The best career counsellors in the city suggested him to forget music and do a computer course because of his technical calibre. So, this Chandigarh boy went ahead and enrolled himself for a bachelor's degree in computer application. However, he dropped it after second year to pursue his passion. It took him two years to convince his family and finally he went to Mumbai in 2009 to do audio engineering from School of Audio Engineering (SAE).
Meet Siddharth Sharma, aka Dub Sharma in the underground music world, the 23-year-old boy who has produced the song Tung Tung for MTV Sound Trippin. He is now stepping into B-town with Gangs of Wasseypur.
On a sound track
"After finishing audio engineering, I started working for radio and television ads in Mumbai. Then, I was introduced on BBC Networks UK in 2010 under the BBC Introducing Initiative with my single, Raaz (feat Jeetu Ramachandran), which got playlisted for a lot of weeks on BBC Asian Network's Friction Show. The song made it to the Best of BBC Asian Network Charts for 2010. It is now available on iTunes and all leading digital distribution web-stores through Monkey Dub Recording, Canada."
From campus to studio
Dub's golden chance came when Sneha Khanwalkar - who created her niche in male-dominated Bollywood music industry by composing music for Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye - came to SAE. "Sneha came searching for an assistant in 2010 and I have been working with her since then. I have been helping her in the production process of tracks for Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur. Producing a film song is a totally different experience. You can put anything in an independent music album but to make score for a film means working according to guidelines."
Making of Tung Tung
It's nothing short of surprise when Dub reveals that Tung Tung, which is a rage these days, was made in a hurry. "I got a call from Sneha just three days before the team took off for Qila Raipur, the hub of rural Olympics in Punjab. She quickly briefed me about the concept and asked me to pack my bags to travel with them. It was fun! Playing with sounds that most of us don't even notice was the real task," he says.
Making of Tung Tung
It's nothing short of surprise when Dub reveals that Tung Tung, which is a rage these days, was made in a hurry. "I got a call from Sneha just three days before the team took off for Qila Raipur, the hub of rural Olympics in Punjab. She quickly briefed me about the concept and asked me to pack my bags to travel with them. It was fun! Playing with sounds that most of us don't even notice was the real task," he says.
"Arranging sounds in a way that they get noticed was the challenge. My hotel room was turned into a studio. This was not new to me as I am a bedroom producer. I don't have a studio! I had some eight to nine hours to produce Tung Tung after recording Nooran Sisters on a basic rhythm pattern in Jalandhar. Since I am a Punjabi, Punjabi rhythm patterns and beats were not new to me but the challenge was to use the recorded sounds to create those patterns," says the technician.
Up next
Well, if the song has over four lakh YouTube views and people have been tweeting, posting and blogging about it for weeks, we don't need to ask Dub how popular the song is. But we do ask him about his next step. "I have some more Sound Trippin to do. Also, a lot of music in the box waiting to be released."
We are all ears!