Raghav Mehrotra - Playing With The Late Night Band, Bonham, School of Rock, and Musical Maturity

Today’s podcast guest first caught my attention with his clean, slamming Instagram clips. Picture closing your eyes and hearing a mix of Clyde Stubblefield, Bonham, and Nate Smith, then opening them and seeing a skinny teenager with a big mop of black hair and an infectious smile, and thinking “this guy is playing this”?

To the degree we use the word “prodigy”, Raghav Mehrotra is that. Someone who exhibits a degree of artistic maturity we usually don’t expect until many years later, even though he’s barely in college. (Studying economics at Harvard, btw.)

Raghav played drums and contributed vocals in the Broadway musical School of Rock at age 15.

He’s sat in with Seth Meyers’ Late Night band several times.

And now he’s behind the drum chair for Jordan Rakei’s latest album, The Loop.

Naturally, I was curious about how he developed such maturity at such a young age. In this conversation we touch early teachers, practice routines, figuring out Instagram, what it’s like to sit in with the Late Night Band, advice he’d give to up-and-coming drummers, and more.

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Chapters

0:00 - what were Raghav's biggest influences 3:50 - why does he think he got so mature at so early an age 9:00 - who was his earliest teacher? 13:25 - how did he get on Instagram? 15:04 - should drummers be less afraid to put themselves out there? 18:33 - how did he internalize the key details so early 23:18 - how to decide when to "move on" 26:50 - Raghav's zoom-lecture practice strategy/how has his practice routine changed 31:00 - what advice would he give his younger self 34:54 - biggest advice he'd give to the median instagram drummer 37:04 - biggest surprise sitting in with the Late Night band