• Haanji CD & Digital Downloads

  Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

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  Prabir Trio Blends Indian Immigrant and American upbringing on debut LP, HAANJI.
  
  Diverse, forward-thinking album tells the story of frontman’s immigration from India to Virginia by blending elements of Indian music into hook-laden rock and roll.
  
  Haanji, the full-length debut from Prabir Trio, is a border-crossing record that blurs the boundaries between American rock & roll and Indian traditions. Influenced by alt-rock, classic British pop, Indian rāgas, garage grooves, and frontman Prabir Mehta's relocation from India to the USA as a wide-eyed 8 year old, it's an album about the personal evolution that many immigrants go through. The word itself, Haanji, in Hindi loosely translates to a respectful yes, a mantra that Prabir has kept as at the forefront of his mind while acclimating to a new country to call home.
  
  For Prabir, that evolution was catalyzed by music. Uprooted from his childhood home and transplanted to Richmond, Virginia, he fell in love with the guitar-driven sounds of the FM radio. Western music helped acclimate him to western ideals. It helped him understand his new world. Decades later, he remains a man caught between cultures, proudly based in Richmond — where Haanji was recorded at Virginia Moonwalker Studio, using the same soundboard once owned by iconic local venue The Flood Zone — yet still devoted to the family members and customs of his native India, too.
  
  Joined by bandmates Kelli Strawbridge, Kenneka Cook, and Russell Lacy, Prabir funnels that unique perspective into Haanji. These songs find room not only for electric guitar, four-part vocal harmonies, and raw rock & roll, but also sitar, tanpura, his mother's harmonium, and his father's tablas. Gluing those ingredients together is the autobiographical songwriting of a frontman who recalls taking his first steps on US soil ("Immigrant Song"), learning about his newly-adopted home ("America"), discovering rock and roll ("Silverchair"), finding a place in his community ("Bamboo"), and falling in love along the way ("Sally Please"). It's a coming-of-age chronicle with a bicultural twist, filled with songs that are as unique as Prabir's own experience.
  
  A longtime champion of Richmond's arts community, Mehta has spent the better part of two decades working with outlets like NPR's Morning Edition, the Richmond Symphony, the Science Museum of Virginia, and his own Gallery 5 non-profit organization. He's spent much of that time onstage, too, fronting the critically-acclaimed power-pop act Prabir & The Substitutes before merging the worlds of indie-rock and classical music with the band Goldrush. To him, music has always been more than an art form. It's the mechanism by which he — and human society as a whole — has grown and progressed.
  
  Haanji highlights that progression, taking listeners on a journey from Prabir's youth to the present day.
  
  Includes digital pre-order of Haanji. You get 12 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released. ... more
  digital album releases May 11, 2021

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• Digital Track

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  Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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• Pre-order the Full Digital Album

• HAANJI by Prabir Trio - limited edition screen printed vinyl

  Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

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  HAANJI by Prabir Trio
  
  Beautifully illustrated by Richmond's very own Ruchi Gupta and screen printed by Nicholas Crider. This record sounds great and the cover is literally a work of art. Haanji is a collection of songs written as I explored the many things I've had to learn and grow through as an immigrant. This album is a snapshot retrospective and a question all at the same time: what all happened between leaving India and today?!?
  
  I hope you dig it, it's my favorite album I've worked on yet! This limited edition screen printed album would make a beautiful part of your record and art collection. Plus it comes with the digital tunes so you can rock those as you wish as well.
  
  Thanks for checking out Haanji and supporting local music!
  
  Includes digital pre-order of Haanji. You get 12 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

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