{"id":8803,"date":"2012-04-01T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T05:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/?p=8803"},"modified":"2012-04-01T06:19:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T11:19:00","slug":"let-it-bhi-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/01\/let-it-bhi-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Let it Bhi (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-x6iQoltGOQY\/TyAdh6N-04I\/AAAAAAAAHuE\/Sps6NPGmREo\/s1600\/BhiBhiman.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"419\" height=\"273\" \/>Ahoy-hoy, Mutineers!<\/div>\n\n<div>Although it&#8217;s been a while, I&#8217;m taking a cue from\u00a0<a title=\"Vinod\" href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/30\/last-sf-meetup-sat-mar-31-230pm-630pm-thanks-2\/\">Vinod<\/a>\u00a0and am\u00a0holding the sentimentality for a moment, namely to revisit one of the most Mutinous Musicians Sepia has showcased: the inimitable <a title=\"Bhi Bhiman\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bhiman.com\">Bhi Bhiman<\/a>.\u00a0Since Bhi was <a title=\"first broken\" href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/10\/let_it_bhi_part\/\">first broken<\/a> to the desi masses, he has gone, well, viral. Not only has he managed to drop another <a title=\"amazing album\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bhiman-Bhi\/dp\/B006DICVRI\">amazing album<\/a>, but Bhi has been profiled by such journalistic stalwarts as\u00a0<a title=\"NPR\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2012\/01\/24\/145730860\/bhi-bhiman-penetrating-melodies-and-striking-vocals\">NPR<\/a>,\u00a0<a title=\"HuffPo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2012\/02\/16\/bhi-bhiman-sfs-most-excit_n_1283456.html\">HuffPo<\/a>,\u00a0<a title=\"PopMatters\" href=\"http:\/\/www.popmatters.com\/pm\/post\/153196-bhi-bhiman-9-january-2012-new-york\">PopMatters<\/a>, and that old rag,\u00a0<a title=\"New York Times\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/02\/05\/arts\/music\/new-music-by-kari-jobe-mohombi-bhi-bhiman-and-others.html\">The New York Times<\/a>. All of this without losing what makes him special: that astoundingly soulful and smokey set of pipes that fit his socially aware but catchy folk melodies quite nicely.<\/div>\n\n<div>As promised, here is the long-awaited interview with the fabulous Bhi Bhiman, culled from email and conversation over a wonderful lunch at San Francisco&#8217;s now shuttered Pot de Pho.<\/div>\n\n<p>Check out his video for &#8220;Guttersnipe,&#8221; his sultry voice set along a snapshot of &#8220;life along the Indian railways,&#8221; after the jump.<\/p>\n\n<div>\n\n<!--more-->\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bhi Bhiman - Guttersnipe\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jG4y_9pBeKI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>Folk: how&#8217;d you get into it?<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi<\/strong>\u00a0Dylan.<\/div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>Weren&#8217;t you just exposed to folk growing up in the South?<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi<\/strong>\u00a0St. Louis isn&#8217;t really the South. There are Southern elements&#8230;it&#8217;s the Midwest. The Mississippi is there, so like with Memphis and New Orleans, there&#8217;s interchange between the South and Midwest. People still think it&#8217;s flyover country.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>We grew up around the same time. Would you say that there were any visible&#8230;<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi<\/strong>\u00a0Kim Thayil.\u00a0Soundgarden\u00a0was my favorite band for at least four years&#8230;and to a fault. I listened to them way too much and that probably drove my parents and my brother insane.<\/div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>Would you say that knowing that Kim Thayil was out there inspired you?<\/div>\n<div>I don&#8217;t know if I thought I could make it, but it kept me going. He might be like the only role model that looked me that I had. I can&#8217;t think of anyone else, really.<\/div>\n<div>Also, I love comedy and I&#8217;ve always loved comedy, maybe more than music when I was teenager, and wanted to be a stand-up comedian but I wasn&#8217;t very good at it. Now I have a guitar and can have a &#8220;mask&#8221; I can put on when I sing.\u00a0I don&#8217;t have to engage in the way a stand-up comedian does- that&#8217;s a lot scarier. There, you&#8217;re on a second by second interaction with the audience; when you sing a song you&#8217;re singing for four minutes&#8230;\u00a0you&#8217;re a little more removed.<\/div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>You&#8217;ve listed Bill Maher and Larry David as your influences.<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi\u00a0<\/strong>Definitely. I would say that Richard Pryor and Chris Rock were just as much as well. I love watching and listening to their standup. I always wanted to be as good as them&#8230;to have the confidence to do what they do. It&#8217;s really hard to do what they standup wise, and material is a whole other thing.<\/div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>Your voice: it&#8217;s amazing.<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi\u00a0<\/strong>Thanks. It try not to believe it.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>You&#8217;ve been compared to Nina Simone.<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi<\/strong>\u00a0A part of my voice is definitely a ripoff of her.<\/div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>White Man&#8217;s Burden&#8217;s Blues: fascinating song. The references are all over the place. Kinshasa, New Delhi, etc. Curry farts, I especially like. Are we still talking about Kipling here?<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi<\/strong>\u00a0I like the Jungle Book&#8230;the movie, so maybe I was researching that or something.<\/div>\n<div><strong>DJ\u00a0<\/strong>[Laughs] That was the genesis of the song? The movie?<\/div>\n<div><strong>Bhi<\/strong>\u00a0Maybe. I&#8217;m not quite sure.\u00a0I didn&#8217;t know about his &#8220;manifesto&#8221; until I starting reading about him. I definitely knew about Jungle Book first. and then I was reading about him and thought it was pretty f-ed up that he was this beloved children&#8217;s story writer but held these racist views. It used to be called Rudyard Kipling Blues, but White Man&#8217;s Burden is much more ingrained into people&#8217;s knowledge. It also was pretty much an excuse to say every funny racist thing I could think of&#8230;<\/div>\n<div>I&#8217;ve been labeled very angry. I&#8217;m not really that angry. Sometimes I am.\u00a0The angry label is funny. Cause I&#8217;m not that angry of a guy. I talk about social and political and racial issues in my songs, but often with a funny twist. I mean, for some people something just clicks when they hear certain words or topics and I think their instinct tells them that dude is angry. But I&#8217;m not creating any social or political situations. The elephant is usually already in the room. I&#8217;m just making the decision to either talk about it or not. Not everything is love and roses.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahoy-hoy, Mutineers! Although it&#8217;s been a while, I&#8217;m taking a cue from\u00a0Vinod\u00a0and am\u00a0holding the sentimentality for a moment, namely to revisit one of the most Mutinous Musicians Sepia has showcased: the inimitable Bhi Bhiman.\u00a0Since Bhi was first broken to the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/01\/let-it-bhi-part-ii\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,47,13,3],"tags":[249,251,250],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8803"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8803"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8888,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8803\/revisions\/8888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}