Mohini Dey

Mohini Dey has steadily become one of the most recognized Indian bass players globally and it’s something she’s worked on right from when she was a nine-year-old. When she was pretty much trained by her father – the late Sujoy Dey – in bass, acclaim and recognition came in her adolescence and teenage years itself. Dey had played for everyone from Zakir Hussain to Ranjit Barot (a formative mentor) and A.R. Rahman.  

Even now at 27, what could be considered a lifetime’s worth of achievements are in Dey’s resumé – she’s performed with guitar greats like Steve Vai and Guthrie Govan, (finally) released her solo self-titled album and is now shuttling between Nashville and Mumbai with saxophonist (and husband) Mark Hartsuch as she puts down new roots in the U.S.  

As a young artist who started out when she was even younger, what continued to draw you to music even as your other interests grew, like fashion designing?   

I think the aspect and creation, the whole process of creating and ideating something is what drew me to music over time. Music was not my first choice, fashion designing was. I think I found a similarity between fashion designing and music, because both have the creation tie up and this designing aspect that links them. 

I think that’s why I ended up really enjoying music because I love the process of making music, I love getting together with people and writing music, coming up with different sounds and fusing that with other things. It’s the same thing with fashion – I will take different fabrics from like saris and embroidery and I’ll just patch them up together. There’s some interesting fusion that happens.  

I’ve always loved music. It’s just not something I wanted to pursue as a profession. But I’m glad now that I did that. My dad made that happen for me, he taught me music. And now, my music career is fueling my fashion goals.  

You’ve had different claims to global acclaim over the years – from playing with AR Rahman to Steve Vai to now having MaMoGi. So what prompted the solo self-titled album? Was it in the works for a while?   

Yes, it was in the works for a while. In fact, I wrote my first song when I was 13 years old. The first song I wrote was ‘Introverted Soul.’  

I was always writing my own music and I wanted to get it out there. But, I was prioritizing other people’s work, because, of course, money is important for everybody. I couldn’t turn down anything at that point of time. But there was a turning point in my life where I could say no, and that’s when I started prioritizing myself. 

Now with MaMoGi with Mark Hartsuch and Gino Banks as well as with my solo stuff, we tour the world. I’m actually playing Billboard Live Japan, Tokyo and Osaka with my solo album. I’m really excited about that. I’m also touring with [American guitarist-composer] Greg Howe, in October-November, and I’m touring with a really interesting artist that I cannot take the name of right now for two months, April and May in the U.S. and then I’m going to Brazil and later, Zurich to record an album with [drummer] Simon Phillips and [rock band] DarWin.  

I’m guessing outside of these formative mentors and guides in your life, you’ve often got unsolicited advice a lot – can you remember an early instance of that and how you dealt with it? How do you deal with it today?   

If I don’t like something, and it doesn’t sit well with me, I just kind of block it out. I don’t give too much attention because I have other important things to deal with in life. 

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. I feel like critics are everywhere and they’re like, farts – they come and go. You don’t really think about it too much.  

As someone who’s always bending genres – you’ve done everything from rock to metal to fusion to funk and more – what kind of recent/newly flourishing music styles have drawn your interest and why?  

I always hated rock and metal music. I didn’t listen to it growing up, but now lately, I’ve been writing rock and metal music, because maybe I’ve been getting hired a lot by rock and metal guitarists and keyboardists.  

I actually in my downtime, I love listening to like Bruno Mars, Billie Eilish, sometimes Ariana Grande, Beyonce. I know a lot of people won’t think of me [as someone who’s] hearing this kind of music, but I do. It’s good to be open to these kinds of music and I like keeping myself updated with times. 

You’re moving to Nashville. What prompted it and how easy or difficult is it to setup shop? Even with all your credentials, would it seem on some level like starting from scratch?   

Oh, absolutely. You know, when you’re moving from country to country, even from city to city, it’s like starting from scratch. I really needed to start afresh, because after losing my dad, I was kind of losing it. My mind state wasn’t the best. I was kind of powering through everything with work, I was keeping myself distracted with work. But I’ve had the time to process it.  

You never really get over things, you’re always gonna have these feelings of loss and grief. It’s a process, it’s gonna take some time, but I know that he’s watching and he’s proud.  

Nashville is a music city. Mark [Hartsuch] and I always wanted to move to a place that’s quiet. I’d taken a little break here and loved it. We did try living in India, we have a home in Mumbai but the noise and pollution itself is a trigger for me. I just wanted to go to somewhere quiet, especially after losing dad, I just wanted some peace. And I wanted a higher standard of living.  

I wanted a home of my own little yard and a nice home studio, where I can be around musicians that I want to collaborate with. I live very close to Victor Wooten. I live very close to Bela Fleck, I live very close to Billy Sheehan – these musicians are within a 20-minute radius from my home in Nashville. Who would have thought I would be able to say that? I never even dreamt about things like that. But yeah, life has its own plans.  

My work in India is always there. I’ve done everything, played with everyone over 18 and a half years professionally. I’m partially living in Mumbai, and Nashville. So I travel back and forth a lot. I will be in Nashville for two-three months, and then I’ll come back [to India]. But I will probably move to Nashville or someplace in the U.S. if my work opportunities completely need me to stay there. 

This one is something I may be asking all your artists featured in this campaign – what gives you hope about the future of music and what worries about the future of music?   

My hope about the future of music is that people hire people based on skill and not gender, I will say that.  

My worry about the future of music is that because of advanced technology, we are forgetting to make music live. My worry is that people are going to start depending on technology so much that everything is going to be recorded from remote places and nobody’s going to come together to record music live again. In a way, this is also a hope – I hope that people keep music alive by playing music live.