I spoke to Jon Cook, drummer of BlackMahal, about the upcoming festival
and how their eclectic sound came together.
MCB: Can you describe BlackMahal and how you came together?
JC: We are a Punjabi-hip-hop-funk experience and what that
means is we were inspired by Vijay Chatta who is one of the MC’s of the band and when
he started out DJing, he was mixing old-style hip hop with Panjubi beats. I got involved because
I share the same taste in music.
MCB: To say it’s an eclectic is almost an understatement….
JC: Thank you for saying that. It’s sort of a
smorgasbord of everything.
MCB: Tell me more about your illustrious member Ustad Lai
Sing Bhatti
JC: Ustad is a dohl drummer from India and grew up in a
musical family. He loved to sing but he was a natural for the dohl drum. A dohl drum is a drum worn around the neck and has 2 drum heads on it. They
sound kind of like a bass on one side and a snare on the other. He became very
accomplished in India and travelled all over the world. He has played for five
US Presidents. He’s a maestro on the dohl drum.
MCB: Are you all located in one area?
JC: We are all based in the San Francisco Bay area. Some of
us live in the city and some live across the bay.
MCB: Do you consider yourself more of a live performance
band than a studio band?
JC: We’re sort a combination of both. The way I look at it,
when we’re in in the studio we try to have an almost “un-live” quality. We
want to be played by DJs, so it’s a bit more mashed up.
But, you really don’t get the full experience unless you see
us live. We have Tim Chang who plays bass and Panchua Chang sings, a DJ named J Slim who
was in the movie Scratch. We have a horn section and a keyboardist. I play a
drum set. We play whatever we’re feeling at the moment.
MCB: How does a BlackMahal track get developed?
JC: Vijay will come up with a hook, it may come from an old
Bollywood track or an old sample. I’ll play a beat that goes with the sample
and we work with our producer to go from there and bring in the other members
of the band. Then sometimes we’ll jam on a riff in the studio and our MC will
freestyle to it.
MCB: Are you excited to play at Concert of Colors?
JC: I’m very excited, to see George Clinton and Parliament.
Don Was playing with the Detroit Allstars and I’m very interested in seeing the
city, walking around and checking out the sights. Detroit is a music city.
BlackMahal performs Saturday at 7pm on the Comerica Diversity Stage. If you are going be sure to get their ep that is only available at their
shows.
This Post by Mikel O.D. of
