Audiation Magazine AM021 Digital | Page 46

A little bit about your background, you went from drama to radio and tea making! How does it feel to now be such a well known personality?

When I started out, it took me about 5 years to get my break in radio. In those 5 years, I worked at every Asian station imaginable, made amazing cups of tea and mainly perfected my skill of being a presenter. No job is too small for me, I read traffic and travel, I used to do bits on other people’s shows, I produced the Rishi Rich Project show at KISS FM UK and that’s how I got my break.

What are your favourite old school tracks?

It’s really difficult to pick my favourite KISSTORY tracks. Hip Hop wise, Mo Money Mo Problems, Notorious B.I.G. Garage wise, Mis-Teeq - Why. Jungle wise, Original Nuttah. House wise, BeatFreakz - Somebody’s Watching Me.

The 90’s was great for culture and music, if you could bring back one thing from that decade what would it be?

The fashion, because it was awesome. There was lots of baggy trousers, bright colours, outlandish hairstyles. It was a wicked time, can we just go back to the nineties it was amazing!

You are a role model for the Asian community, you spoke about rising to British radio and wanting to present on various TV shows. Do you think that the music and media are open to different ethnicities and cultures?

It took me a very long time to get an opportunity at a commercial station. When I started out, people would say to me, sorry we don’t have an Asian show at our station so we can’t hire you, it was ludicrous. I broke a lot of barriers within radio and I’m very proud of that because it means that a lot of younger Asians out there can go to their parents and say “I want to this as a job and look Neev did it.” I had nobody to refer to. My Dad would just go, “you should be on BBC Asian Network, and stay there.” So it was really difficult as I had to please my parents but I had other ideas in my mind. I’ve done radio now for twelve years, I love it, I love being a DJ, I love that side of it. But like anything in life, if you can put a tick next to something, that tick is there. And I want my next challenge, I want to present X Factor, Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing. I want to break down the barriers that I broke down in radio for Asians, all around the world wide not just in this country, on TV. And that’s my goal and that’s what I’m working towards.

KISSTORY, it’s something you need to experience live so find out where your local KISSTORY event is going to be and make sure you get tickets. And don’t forget, if one hour of the day is not enough for you, you can listen to KISSTORY 24/7 on our KISSTORY radio station. It’s on Freeview channel 714, on DAB and online.

NEEV

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