Rupinder Rainer caught up with Deep Matta to find out a bit more about him and his interest in music.

Hello! Welcome to SimplyBhangra.com! Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hi, my name is Deep Matta. I am a simple guy who has a loving family and few close friends. I like music, dance and other forms of art. I grew up in a very culturally connected family in Punjab and spent my school & college years performing art at different levels.

Now I live in the Brooklyn area of New York City, another culturally influenced part of the world, and love making music and interacting with artists pursuing different art forms.

Fabulous, so who and what were your early passions and influences?

I grew up listening to a lot of Punjabi folk music & Kavishri, performed by legendary artists such as Joga Singh Jogi, Didar Sandhu, Kuldeep Manak, Gurdas Maan, Surinder Shinda, Gurmeet Bawa, Surinder Kaur, Ranjit kaur, Md. Sadik, Hakam Sufi etc.

Bhangra and Singing has been with me right from the beginning of my childhood. I remember as a little kid sitting with my mother and aunts (maasis) and singing ghoriaan and suhaag (Punjabi wedding folk songs), that was some good vocal training right from the beginning. I remember, Me and my sister had remembered a bunch of Gurdas Maan