Diljit Dosanjh performed at Coachella this year.
Diljit Dosanjh and his team are set to return on Saturday yet again on the stage at the Coachella. His drummer at the festival, Rahul Hariharan, talks to us about performing at the international music festival.
Diljit Dosanjh made history by becoming the first Punjabi act at Coachella. The Punjabi superstar brought his infectious energy and the vibe of Punjab on stage last Saturday at the international music festival, leaving the Indians feeling proud. With the second weekend’s performance slated to take place in a few hours, News18 Showsha managed to catch up with the singer’s drummer at Coachella 2023, Rahul Hariharan, and get an insight into what fans could expect in the second weekend’s performance.
“We are looking forward to this Saturday’s performance. The nerves are out of the way, we know exactly what to expect, we know the stage we’re playing on, and now it’s known territories. There’s going to be a different level of comfort that all of us are going to come to the festival with this Saturday,” he tells us. “We might swap one song for another, maybe another high-energy song for another one but more or less, I am certain that the setlist is going to be pretty similar. Maybe one or two songs swapped in and out,” he adds.
More eyes are expected to be on Diljit’s this weekend performance, which will be streamed on Coachella’s YouTube channel after the first performance went viral. Ask Rahul if he and the team performing with Diljit had anticipated the performance last week to get so much attention from fans and even Bollywood stars in India, the drummer confesses, “We knew coming into the show that this is something that is going to be iconic, historic. We were the first in the country to play at Coachella and at the Sahara Tent. We were bearing that weight because when we came in here and all of us were aware of it, but in all honesty, all the love and respect that’s been pouring in is overwhelming. It’s very humbling.” “I didn’t expect it to go so viral,” he adds.
While everyone saw the internet’s reaction to Diljit’s firecracker of a performance at Coachella 2023, Rahul reveals that the vibe in the camp, after they took the centre stage, was great as well. “The mood was great, it was electric. The gig went by like in a blink of an eye. It felt like five minutes but it was a very intense 40 minutes set. We started and went from song to song, putting out a great performance with very high energy. Everyone in the audience really liked it. We got off stage, a lot of crew backstage, and a lot of people hanging out backstage came and congratulated us and spoke about how awesome it sounded. It felt great and we were extremely happy that we pulled off a flawless show,” Rahul shares.
The talented self-taught drummer has worked with several Bollywood singers over the years. These include Neha Kakkar, Siddharth Mahadevan, and the Mahadevan family, who played shows with Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Pritam, Amit Mishra, and Ankit Tiwari. He has been associated with Diljit since 2019 and praises the singer for his infectious energy.
“During the rehearsals (of Coachella), he brought his infectious spirits in, he made it really easy. He noticed we had done all the hard work and we’d come prepared so he was very appreciative of that and we just jammed the songs out with him. We played three or four times, we hashed out the set list, and he had his input, all and all it was great. His energy is infectious,” Rahul concludes.
