Deepak played at the third Amsterdam Vinyl Club on 16 October 2025. His set was one of our most thoughtful and imaginative so far, and took us on a journey that touched on all kinds of music from across India and beyond.

Meet Deepak on Instagram: @vision2vibes

An interview with Deepak Nichani

Welcome to Amsterdam Vinyl Club, Deepak. Where do you come from?
I’m originally from India and was brought up in Bombay, and I’ve lived in Amsterdam for around six years now.

When did your obsession with music begin?
I’ve always been a music enthusiast, which is something I get from my parents. There was always music in our home when I was growing up and it was an important influence on me.

My father worked for a production house – he was an accountant – and he had loads of audio cassettes. For every new music release we’d have the cassettes at home, and I remember at one stage we had around 500-600!

By contrast my mother listened to Indian classical music, so I was getting those influences mixed with more popular Bollywood sounds. So what I play today is a combination of that.

When did you start collecting vinyl?
I started collecting vinyl around 11 years ago, and tonight is actually the first time I’ve ever shared my collection with other people. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m really glad I finally have an opportunity to do it.

Tell us about your set tonight.
I have wide taste in music, but tonight I want to try and share a picture of Indian culture. Most of the time, Indian music gets confined to Bollywood music and the sorts of popular genres that are presented there. But there’s so much to hear in terms of Indian classical music, fusion music, hip-hop, jazz and so on. So I want to share that as I feel those styles are underrated or not given enough attention.

For example, with Indian classical music there are songs for every important situation you encounter in life, and I want people to know about that. Good music teaches you a lot about life, and playing a DJ set allows you to create something unique for an audience.

When I was thinking about my set tonight, I wanted to bring a mix of everything from across the generations – a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Hopefully, that way people will hear something new and exciting.

I want to give a wide representation of Indian music. I think this may be because I’ve lived outside India for a few years now, and I’m starting to appreciate the music even more and understand where it’s coming from.

Are any of the artists you play popular outside India?
I also play music by musicians with Indian roots who were not born in India – some artists who were born in the UK or Caribbean, musicians from all over the world.

In my set there is a mix of Indian and English language lyrics. I’m going to be playing a record by Apache Indian who’s from the UK. He grew up in a Jamaican neighbourhood and his family are originally from Punjab, so he was influenced by reggae and hip-hop. He uses Hindi, he uses Punjabi, he uses a proper Jamaican accent fused with English lyrics and so on.

And while I’m also going to play a little straightforward Indian classical music, I’ll also play some modern Indian classical music which is taking the genre forward and is mixed with genres such as jazz and so on.

Are you nervous about playing your first DJ set?
I’ve done some practice at home, dropping the needle on my records and so on. At first I think I was a little ambitious in what I was planning, and it really forced me to think about what tracks I can actually mix together. But the most important thing is that I’m excited to share my music.

Why do you think there has been a resurgence in interest in vinyl records?
When people collect vinyl, what I think they’re looking for are the imperfections. The occasional skip of the needle, the warmer sound, a feeling of nostalgia – vinyl is more honest and captures the feeling that, in life, nothing is perfect.

I have friends who work in handicrafts, and what they look for are the imperfections. The best way to identify a genuine handicraft from different parts of the world is to look for the mistakes. If works are genuine and hand-made you’ll find some smudges, things that don’t exactly line up – this is how you know it was made by a human. If you bring energy to something it just feels different.

Do you have a large vinyl collection?
My friends ask me why I collect so many records, but my answer is that I want to pass this on to my son. When he’s a little bigger and he has my record collection, he’ll learn a little more about my personality through them, how I perceive the world, what kind of music I was listening to, what I was thinking about. For me, it’s like passing on values – it’s not just about passing on great records, it’s like passing on a little of yourself that will help to improve the next generation.