The nice thing about having teens, is that you get to meet a lot of exciting young people – many of whom are musically gifted. I hope to bring you stories of these young musicians who are chasing their dreams and in many ways paving a new path for themselves & others. In this column, we’ll meet one classical musician who juggles a full time career with her music and a disc jockey (DJ) who’s building a career out of his passion.
Priyanka Prakash is a popular singer in the Carnatic music circuit. Music has been an integral part of her life since childhood having grown up on a staple diet of listening to recordings of stalwarts. A disciple of Smt. Neela Ramgopal, she credits her guru for being intrumental in shaping her as a musician. “Mami is a living legend and I’m blessed to learn from her” she says.
Priyanka who’s a Chartered Accountant has managed the difficult task of balancing her work and musical commitments. “I want to delve deeper into Carnatic Music, explore the amazing aesthetics of our music, [continue to] learn rare compositions by my favourite composers,” she says when asked about her goals. She feels lucky to have several other musicians of her age with whom she can hold musical dialogues and enrich her learning.
Adith Prasanna is a DJ (Disc Jockey) and his interest in music began in his early teens. By the time he was fifteen he was creating mash-ups and auditioning for war of DJs on a leading music TV Channel. He hasn’t looked back since then.
When asked about what kind of music he plays he says it ranges from Bollywood to EDM (Electronic Dance Music). “I cover a huge number of sub-genres out of which I play Progressive-house, Electro-House, Dubstep, DnB and Trance.”
He has been performing as a DJ for the past 3 years at weddings, college gigs, corporate events, clubs and lounge-bars. He adds that being a DJ is not easy. “It is a lot of hard work. A lot of my time and energy is dedicated to discovering music and immersing myself in globally emerging trends. Then I need to figure out a way to adapt it to my music and bring my creativity to enhance it. Every event and client brings a new challenge.”
Adith feels that only a good DJ can read the pulse of the crowd and play music that pumps up the energy and spread joy in the ambience. “This involves perfect beat mashing and especially for Indian DJs it involves marrying a Desi sound to a globally toe-tapping beat.”