Bass Camp

If there is anything that explains her quick rise in the music circles,apart from her gifted guitar skills,it is her ability to seal opportunities as and when they came. Barot was bowled over by the dexterity of her fingers when she once accompanied her father — a close friend and fellow musician of Barot — to his studio.

“He told my father that I was playing the way a mature person would,” she says.

She particularly remembers another event,when she was told about a show hours before it started. It was an informal jam session with Zakir Hussain and a few other well-known musicians outside Prithvi Theatre,Juhu,in front of a group of music lovers. Dey remembers going blank for a second because the urgency of the show hadn’t given her the time to prepare,but she pulled off a guitar solo within seconds of being

on stage. “I am never nervous. Once I am on stage,I go wild,” she adds with obvious confidence.

Rahman discovered her talent when Barot was arranging for him ahead of a song recording. Impressed,he roped her in for his set of six songs in Coke Studio,as a substitute to his long-time guitarist Keith Peters. “He said he was looking to get Tal Wilkensan,a noted international female guitarist,but after he heard me playing he wanted me to play for him,” says she. In return,Dey was glad for the creative freedom that Rahman gave her,irrespective of her age.

Dey’s musical upbringing,guided by her bass guitarist father and later by Barot and Louis Banks,was far removed from film music. Her horizon was circumscribed by genres such as jazz,funk and reggae. To give a more concrete shape to her creative ambitions,Dey formed a band called Generation early this year and has started writing her own songs — the lead guitarist is her younger sister,14-year-old Esani. Apart from Coke Studio,Dey will be performing with Ramaswamy in October in Coimbatore.