Just Prince
Friday, August 23rd, 8:00pm
With opening act Punjabi Dance Boys
Attention fans of beautifully blended influences as varied as Pink Floyd, Kurt Cobain, classical vocal rep, Punjab folksongs, and Indian singer Ghulam Ali Khan. Something brilliant is on the horizon.
Toronto based singer-songwriter Just Prince is known for seamlessly blending Western and Eastern sounds into a harmonious tapestry with a captivating style that defies genre constraints. His music weaves elements of folk, rock, blues, and Hindustani classical music into a mesmerizing experience. Just Prince's evocative compositions take listeners on a sonic journey, transcending cultural boundaries and resonating with the soul. At the 2023 Ontario Folk Music Awards, Just Prince was awarded the prestigious Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award. Way to go Just Prince!
Just Prince started writing his own music as a youth while still living in Punjab, India. He was studying Indian classical music with expert teacher Humble Shine, and knew then that he would answer his inner calling to create. “I've always wanted to be an independent artist. That to me is freedom of expression.” Learning to make music took a lot of study and immersion. It helped that he was steeped in Indian classical music growing up. “It's always in the house. Devotional songs are constantly going and then you don't even realize that, you know, you grew up with it so that's it.”
Then came western classical voice lessons (think the world of Bach and Mozart), with the contrasting scales that genre brings. For the north american pop and folk listener, Just Prince’s melodies pull back the curtain just a crack, revealing microtonal inflections of Indian music. These tiny microtones - roughly half the size of a semitone, the smallest interval in pop music - stretch and pull, emphasizing tension and expressing relief so effectively.
Among his many influences, popular music of North America got in there too. Just Prince describes iconic 90’s influences we might have all taped onto cassette from the radio: Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Soundgarden.
He gathers from all these musical worlds to make something that is both authentic and unique. Writing in English, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi, he explores the universal experience of living beneath the same sky, and, from behind the safety of the stage where vulnerability comes more easily, about the love and pride he feels for his mother. “I don't think I have a specific theme that I write about. It's a jungle in here. Yeah.”
With a guitar, scales, and song types from the west, along with folk song, devotional song, and ragas from the east, Just Prince offers something that only he could. Let’s catch his show before he explodes with fame.