Goa-based act Dee En on stage in Bengaluru. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
About five months on after its release, Goa-based alternative act Dee En will promote their new EP Saturn Return with a nationwide India tour that kicks off on Oct. 9, 2024 in Mumbai.
Comprising the duo Saurav Debnath and Flux Vortex aka Aditya Kapoor, Dee En will perform in Mumbai, Gurugram, New Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and close with a shows in their current base in Goa on Nov. 2, followed by an audio-visual set at Magnetic Fields Festival in Rajasthan on Dec. 7.
The kickoff show this week is part of gig series Degenerate Disco, where Dee En are supported by singer-songwriter and experimentalist Rounak Maiti, plus Pune pop-punk band Ren. Debnath says, “We kind of wanted to go on tour with this album a lot earlier but timeline-wise, it made more sense to wait.”
He says Dee En had not played live for nearly a couple of years and are now getting back to gigging on the back of releasing Saturn Return, which deals with themes of growing older. The band says it’s “reaffirming” to know that venues and promoters have been accepting of their music.
Compared to their dream-pop sound on previous releases, the six-track EP takes more electronic and hip-hop influences, featuring producers like Sijya and Fursat FM. Debnath says among his favorite comments about the EP was hearing people share they were humming songs off Saturn Return (“It’s the best thing someone can say.”) He adds, “There’s another one, ‘Can I make something for the song?’ and this happened to ‘Darling’ and ‘Prettier Beings.’”
At Magnetic Fields, Dee En return for a performance after playing at the 2018 edition of the Rajasthan festival. They’re collaborating with Aaron Myles Pereira for a unique audio-visual set. “This is the first time we’re doing live visuals at a scale such as Magnetic Fields, which is also going to be interactive so let’s see how it goes. This visual set will involve manipulation and feedback of a live feed from the stage so it’s definitely new exciting territory for us,” Debnath adds.
Before that, Dee En perform in Goa, which is their current home after moving from Delhi NCR. Debnath says he’s curious to see how people feel about their ever-evolving music. “I feel we’ve been unfair to audiences sometimes since they’d expect something and we’d give [them] something else,” he says.
Debnath ponders on the thought for a moment and adds the evolving sound is “inevitable” as they go on writing, performing and releasing new music. “We always love playing music from upcoming albums,” he says about their setlist on this tour. To that end, a new album is already being recorded. He says about the cycles that the band goes through, “It’s like that weird habit of being overly active and then being supremely quiet again.”
Dee En Saturn Return Tour (Get tickets here)
Oct. 9, 2024 – Degenerate Disco at Antisocial, Mumbai w/Ren and Rounak Maiti
Oct. 11, 2024 – Piano Man, Gurugram
Oct. 12, 2024 – Depot48, New Delhi w/Arpan
Oct. 16, 2024 – Pune
Oct. 18, 2024 – Bira Taproom, Bengaluru w/Preacher & Her Creature Feature
Oct. 23, 2024 – Bonobo, Mumbai
Nov. 2, 2024 – Hideaway, Goa
Dec. 7, 2024 – Magnetic Fields Festival at Alsisar Mahal, Rajasthan
