Ace of bass: A Wknd interview with musician Mohini Dey

As a child prodigy, she performed with Zakir Hussain and AR Rahman. Now 27, she has taken centrestage, with a debut album that is a masterclass in bass guitar.

Even as a toddler, she was all about the bass. Mohini Dey started playing the bass guitar when she was three, practising on a small wooden instrument that her father, bassist Sujoy Dey, custom-made for her tiny hands.

By the time she was 13, she had worked or performed with legends such as tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and composers AR Rahman and Amit Trivedi. She would go on to play at hundreds of gigs around the world.

Dey recently released her debut album, a self-titled work featuring Gino Banks, Simon Phillips, Guthrie Govan, Ron “The Bumblefoot” Thal and Rhythm Shaw. And she’s still only 27.

In some ways, she wishes that number were higher, she says laughing. “To many senior artists, I’m still the baby on the bass. I think many still see me as a 16-year-old. It’s funny, because I’ve been in the music industry for almost 18 years.”

Like many child prodigies, Dey owes her early start to her parents. While her father is a popular session bassist with a passion for jazz-fusion, her mother Romia Dey is a Hindustani vocalist.

Seeing how interested she was in his jam sessions, Sujoy Dey put his headphones — hooked up to his guitar processor — on her for the first time when she was three, and started playing. He was surprised to see her tap along to his basslines, in perfect sync. “He realised I already had rhythm at that age. He knew that there were no female bass players in India at the time. So he figured, why not start teaching her and see where it goes?” she says.

By age six, Dey had settled into a fairly rigorous schedule. After school, she would finish homework, get in a few hours of lessons with a private tutor, then separate sessions with her father, often until 11pm.

By the time she got her first Fender Jazz bass guitar at the age of 9, she was already performing with her father’s friends, who included jazz icons such as the composer and keyboardist Louis Banks and drummer and composer Ranjit Barot. The latter took her under his wing, bringing her on to play with him at gigs and even having her perform on a song that featured on his 2010 album, Bada Boom.

At 13, he also helped her land a gig at Mumbai’s Prithvi Theatre, performing with Zakir Hussain. She remembers being excited but unfazed, she says. “I was so used to being around famous people that I treated it as just a job. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do music full-time. I also had a passion for fashion design. So I didn’t really feel much pressure.”

In fact, when AR Rahman invited a 13-year-old Dey to perform with him on the TV show Coke Studio India, she was still trying to figure out where her future lay. She had received a full scholarship to a prestigious music institute, and admission to a school of fashion design too.

“It was a difficult decision,” she says. “It was my dad’s dream for me to really succeed in this space. His intention was so unconventional and unique that I felt like I needed to give it a true shot.”

That Coke Studio appearance led to a permanent spot in Rahman’s ensemble, a gig that lasted over eight years and hundreds of shows around the world. Rahman apparently loved having this precocious teenager on-board who was never shy with her opinions, always happy to suggest new arrangements or variations on a song’s bassline.

When she wasn’t working with “AR”, she was doing studio work for background scores and film songs, and playing and recording with jazz and rock legends such as Quincy Jones and Steve Vai. Somewhere along the way, music became her dream too.

“I really love performing, I love that diva feeling of high heels and stage outfits,” she says. “I feel like a goddess on stage. That’s something I can never thank my parents enough for. They saw this for me, when I didn’t see it for myself.”

The self-titled album Mohini Dey, released in August, is a big step. The compilation itself is a virtuosic blend of progressive rock, jazz fusion, hard rock and heavy metal. As one would expect, it offers a masterclass in bass guitar. But it also showcases Dey as a crafty composer who ensures that the dazzling displays of instrumental dexterity are all in service of catchy, groove-laden tunes.

“For most of my career, I prioritised the people I was working for because I felt like I needed to have more experience and growth before I released my own songs,” she says. “But recently, my bandmates in MaMoGi (that’s her husband, saxophonist Mark Hartsuch; herself; and Gino Banks) really started pushing me to put them out. Mark actually promised me $1,000 if I finished my album in a week. I never got the money, but I did end up finishing my album, and I’m really proud of it.”

The Mumbai-based artist is now preparing to take the album on the road, with a tour of Europe and Japan planned next year.

Also on her plate: two gigs later this month with MaMoGi, where they preview unreleased music from their upcoming, as-yet-untitled second album; a tour with prog-rock band DarWin, playing alongside Simon Phillips, Greg Howe and Guthrie Govan; a string of studio recordings with rock and metal musicians; a teaching gig at the Steve Vai academy in Florida in January; and that’s not even an exclusive list.

How does she keep track of it all? “I really don’t know,” she says, laughing. “It’s like every time I open up my laptop, I see something and go ‘Oh yeah, I’m also working on this.’ But I can’t complain, because I get to do what I love.”