Prabh Deep’s Piano Man Gig: ‘We Are Doing Something Special’

Prabh Deep says he’s probably going to lie down in between his set at The Piano Man, Eldeco Centre in New Delhi on Jun. 29. Performing at an indoor venue on home ground after a while, Prabh Deep will perform an acoustic set first, followed by an all-out, familiar hip-hop set with a backing track and visuals.

He says, “We are doing something special, performing the most unexpected songs […] Every track is a surprise.” For the artist himself, he considers it a different experience that mirrors the growth of The Piano Man as a live performance brand as well. Prabh adds, “This is the third Piano Man venue and you can also see the progression – from small [Safdarjung] to big [Gurugram] to huge. I wanna match up, I’ve also put in many years and the vibe has to be upped. This is a new venue also. I want artists who come after me to feel, ‘Okay, Prabh Deep performed here.’”

The artist is joined by singer-songwriter Vasu Raina on guitars, synth and keys. He understands that people usually come to his shows to “sweat it out and go hard” to match his own energy onstage, but Prabh says he’s going to run in the opposite direction this week. “Basically, I’m trying to give this experience where this happened only once,” he adds,

The second set will even incorporate “auto-tune to the full” which Prabh says one may not expect at a jazz and rock venue like The Piano Man. “I want to use it as an effect. Of course, I’m going to hit the right notes but I want to see how this modernizes the different genres I’m mixing,” he adds.

Although he didn’t spill any particular track names for the two sets, Prabh mentions that he’s picked a few slower songs that may not always be right for a bigger stage and larger audiences. He adds, “We are performing three tunes from the new album to test it out, to see what the reaction will be.”

It might just be one artist on stage, but Prabh does well to cover a lot of ground, in addition to his team who work on visuals, lighting and other production elements. He says, “It’s just too much fun for us to execute these things.” Then, there’s all his looks, which he credits to his stylist-turned-creative-director Prathiksha Shetty. He says about their process, “We talk about different things and she does her R&D on the venue we’re playing at. I give her the setlist for her to get the vibe of what I’m playing. She always amplifies the whole thing, from a styling perspective,” Prabh says.

Prabh Deep’s show also comes just as his previous record King Returns completes six months. He likens it to a project that released and gave him a release from all the “feelings that were boiling up inside for so long.” He adds, “I didn’t expect anything out of it. It didn’t turn out to be the biggest thing out there and I’m not really salty about it also. I gave my 100 percent and I do that every time with every project. There is always some growth in every project.”

On his next project – a full-length album – Prabh says his approach is “very global.” That extends to the writing, the collaborations with instrumentalists and recordists and “whoever is coming on this next album.” He adds, “I’m keeping this thing in mind with the next project that when it’s talked about, it should be said, ‘This shit came out of India. It’s fucking amazing.’ We are not lacking anywhere, bro.”

True to his ambitious self, Prabh even goes on to say that he wants to push his next project so far that it shows up on the radar of the likes of legendary Indian composer A.R. Rahman. “To push that far, we have to work also,” he adds.

Prabh Deep performs at The Piano Man, Eldeco Centre, New Delhi on June 29th. Get tickets here.