“Humanity has found a way to pick and choose its morals,” Prabir Mehta notes understatedly when talking about the new single from his eponymous Richmond-based rock group, Prabir Trio.
Shared via Shockoe Records in February, “God’s Song” takes a wide-lensed look at our species’ relationship with faith, the planet and each other, repeatedly returning to the refrain of “I don’t remember making that,” declared in the voice of an unspecified and unimpressed deity.
“It’s almost as if God doesn’t matter,” Mehta says, “yet we build a society in which we say, ‘God is the ultimate.’”
Mehta has a gift for turning what’s overlooked into thought-provoking songs. He writes from a bifurcated, two-world perspective — one that reflects both his upbringing in India and his subsequent decades adding ideas, enthusiasm and leadership to Richmond’s educational and creative communities. “There are all these esoteric topics that I take a lot of time to think about as I walk around all day or have some downtime to myself,” he notes.
It’s hard to imagine Mehta with downtime. He fronts a pair of cover groups: 1996, which recreates Gen X anthems, and Full Moon Fever, which channels heartland rock legend Tom Petty. That’s in addition to his original endeavors; at the same time, he’s working with Shockoe Records to promote “God’s Song” and he’s readying the independent release of the second Prabir Trio album, “Long After the Empire,” which the band tracked at studios in Washington, D.C. (Ivakota) and Charlottesville (Mountainside Studio).
He’s also prepping for a Tuesday, April 2 show at Révéler Experiences that will double as a taping for the Shockoe Sessions Live streaming concert series. Special guest musicians will contribute mridanga, an Indian log drum, and additional guitar, which will free up Mehta to play electric sitar. “It’ll be like a six-piece trio,” Mehta notes, extending the running joke around Prabir Trio’s counterintuitive, four-person membership. “The goal was to be the world’s biggest trio, and we’re getting there.”
Fans of Mehta’s who are also fans of unique merch, be forewarned: The Révéler show may be your last opportunity to pick up a limited-run “God’s Song” prayer candle emblazoned with the faces of Mehta and his bandmates: singer and percussionist Kenneka Cook, bassist Jeremy Flax and drummer Kelli Strawbridge. The candle also features a QR code that links to a download of the song — a uniquely illuminating way to buy a uniquely enlightening song.
Style Weekly spoke with Mehta about the spark of inspiration that led to “God’s Song” and his decision to partner with Shockoe Records on the single.
Style Weekly: What made you want to write a song about humankind’s relationship to religion?
Prabir Mehta: I was in India, and I went to a temple in Rishikesh, which is a northern city in the state of Uttarakhand, and it’s considered the religious and spiritual epicenter of the universe. Now, I don’t know how the entire universe was folded down to one central point, but that’s part of the history of “God’s Song.” I went to a person who was doing blessings at an altar. There’s a lot of people crowded around this swami, and he’s rattling off Sanskrit prayer after Sanskrit prayer, just one after the other … I went up there and the swami said, “For 100 rupees, your family can get blessed for a year. For 200 rupees, two years.” I find that funny, because the Mark Twain in me was like, “You gotta be f—king kidding me. One hundred rupees is one year. Two hundred rupees is two years. God is very good at pricing …”
That’s the seed of “God’s Song.” I started thinking about humanity’s relationship to God … In India, Hinduism runs the show, and here, Christianity runs the show. But systemically, the relationship is kind of the same. We’re not doing what the doctrine says we should be doing.
How do you hold ideas of science and religion in balance in your own life?
Science to me is the pursuit of knowledge, and religion is not. I always tell people that it’s difficult for me to participate in the religion-versus-science conversation because I think both have gotten so many things wrong, and both have needed revision as time has advanced… I love the idea that there is a use for religion, and I don’t know if we have harnessed it for the appropriate use just yet. That’s not to say we can’t, but it certainly doesn’t feel like that’s what we’re reaching for. And with science, as well, I don’t think we’ve used science exclusively for good. We can split an atom apart, and we can kill literally millions of people. Yay [laughs sardonically]. So the knowledge of being able to do something versus the application of that — maybe that’s a good place where religion and science could work together. The bridge between knowledge and application.
How did the “God’s Song” prayer candle come about?
I did not want to make another piece of plastic trash, so the CD option was out the window. Shockoe and Prabir Trio would both go broke if we were trying to make a vinyl for one song, and it was kind of a quick turnaround, too. Craig [Martin], Reese [Williams] and Carlos [Chafin] and I were talking in [mid]-January. I was like, “I’ve got this one song. It’s a one-off. It’s kind of a weirdo. It’s not going to fit on the album, which will be coming out later this year.” We all were like, “Let’s do something …”
I looked up blank prayer candles on the Internet and, lo and behold, turns out you can get them very easily and for a relatively affordable price. And Brent McCormick is my go-to for visuals for the trio. Brent laid out the “Haanji” cover [and] Brent and I have worked together so much in the past years to build this India-based visual thing for everything that I’ve been doing. I love working with Brent, so I turned him loose on this project, and I was like, “We just need a four-headed god. Nothing crazy [laughs].” He was like, “Sweet. Give me a minute.” He did the design, we got the stickers printed, and then I assembled 50 of them in [my] office … It felt really right.”
How did you first link up with Shockoe Records?
I ran into Craig somewhere and I was like, “You’re a nice guy …” He has that national, Emmy-nominated show, “The Good Road,” and he’s really smart, and we’ve had lots of great conversations about India before, because he’s been [there] for his show. Anytime I get to hang out with him, the conversation’s great. So at some point we were like, “Let’s get coffee and talk. Is there a Craig-Prabir something?” Upon talking, it was clear that something must happen …
I think I just felt like the one-song approach was the way to do it. At some point there was talk of the album thing, but in my mind, the partnership with Shockoe, to me, makes sense for this one song because we’re both at a point in our respective worlds where one song feels very handle-able … I can independently release an album and support it for a long period of time — six months, eight months, something like that — because I have the band and everything. Shockoe is putting out more stuff, and they’re still going to keep releasing more stuff, which is great. They should do that. But I was like, “If they’re going to be busy doing all of that, I don’t want to strain their resources. I don’t want the two things they’re putting out to get watered down by them putting out three things.” So the one-song approach felt good. It felt like, “OK, cool. This is a fun Richmond thing to do with Richmond people.”
Where did the recording for “God’s Song” take place?
I looked through a couple of options for a couple of different studios and someone suggested Mountainside Studio. I’d heard of James [McLaughlin] before and I’ve heard some of the other stuff he’d done … So I threw “God’s Song” at James and I got on the phone with him and I was like, “Hey man, this is a trial. I’d love to come back and track more, because it’s an hour away; I love Charlottesville, but we’re going to look at other studios in Charlottesville if this one doesn’t hit.” And he was totally cool with it. He was like, “I get it. There’s a bunch of other places. If you need more, I’ll recommend.”
We drove out to Charlottesville, and within like six minutes or so, I was like, “We’re recording the album here. This is going to be the spot. I can feel it.” We started tracking and Kelli, Jeremy and I just flew through it. Kenneka and Kelli flew through their harmonies. James was on it … I’m grateful that in the Prabir Trio world, we’re just on album two and we’ve already had three great studio experiences.
Prabir Trio will perform at Révéler Experiences on Tuesday, April 2. Doors open at 6 p.m. and music starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at revelerexperiences.com. To hear “God’s Song,” visit hiprabir.com. To purchase the “God’s Song” prayer candle, visit shockoerecords.com.
