prabir

India-born and Virginia-matured Prabir Mehta leads the Prabir Trio across a bridge from one side of the globe to another in Long After the Empire, his most personal and vibrant album to date.

 

Each song explores a different location in India, places where normal people live, places where spirituality exists alongside booming capitalism, places where you can’t buy a beer unless you have a non-Indian passport, places where you realize how much you love someone for loving you. 

 

“If you’ve been there, you’ll get it. If you haven’t, let me tell you what it’s like,” says Mehta, who wrote each song in India. He sees the Prabir Trio’s first album, Haanji, as a comment on the immigrant experience, but Long After the Empire as a map of the bridges and rivers that connect the pieces — and people — of his life together. 

 

“Rishikesh” depicts a nighttime journey across a very literal suspension bridge, connecting the ancient and modern parts of the city. Spiritualism comes back again in “Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva,” but in a rowdier way, imagining India’s holy trinity by way of a party (video forthcoming). “You Can’t Drink In Ahmedabad” gets to the heart of being the only person who can legally buy alcohol for the rest of your family, thanks to your US passport, and “Prayer Song” closes out the album by wishing well and giving thanks to everything from water to heroes to friends. Mehta’s heart is most vulnerable when he’s back again on Rishikesh’s bridge, this time with his wife, watching her acclimate to the wild world around her in “Any Way You Want Me.”

 

For the first time, Mehta sings in three languages: English, Gujarati, and Hindi. And in the true spirit of the album, the American contingent of the band was game to learn.

 

If lyrics are Long After the Empire’s experiential bridge, the album’s music is the river running beneath it. The Trio created a rich musical portrait to illustrate the connectivity between east and west by adding new layers to its signature sound. The band’s hook-laden rock and roll suffused with Indian elements includes layered use of tanpura drones and harmoniums and Prudhvi Meda joins on mridanga as well. For this album and the live shows to follow, Mehta is joined by Kelli Strawbridge on drums, Jeremy Flax on bass, and Kenneka Cook on harmony vocals and tambourine. 

 

“The western world is used to harmonic motion,” says Mehta. “But raga uses melodic and rhythmic motion to keep the listener interested. And the backing band still keeps it rooted in rock and roll.”

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Prabir Mehta has fronted Richmond, Virginia-based bands such as Prabir and the Substitutes and Goldrush, spending the last 20 years touring the nation in venues of all shapes and sizes, from neighborhood bars to midsize music halls to festival stages. After making his own mark on the East Coast music scene, Prabir is ready to rock whatever comes next.