Interview with Johnny Kalsi of The Dhol Foundation

 

The Dhol Foundation is one of acts selected to perform at the influential globalFEST showcase. Johnny Kalsi, the band’s founder and a former member of groundbreaking world music acts Transglobal Underground and Afro Celt Sound System, discusses The Dhol Foundation’s background with World Music Central.

Can you tell us about the band you will be taking to globalFEST 2016?

The Dhol Foundation has a few different configurations, but I’m excited to be bringing with me to globalFEST an explosive line up of four-five dhol drummers, a tabla player, a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and a fiddle player.

Many influential North American arts presenters will be at globalFEST 2016. What do you expect to get out of it?

It’s very exciting to bring the Dhol Foundation to our first showcase. Though I’ve toured North America in other bands, it’s always been one of my dreams to do a six week tour coast to coast with the Dhol Foundation.

I also have 4 possible re-releases to offer as after Narada/EMI (my first album label) closed, we didn’t release any further albums in USA officially, only on UK itunes. So we can also hope to do a deal on all those for a reputable label to manufacture and distribute with a reasonable marketing budget. We do also have 2 DVD’s ready for release of live performances.

Can you give our readers a brief history of your band?

If I had a Dollar for every time someone asked that question… Here’s the short version: I was playing in a pioneering Bhangra band called Alaap in the 80’s touring the planet and thinking this was the life. The material got old and I wanted to grow bigger and expand.

I opened a class in Slough, Berkshire and the people came. The word got around fast and before I knew it council Mayday fairs began to contact us for short showcases and performance slots. It was then I had an opportunity to do workshops for WOMAD and that’s where I got the taste of what it was like to be on a World Music Stage in front of 10,000 people in a square in Spain.

I was in love with performing on that scale and wanted more. One thing we lacked was material. That was a kick on my backside to get into a studio and start producing, having done loads of recording sessions from years before and having seen the process and learned a little programming. This is where I picked up the pace. I began to pick and train an “A” Team to get them ready for the big stages. A tabla & drum kit was added and before long I had a keyboard player and a Punjabi vocalist. The Dhol Foundation Band was born.

 

 

What do you consider as the essential elements of your music?

Essential elements for our music is simple. A Set of Ears, A Heart, Big Speakers and some space to dance! If I had to say that in one word it would simply be “drum”.
Sometimes inspiration is under our nose and we don’t see or hear it. The fact is I find inspiration in lots of things around. Sometimes tunes or a sample might dictate the direction the track wants to go. Other times I just steer it myself to what I hear next.

Who can you cite as your main musical influences?

I don’t really have a main influence but I do have many various ones. I like the “Old Skool” Bhangra (as I grew up in that era) and I also like a bit of Bob, Lenny, Hendrix and even some James B or MJ. Ultimately, when I grow up I’d like to be like Peter Gabriel & Robert Plant. I have no real one influence. In my music I like to think I have the ability to fuse sounds and colors. Sometimes I like my music to be a blank canvas for listeners and let them make their own pictures that have individual meaning. Every sound has color and every color is in the form of a sound in my head. Like a painter will search emotion or objects to bring them inspiration, I can do the same.

 

 

Tell us about your first recordings and your musical evolution.

Producing the first album stemmed from my answer about a brief band history. This was a venture that I set out to produce something that I could call my own. Something that I could hold up and say “I did that”. I worked with Sumeet Chopra in other sessions and studios for Bhangra artists. He was a very influential person in my early growing producer career. I wasn’t really looking for a direction but more to showcase the drum and it’s capabilities to push something that was going to appeal to lots of people and styles all neatly bundled together with the sound of the dhol drum.

Real World gave me the publishing deal I was looking for and thank the heavens, within a year the last track on the album “Drummers Reel” made the Hollywood Blockbuster “Gangs of New York”. This turned it all around and other Hollywood Films soon followed in the coming years.

What musical instruments do you use?

I am a “Logic” man and it is my mecca for music production. The plug in’s and soft synth give me so many sounds to choose from. I also have a massive library bank of real wav samples. Some from other sessions that I have not used.

Instruments include: dhol (obviously) dholak, tabla, duff, drum kit, bass, guitar, tumbi, sarangi, strings, vocals, cymbals, fiddles, uilleann pipes, Celtic harp, nylon guitar but to name a few…

Basically whatever sound is needed for particular tracks with flavor and mood.

You are known for mixing acoustic traditional music from South Asia with cutting edge electronics and even Celtic music. How’s the global electronica scene in the UK now?

The influence of the electronica has always been in my production since my early years with Asian Dub Foundation & Trans Global Underground to Afro Celt Sound System. I brought all of these influences on my albums and carry the theme through. The Celtic streak has always been in me from a young age. I fell in love with jigs & reels before I knew what they were called.

The electronic influence has sometimes been a little experimental and sometimes with intent to be influential. I think I have had the right abroad and the right aptitude to drive The Dhol Foundation in the right direction. Sometime I get the “Folk Police” after me and saying things like “It’s not traditional” & “You shouldn’t mess with traditional beats”. But I like moving with the times and trying a variety of sounds.

 

 

Tell us a little about the dhol drum institute you run in London.

The Dhol Foundation was the very first dhol drum group in UK. Dhol as an instrument has always been a solo instrument. Never was it played as an ensemble. I was the first person to gather up troupes, teach them a sequence of beats and rhythms and perform together. Gradually as the team became stronger in the playing, I began to move a bit to the beats and almost like a dance. Some of the lads started to copy and before I knew it we had a routine and small choreography sorted.

If you could gather any musicians or musical groups to collaborate with, whom would that be?

Great Question. If I could gather up a “Super Group” it would probably be something like this:

Dhol drum – Me & my A Team of course
Dholak – Kukki Jogi (Ludhiana, Punjab)
Tabla – Zakir Hussain (Shakti)
Drums – Meytal Cohen
Bass – Tony Levin
Guitar – Santana/Slash
Fiddle – Mairead Nesbitt
Keys/Samples & FX- Simon Richmond
Piano – David Arnold
Vocals – Amy Winehouse (If she was still alive), Shin (Bhangra Band DCS), Robert Plant, The Weekend, Neo, Beyonce, Missy Elliot, and any other wicked vocalists I’ve missed.

Do you have any upcoming projects to share with us?

I have been working on our 5th album and it’s a killer! This is one that will be special and different. I’m hoping at this stage the mix & mastering turns out ok.

Dhol Foundation tracks end up with sometimes 198 channels of audio. So mixing something like that down needs an amazing set of ears and an engineer that really knows his tools. For the ones that know us and our back catalogue, all of our albums have the word “Drum” in the title: Big Drum Small World, Drum-Believable, Drums & Roses, Drum Struck and the new one (Working title) Stick to the Drum.

I’m seriously hoping for a 4 week tour across USA with The Dhol Foundation. The tour-bus thing I’ve missed for ages now and its time to hit the road again. A few stops I would love to make are Houston (Texas), Boulder (Colorado), Twin Falls (Oregon), and Los Angeles (California). Various reasons why I’d love to go back. Some sentimental and others to see how it’s changed over 7-10 years.

My other band “The Afro Celt Sound System” have a new album and plan to head that way 2017. Let’s hope this can happen too. My dear friend Mairead Nesbitt has been touring USA in a show called Celtic Woman for many years now. I love listening to her stories and miss being out there.

While touring you get the feeling of how wonderful the world actually is. What else is out there and it makes you wiser to the “Real World” and not have your face lit up by an LED screen 18 hours of the day. Between work, laptop & mobile phones, our faces are constantly in front of a screen. To be in a vast and beautiful country looking out of the window and watching the flats of the planes drift by is the most real feeling in life.

The sheer size of the States and knowing some of the history about it, holds a fascinating knowledge that I want to share with members of my band. We can’t wait to bring our love in the form of our music to everyone. We’re all really looking forward to being there. Just don’t miss the show!!

Discography:

Big Drum Small World (2001)
Drum-Believable (2005)
Drums & Roses (2007)
Drum Struck (2010)

Official website: www.dholfoundation.com