Raghu Dixit Teams Up With Basement Jaxx

Jump 'n' Shout                                                                                          Raghu Dixit with Simon Ratcliffe (left) and Felix Buxton from Basement Jaxx.

When Grammy-winning Felix Buxton, one half of the UK electro dance act Basement Jaxx visited India in 2011, he was on the hunt for an Indian vocalist. “I’m very interested to see if there are any singers or people out there with whom we could collaborate. We are looking to add an Indian angle,” Buxton had said. 

Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe found that “Indian angle” in folk rocker Raghu Dixit. When Dixit visited London last to play at The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations along with dance troupe Nritarutya, his UK manager fixed a meeting with Basement Jaxx. Little did Dixit know that the meeting would turn into a vocal session. 

“Even before I could say a proper hello, Felix shoved a coffee mug in my hand and started a loop of a very happy Brazilian-sounding track and said ”˜Ok, let’s record… give me some of that wild Indian vocal chants that you do’. I got into the vocal booth and before I realized, I gave 50 different takes of whatever my mind could think of. The energy was at an all-time high!” Dixit said, via email.

Dixit recorded two songs for Basement Jaxx, one of which will be used in an upcoming Brit-Indian movie for which the duo is creating the soundtrack. Burton saw The Raghu Dixit Project perform at Queen Elizabeth’s Hall in London in April 2011 and later the same year, Dixit checked out Buxton’s set at NH7 Weekender. “There is a similar synergy in our music. It’s happy and up tempo, which is why when they asked me to sing for them I didn’t hesitate. The track was tribal and racy and I liked it,” adds Dixit.

This is not the first time that Basement Jaxx is incorporating an Indian influence in their music. From their second album Rooty, they released a Bollywood-inspired music video starring actress Divya Dutta for their Billboard-topping dance track, “Romeo.”

Though Dixit is unsure of how and when the duo plan to release the as-yet untitled tracks, he’s taken home happy memories of collaborating with the duo. “Basement Jaxx are officially the maddest music producers I have ever met,” he says. 

Check out Basement Jaxx’s video of Romeo