GNDHI Set for Red Rocks Amphitheater Show with TroyBoi

In 2017, the Bengaluru electronic duo Argenil – comprising Rohit Gandhi and Anil Prasad – started what would become a longstanding friendship with U.K. trap, bass and dubstep artist TroyBoi after supporting the “Do You?” hitmaker on his India tour.

In 2019, they followed TroyBoi on his U.S. tour – Argenil’s debut in America – and ended up signing to the same management, Sunset Entertainment. Argenil dissolved due to changing professional commitments among the duo and the pandemic causing a reset, but Gandhi kept the conversation with TroyBoi going, even as he launched his own producer moniker GNDHI in 2022.

Now, the multi-instrumentalist-producer is heading to his biggest gig yet, joining TroyBoi at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, alongside artists like Hamdi and Evan Giia on Oct. 19, 2024. It’s come on the back of years of being in touch with TroyBoi and his management, where GNDHI also got to tour China with the artist in June 2023. “I think we did seven shows in five days,” Gandhi says.

Producing music ever since he was a teenager, a GNDHI set is nothing standard – the artist plays saxophone, synth, beats on drum pads and up to seven instruments. “I have categorized my sets into two now. One is a hybrid live set, and one is a fully live set. So the fully live set has no DJ decks, and the hybrid live has decks, but I’m still doing live synthesis, live saxophone, percussions,” he says.

He’s opening proceedings at Red Rocks for TroyBoi, so the prep has been underway. “I’m trying my level best to make it a journey because you’re also opening the show,” he says. There’ll be some Indian classical elements on tracks with vocalists like Chandan Jaiswal, but also a more roving blend of house, electronica and more. TroyBoi had caught some of GNDHI’s sets during their China run but the Indian artist assured him that if he was playing a venue as big as Red Rocks, he was going to “bring something different to the table.”

There’ll be a few singles coming up from GNDHI in the run-up to the set in October and they’re trying to make this visit a longer one, with more tour dates around the U.S. In the meantime, GNDHI’s live set from the manufacturing brewery of beer brand Simba – somewhere near Raipur, no less – is expected to be out in September to give audiences a taste of what it’s like to be part of a journeying live electronic set. The producer hopes that the Red Rocks set too comes through as a “bold statement” of his new sound, with about 10 to 12 tracks in the setlist.

He says, “I do want to showcase some of my Indian [influenced] stuff, some more downtempo stuff, where people are just entering Red Rocks and maybe chilling, and they can actually see that side of me as a producer-performer.”

It’s of course a big investment, as it always has been along the way. Gandhi says he’s even flown to the U.S. just to meet and showcase material to TroyBoi and in return, the British artist has been a pillar of support. He says, “That’s also a huge reason I believe in myself every day. Because you have a huge legend like [TroyBoi] and you can text him, talk to him. He’s really showing his support.”

Knowing that there was an audience to be tapped in the U.S. on the back of Argenil U.S. tours, Gandhi says the “initial investment” for traveling and building an audience in the U.S. came from his family and his management. But the rest of the way, the producer understood that it would “cost a lot of money.” He says his manager in the U.S. was more than happy to invest because it would make sense in the long run. Gandhi, for his part, has often taken on shows in India – he opened for Bonobo in March 2023 on the artist’s India shows – and “side gigs” like production projects at his South Bengaluru studio that was set up when Argenil started. India is always home, though. “My music is always resonating here. But I guess what has changed now is the kind of stuff I’m making is way more accepted in the U.S.,” Gandhisays.

To that end, you’ll hear GNDHI’s sonic aesthetic on Amsterdam-based, Indian-origin reggae artist Shiwa aka Ashwin Jaydee’s upcoming songs. “He’s the closest I’ve heard to Bob Marley and Damian Marley in real life, standing next to me and recording,” the producer says. He worked with singer-songwriter Katya Krishnan on her 2023 single “Surface,” picking back up on collaborating after first connecting in the U.S. before the pandemic. “Then we banged out an album in two weeks. The spark came out of nowhere. We would sit from midnight to 9 a.m. every day, because she’s in the U.S. and I’m in India,” Gandhi says.

Then, there are a few tracks with Punjabi artist Burrah coming up via Warner Music India. “They called me to Yashraj studio to finish the track, that’s like a highlight of my life,” Gandhi says. There’s also a full-length album with singer-composer Shubham Roy, which the producer says was his way of getting more acquainted with a composer role in the vein of fusion projects like collaborative series Coke Studio.

It’s been two and a half years in the making. “Shubham just brought that part out of me and we decided to do a whole album together,” GNDHI says. There’s also an electronic album with a London-based artist named Xane set for 2025.