The Musician

The Background

Born into a tamil-brahmin family, it was quite easy to catch onto music, even more so when you are surrounded by quite a few musicians and music lovers. As a kid, I had the chance to listen to everything from Lalgudi G. Jayaraman to Ghulam Ali to the soundtrack of Grease (I think I still have the 2 LP-Record set)!!!

I was drawn towards percussion from my childhood and as most kids, pots & pans in the kitchen formed my first drum kit. The fondness for drums, found a more concrete expression in school, where I joined the drumline and the music club.

The Guitar

For his 16th birthday, my brother, after scouring the city of New Delhi, visiting just about every music store, finally bought a Hobner F-cut. Unfortunately for him, it was his 12th Board year, and his affair with the instrument lasted about a month, after which it landed with me.

Around the time, I was in my undergraduate course, with a fair bit of time on my hands to download tabs off the internet and practice on my own. But the real inspiration came from my good friend Siraj a.k.a. Chang in college, from whom I learnt quite a bit.

Although I never trained formally to play the instrument, I co-founded the college band with two other friends, Alpit Soni on Lead Guitar and Hormuz Nariman on the drums. While it never resulted in anything more concrete than one performance at the annual festival of the college, it did allow me to get comfortable playing the guitar - both acoustic and electric.

The Drums

Around the final year of college, I decided that it was high time I learnt to play an instrument formally, instead of the informal approaches of yesteryears. My search led me to Drumworx, run by Delhi-based metal-drummer Pranav Taneja. Learning from Pranav for around 3 years, I gained quite a bit of insight into the craft of percussion and learnt to appreciate the effort that went into playing the instrument.

It was in Drumworx where I was first exposed to the music of Dave Weckl, who I have come to idolize ever since. Two of my pieces where composed to tracks by Dave Weckl (Access Denied and Island Magic). The drums affair culminated with a top score of 87% in the Grade 5 exams of the Trinity International Exams Board, Trinity College, London.

Since then, I have not had a lot of time to dedicate to the kit because of work, and the lack of a sound-proofed practice area. While I have lost touch on the kit for a couple of years now, I am still practicing rudiments on the practice pad (keeps my hands going and the neighbours happy). I am also on the lookout for good musicians to jam with (people interested can contact me through the Contact Me page).