Raoul Bhaneja has a simple way of summing up his career in the arts: it involves doing "crazy things" that often seem "completely unrelated to each other."
A Dual Career in Music and Acting
On one hand, Bhaneja is a blues singer-songwriter and harmonica player. He won a Maple Blues Award for best new artist in 1999 for leading the band Raoul and the Big Time. The band was also named best Toronto blues artist in 2007 by NOW Magazine. On the other hand, he is a classically trained actor. He earned two Canadian Screen Award nominations last year for his work in the television comedy The Trades and received Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for his stage work. His most recent high-profile role is playing Commander Kelrec in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, the newest instalment of the franchise that began airing earlier this year.
In Calgary, he brought the stage musical Life, Death and the Blues, co-starring singer Divine Brown, to the High Performance Rodeo in 2016. He also performed his acclaimed one-man version of Hamlet at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival in 2012. Additionally, he has worked as a narrator for audiobooks, including works by M.G. Vassani and Shyam Selvadurai.
While these pursuits may seem unrelated, Bhaneja sees them as occupying a similar space. He started performing music and acting at roughly the same time. "People want to assume one is for real and one is a hobby," says Bhaneja, speaking from his home in Toronto. "But I've put out eight records, and I've been doing both for over 30 years. I've been lucky to have this dual carriageway, as they say in the U.K.: two different tracks that run parallel and very close to each other."
Connecting Through Storytelling
Bhaneja doesn't see much difference between performing Shakespeare and playing the blues. "Whether it's in the theatre, or in the nightclub or on a festival stage, it's about connecting with an audience and telling a story," he explains. "Blues is a music where there is so much story in it. It's not particularly abstract; it's quite literal, often 'I woke up this morning, and my baby was gone.' That's what you're trying to communicate as truth. And if you're on stage saying 'to be or not to be,' you're trying to communicate that as truth."
He adds, "My whole career has been a bit unusual. Now throw in this weird Star Trek show, too. It's been very unique and weird, and I'm quite grateful for it."
Upcoming Calgary Performance
Calgarians have seen the blues side of Bhaneja before. He has played at the Calgary International Bluesfest, and there was obvious overlap between the two worlds with his local performances of Life, Death and the Blues, where he invited Calgary-based luminaries such as Amos Garrett and the late Tim Williams on stage with him. On April 30, Bhaneja will perform as part of Raoul Bhaneja and Cross Canada Blues, co-headlining at the King Eddy alongside Edmonton pianist and singer-songwriter Graham Guest and Calgary's Greg (Junior) Demchuk, formerly of The Twisters and The Rockin' Highliners.
Early Life and Introduction to Blues
Bhaneja was born in England and raised primarily in Ottawa, although his father took the family to live in Germany for a few years while working for the Canadian government. It was in Germany that Bhaneja was introduced to the blues in the 1980s. The husband of one of his teachers gave him his first harmonica. He went to the record store and asked about the harmonica, and was directed to the blues section. Around the same time, Bhaneja was poring over his older brother's Jimi Hendrix albums.
