Tuhin Mehta
Part 2 · DJ & Producer — 34 years in Indian dance music
@tuhinmehtaThe other half of the story. For nearly two decades he's been the man a manufacturer flies into rooms across India to teach DJs their craft — first Pioneer DJ, now AlphaTheta. He once flew to Singapore with an empty suitcase to carry home what may have been the country's first CDJ-1000s. He's put out a mix on the last day of every month since 2013 — 157 and counting, one of them finished with a broken leg — turned mastering engineer in lockdown, and still wears custom earplugs into every room. Part 2 is the gear, the discipline and the ears.
◀ Watch Part 1 firstIf Part 1 was the origin — Madras, Brute Force, a number-one record in America and a festival that started with ₹3,000 — Part 2 is the craft underneath it. For close to nineteen years Tuhin Mehta has been the product specialist for Pioneer DJ, now AlphaTheta, in India: the person the company sends into a room to test the gear, feed back on what's being built, and teach DJs how to actually use it. Not a salesman, not an endorsement — an educator, in a market with no try-before-you-buy. It started almost by accident, and one of the first things he did with it was fly to Singapore with an empty suitcase measured to fit a pair of CDJ-1000s, unbox them at the airport, pad them with cushions and fly home the same night — quite possibly the first CDJs in Chennai, maybe the country.
This half is for anyone who cares about how the work gets made. The CDJ-3000X and why 'incremental' misses the point; the Euphonia and the new AlphaTheta era; rekordbox, stems, and why he still wants a physical, tactile feel for everything. 'The Index' — his mix series, released on the last day of every single month since 2013, never once missed, including one built at 11pm on deadline and one finished flat on his back with a broken leg. Becoming a mastering engineer through the pandemic. Teaching — and telling students who came to learn how to be famous to please leave: 'I'll teach you how to be a damn good DJ.' Invest in yourself, not the gear. Redlining is not headlining.
And the ears. Three decades of loud rooms, a mild tinnitus he's learned to work around, custom-moulded plugs in every bag, and the first thing he does walking into any club: put them in. 'If you lose your hearing, then we're in deep trouble.' Under all of it — the pillars (Jeff Mills, Josh Wink, Tony De Vit), the nerves he says you should never lose, the competition he wants to build with the Bengaluru DJs — runs one line he keeps coming back to. Nobody is bigger than the music. Watch Part 1 first if you haven't.
The VIC Fix is hosted by DJ VIC — an international DJ and producer who performs at weddings, corporate events and festivals across India, staged as a signature audio-visual show.
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