was annoying. I even incorporated some lyrics into ‘Spinning World’ where I said something like, ‘You’re chatting away’.” Bhat has spent the last two years working and reworking Connected , and the results have certainly paid off – a discourse about technology, our failings and even nationalism.
But when Bhat reads praise for the album’s lyrics and presentation, he’s not really thinking of it. He says, “I finished working on Connected about two years ago. That thought is that old now. It’s such a haze now. Back then, I was excited about it, but I’m just glad it’s out there and now I’m thinking of new stuff.” Bhat’s approach to songwriting is often informed by his commercial work on ad jingles and films. He says, “There’s a lot of musicians, a lot of studios – it’s the polar opposite of my own thing. It pushes you in a different way.” More recently, Bhat says he’s been thinking visually about his music. “I’ve been re-sampling these old visuals and I really like doing it.”
For his latest composition, ‘Marching to the Marketplace’, Bhat says he wants to juxtapose visuals of North Korean leaders and armies when he performs it at their upcoming Bengaluru show on October 28, at the Humming Tree in Indiranagar. There’s also another new song that was composed a while ago, called ‘Outside’, which Bhat and his band – comprising vocalist-producer Ashhar Farooqui aka Toymob and percussionist Anand Bhagat – will perform in Bengaluru, alongside material from Connected and his 2014 album Passenger Revelator.
The new album comes across as the meeting point for electronic music and early 2000s alt rock but, Connected explicitly includes Bhat’s influences from Hindi music this time around, with Toymob’s Hindi refrain on the profoundly menacing song ‘Desh Bhakti’.
Bhat says, “We wrote it around the time the JNU (Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University) protests were happening and we used to cover ‘Imagine’, the version by A Perfect Circle. I love his whole spoken word intensity. We spoke of including Hindi lyrics but didn’t want to force it. So we thought why not try some chanting. It’s definitely my favourite part of the live set.”
The sound is not pointedly Indian-influenced, but at the same time, it’s more global than specifically inspired by American or British artists. And Bhat wants to keep it that way. “We’re supposed to play a Diwali gig in Chennai and they asked if we can sound more Indian. That was hilarious.”
Fortunately, Bengaluru isn’t making any strange demands. And Bhat is hoping he won’t be surrounded by more chatterbox audiences like he was in Delhi and Mumbai. “The audiences have to be there to listen to the music.”
Donn Bhat + Passenger Revelator perform at the Humming Tree, Indiranagar on October 28, alongside Mumbai folk act Neeraj Arya’s Kabir Café. Entry: Rs 500, fully redeemable cover charge, available on Insider.in
