MUMBAI: AR Rahman’s current go-to bassist Mohini Dey is working on her debut album which will feature her singing as well. The album will highlight her as a composer, proficient bassist and a singer.
Said Dey, “All the tracks have been composed by me, and performed with my band. I want to launch an instrumental album, in which I wish to include my vocals.”The artiste has something different in mind for her first album. “The album will have my latest compositions with different concepts. There will be a lot of Funk, Jazz and Reggae but I will be experimenting with my moves and methods on the guitar. I am working with my band, which comprises musicians like Selvaganesh, Sivamani and Rajesh Vidhya, who will be recording for me.”
When asked where the idea of singing came from, she replied, “It is a new thing, because people do not know I can sing and play. I started playing the bass by singing. I would sing the lines that I play on the bass guitar.”
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Sharing the progress of her solo project, she revealed that the album will have six songs, out of which she has completed recording three of them. While the remaining three have been roughly done and need to be professionally recorded.
The young virtuoso, however, does not feel the need to rush or set a target date to launch her album. “I have not fixed a release date for the album. When I feel it is bang on, I will release it,” she said.
Dey hinted with hushed excitement that she is part of AR Rahman’s new and unique project where she, the guitarist, will be doing the job of a drummer on her guitar. “He (Rahman) found it very interesting and he called me and narrated the concept and asked me to play it. He chose me because I play a lot of groove notes to make the song funky. It makes people want to dance. It feels like the bass guitar is drumming and bass-ing at the same time,” said Dey.
The virtuoso was recently nominated for the Femina Women’s Awards 2014 in the Music and Performing Arts category. She has also been regularly performing AR Rahman, the most recent appearance being the T20World Cup 2014 opening ceremony in Dhaka.
With quite a few recording sessions lined up, Dey will be performing with herband Generation at blueFROG on 30 April for International Jazz Day. On lead guitars will be her younger sister Esani Dey who plays Carnatic classical on lead guitar.
