Delhi 2 Dublin mixes Indian and Irish themes into their music. // Photo by Alex Meacham
By Alex Meacham
Vancouver, British Columbia-based band Delhi 2 Dublin is finishing their West Coast tour with a stop in Bellingham on April 13.
The band released a new album on April 19 titled “We Got This,” according to their website. The four-piece band has been up and down the West Coast, bringing with them a unique sound, according to audience members at the Wild Buffalo before their show.
Sarah Hoboy has seen Delhi 2 Dublin a number of times at different venues and said she plans to go to the final show of the tour in Vancouver. Hoboy said Bellingham was “kinda [Delhi 2 Dublin’s] hometown, but not.”
At the show, the crowd moved to the beat of the dhol drum. Delhi 2 Dublin singer Sanjay Seran dove left and right on stage and band members took turns offstage but kept the music going for the whole show.
“We have played Bellingham a whole bunch of times, we’ve had some pretty epic shows there,” Seran said.
The band formed as a collaborative project for the 2006 CelticFest in Vancouver. This is where the Indian and Irish themes in their music come from, Seran said.
“Our roots started at a Celtic festival with a bunch of Indian people making music,” Seran said.
The band consists of Seran on vocals, Tarun Nayar on electronics and keyboards, Ravi Binning on percussion including a dhol drum and Serena Eades on violin and backing vocals.
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Serena Eades plays the violin for the band. // Photo by Alex Meacham[/caption]
“Our initial music definitely had that like, electronic underground scene, kind of a jam band-y feel, and as we progressed we moved into the electronic world, started writing better and better songs,” Seran said.
described the new album as subcontinental pop, influenced by the sounds of Southeast Asia.The new album, “We Got This,” is mostly sung in English, while previous albums had incorporated more Hindi, Seran said “We Got This” is a very hopeful album, Seran said.
“We needed it to be,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what side of the fence, or what kind of political views you have … things are really ugly out there right now, and instead of jumping on and getting negative about it, our view has always been to focus on the positive or the banding together to come out of these situations.”
Seran said the significance behind the album originated from the group’s identities.
“A big thing for us is that we’re kids of immigrants and so … the best way to move forward is to band together with positive energy, and so we wrote a whole album about that,” Seran said.
The band recently released a single titled “My People.” Seran described the change of preconceived notions they experienced when touring the mid-continental U.S. that partly inspired the tone of the song.
"There's lovely people everywhere," Seran said. “You can’t just bunch the people together.”
Seran described the high energy of their live shows as a result of the dhol drum played by Ravi Binning.
“That thing is so powerful … on a whole different level,” he said. “Everyone is so attracted to that, and he’s a beast on it.”
Seran attributes the difference between the live show and the album to their roots in a sound system, party-rocking vibe.
“We have the album which we create so you can listen to it, and then you have the live show which you can’t re-create,” Seran said. “We’ve tried, even with our live-album, you just can’t create that vibe.”
