Dualist Inquiry to open for Deadmau5 in New Delhi

Dualist Inquiry. Photo: Paroma Mukherjee; Hair styling: Deepak Jalhan and Shahzad/ Looks Salon

2014 is turning out to be a great year already for Sahej Bakshi, better known by his stage name Dualist Inquiry. The artist just released a new track “Lumina” and a video for it directed by Isaac Ravishankara, who has directed videos for the likes of KT Tunstall.

 Dualist Inquiry has now been locked as one of the opening acts for superstar producer Deadmau5’s performance at the Sunburn Arena in New Delhi. The Delhi-based artist shared the news via Facebook. Says Bakshi, “His tunes played a huge role in my discovery of electronic music back in 2007, and still influence me to this day. And he’s generally kind of awesome.”

Speaking to ROLLING STONE, he explains how he’s always been a massive fan of Deadmau5. Says Bakshi, “Even today, I feel like my music is influenced by his sound. I’ve always been quite vocal that I loved Deadmau5.  It has a lot of meaning for me personally and I’m really grateful for the opportunity.” As a student in Los Angeles, he was primarily interested in rock music until Deadmau5 hit the college circuit and really triggered his interest in electronica. Over the course of few years, he saw him several times in concert and lists songs like “Strobe” and “Faxing Berlin” as personal favorites.

 While the line-up for the Bengaluru and Mumbai editions haven’t been confirmed yet, the New Delhi leg of the tour will also feature the homegrown progressive techno act Kohra and Dutch progressive house/trap artist R3hab.

As Bakshi’s set will be early in the day, he plans to cater to the mood and energy levels of the audience and doesn’t plan on having a rigid set list.  Bakshi will be playing his own compositions, mentioning that playing remixes of a headliner “is one of the biggest mistakes an opening act can make.”

 Bakshi has also opened for British trip-hop and acid house DJ Fatboy Slim in New Delhi and was chosen to support French house DJ David Guetta at the Eristoff Invasion Festival in Delhi in 2012.