Deepak Ramapriyan is one of those people that won the good genes lottery big time—there doesn’t seem to be any end to his talents. He can play multiple musical instruments including the violin and keyboards, sing, act, dance, compose and orchestrate music, and write lyrics and poetry. Growing up, he was a math whiz as well as an athlete, and he’s also a vegan cook—a true Renaissance man.
In person, Deepak is a bundle of energy, with a natural gift for marketing and social media.
“It’s been almost a year [since the Woolsey Fire], and quite a ride,” he wrote on one website. “[There’s] been a lot of reflection these last few weeks as the one-year mark is approaching.”
At the time of the fire, Deepak had been living in the Malibu area for almost a decade, and was currently in a rental house off Kanan. He was out of town when the fire started, but came running back on Nov. 9. A roommate had already evacuated with one of Deepak’s cats, Jasmine, but couldn’t find the second one, named Aladdin. Unfortunately, when Deepak arrived, he found the cat on the property already deceased. Aladdin was later cremated and his ashes were put inside a genie lamp.
Deepak and the roommate then battled spot fires to prevent any further damage to their belongings or the landlord’s house by bringing buckets of water from a nearby pond. He said some spot fires had to be doused five or six times before they would extinguish. He didn’t have renter’s insurance and lost all of his clothes, furniture, TVs, stereos and some musical instruments. Luckily, most of his recording studio equipment was spared.
“I’m currently living near Malibu Canyon and Mulholland, but most of my community and home and heart is in Malibu and that’s where I spend my time and always feel at home,” he wrote in an email. “I’m involved heavily in the local community—City Hall, arts events and music and poetry, as well as being a guest at the local schools and assemblies—most recently at Webster a few months back.”
In the year since the fire, Ricardo Means Ybarra, Malibu’s former poet laureate, featured Deepak’s images and poetry in the book “Radical Beauty: Malibu after the Fire.” In addition, images of Deepak were displayed in the community art exhibit at City Hall titled “Radical Beauty, Malibu Rising” and he was also included in the video produced by Malibu locals Eric Dick and Celleste—”We Go On (California Strong).” Even before Woolsey, Deepak was a subject in the short-form docuseries “I BUlieve,” produced by local husband and wife team Jules Williams and Alison Pothier of 21 Mile Films.
Before Woolsey, Deepak already had an impressive array of successes: His latest band, a quartet named Robot Nature, got its first big break as the opening act for the Alan Parsons Project at the Burning Man 2018 festival in Nevada, with an audience of 10,000.
“Bookings started flying in and venues started selling out in Los Angeles and beyond,” Deepak noted. Robot Nature has also opened for other major bands, including The Wallflowers and Lifehouse.
As a freelance musician, he’s played with India.Arie and Rihanna. He’s acted on TV’s hit show “Modern Family” and appeared in the films “Bleeding Heart” starring Jessica Biel and “Basmati Blues” with Brie Larson. Deepak also landed several national commercials for Cadillac, iPhone and Vitamin Water and composed/ produced music for several films.
A self-described former “pizzaholic,” he also become a vegan cook and appeared on “One Veggie at a Time”—a cooking show on #JaneUnChained.
After the losses suffered in the Woolsey Fire, in what could only be described as karma, Deepak’s already varied career took off even further.
Robot Nature signed a record deal last month with independent record label frtyfve, who recently released the band’s newest single, “All These Machines,” on all platforms.
Deepak is also producing the music for the new all-Indian Disney Junior animated production, “Mira, Royal Detective,” which is slated for its TV debut in 2020. He’s been such a Disney fan all his life, he jumped at the opportunity, but is still setting his sights on the future success of Robot Nature.His ultimate dream would be for the band to headline at Coachella.
To see Deepak perform, Robot Nature’s next LA date is Friday, Nov. 29, at the Federal Bar in North Hollywood. In addition, he’ll appear as a poet at Malibu Fig Ranch’s “We’re All So Happy to Still Be Here Festival” on Sunday, Nov. 10, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 29127 PCH.
