Japan while I was there- everything kind of fell into place during this trip.
Tell us about your tech setup— what’ s some of the gear you swear by in your studio right now? Any favorite plug-ins or hardware that define your sound?
The main component of my gear has to be my MacBook, it’ s a beast of a machine and lets me make music on the go pretty much wherever.
Apart from that, when I’ m travelling, I use my Beats headphones and my RME Babyface FS sound card, which is super portable- I can easily plug and play regardless of what studio I’ m in. At the Dojo, I have a small studio room which is soundproofed, and I use both Adam Audio and KRK monitors there. Since I don’ t mix or master my own music, my setup isn’ t too complex. However, Hanish( who’ s been my engineer for years) has a very interesting setup with a lot of outboard gear that we use.
What’ s your process like when you’ re building a beat from scratch? Do you usually start with melody, rhythm, or samples?
I don’ t necessarily have a fixed process, sometimes I’ ll start with a melody, sometimes I may start with drums, other times I’ ll just sit on the digital piano and jam for a bit. If I’ m in a session with an artist and they know what kind of genre they’ re looking to make, I’ ll usually figure out the drums first to get a groove going. In other cases, we’ ll find a sample that works and then build around it.
Do you remember where you were when you found out you had hit a billion streams? What did that moment mean to you?
I think I found out about a year and a half ago, it definitely caught me off guard. As a producer, you mostly get backend credits, and not primary, so I was surprised to see that we had reached that number so soon. It was a surreal feeling, knowing that the music I’ ve made sitting in my bedroom can reach and impact so many people.
Your mentor, Spin Docto, r has been a major influence on your journey. Can you share a bit more about how he shaped your approach to music and career?
There have been quite a few people who have influenced my journey. Spin Doctor, DJ Proof, and Ashley Alvares, Ruchir Kulkarni all played a pretty important role in my initial days of being a producer.
Spin Doc was actually the first one to send a beat of mine forward to DIVINE, and Proof was the first one to send my work to Naezy, so I definitely attribute a lot of my success to them. Even today, if I have any doubts or questions about the industry, they’ re the first group of people I reach out to.
Social media plays such a huge role in an artist’ s career today. How have you used it to build your audience and shape your image?
By virtue of being a Journalism and Mass Communication graduate, I was lucky to get an early insight into how important social media actually is in shaping who you are as an artist. For example, a lot of my time and effort in my early days was devoted to making my brand as a producer unique and identifiable.
Things like using the right colours, logos, characters, etc., really helped me stand out amongst the producer community. Now that the whole world is chronically online, I think social media is probably the most effective medium to amplify what you’ re trying to do in any industry; you just have to figure out how to steal people’ s attention the right way.
You’ ve spoken before about your love for Bollywood music. Has your relationship with it evolved in recent times, and can we expect a film score from you soon?
I’ ve practically grown up listening to Bollywood music. When I was younger, my mom used to put me to sleep by playing‘ Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ CDs on the sound system. Till today, I’ d say about 80 % of my consumption is Bollywood music- it’ s something about the language and melody that not only
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