World Music Day: From Humble Beginnings to becoming Musical icons

From getting paid nothing, to being paid a meagre amount, top musicians from the country talk about their humble beginnings, recalling their first ever musical projects and how it pushed many of them to become icons inspiring others to follow their dreams...

There’s a long journey for a musician before they end up hosting sold out concerts, becoming best selling artists, and in some cases end up being icons for generations.

As we celebrate World Music Day today, we spoke to a few Indian musicians, across various genres, and asked them to recall their first ever professional gig.

American pop star Lady Gaga is a popular name now, but back in 2009, the multiple Grammy award winning singer had revealed that she used to “squirt hairspray” on stage and “set fire” to it, during her performances in Manhattan’s late night venues as a teenager, because “we had no money for pyrotechnics or stuff like that.”

As we celebrate World Music Day today, we spoke to a few Indian musicians, across various genres, and asked them to recall their first ever professional assignment.

Guru Randhawa

Guru Randhawa’s was paid Rs 500 for his first ever performance.

The popular singer who has given hits such as Lahore, Ban Meri Rani and many more, reveals that he was paid a sum of “ Rs 500” for his first ever professional performance as singer, at a “Bengali festival”, in Delhi in 2011. “I recall it was during my college days around in 2011. Before that, I used to perform in my village as a kid at weddings, small gatherings for fun,” he recalls.

Arjun Kanungo

Arjun Kanungo had made 300 tracks in a year, when he was only 19-years-old.

The 29-year-old singer songwriter, about a decade ago, made his first foray into music when he bagged his first music project which was “making hip hop backing tracks” for a television channel. “This was when I was around 18-19. I was getting paid 500 rupees per track. In one year I made 300 tracks. [After that] I knew had to do music then!” he tells us.

Raja Kumari

Rapper Raja Kumar’s first ever pay cheque is pinned right on her “vision board”.

Indian-American rapper musician, Raja Kumari, has her first ever paycheque right on her “vision board”. However, she did encase the cheque! “It was for 343$ for a song to be featured on a video game, but the song was later not used. But check was cashed!”

Parikrama

Delhi based band, Parikrama’s first ever rock performance was in a school.

Its been 29 years since the Delhi-based rock band has been enthralling everyone with their music. But before they started playing at colleges and other popular venues, their first ever performance as a band, as the band’s keyboard player Subir Malik recalls, was in a school, in 1991. “The first show we ever did was called Bandstand 91. This was at a convent school in Delhi . The show had four bands that were debuting that day ,and the headliner was Black Slade. We were contracted for Rs 500 as the fees. But at the end guess the organisers liked the band so they gave us Rs 500 each!” says Subir Malik.

Amit Trivedi

Musician Amit Trivedi ‘s first ever professional job was as a keyboard player.

For Amit Trivedi, it all started “some 20 years ago”, when he was picked to play keyboard, at an almost 10-day long “Navratri festival in Mulund, getting paid “Rs 1500, every day” which translated into a sum of Rs 15,000 over the course of 10 days. “It was a Navratri show so we majorly used to play Mataji’s garba and other Gujarati folk music. Of course, there were some filmy songs as well such as Goli Maar Bheje Mein and other hit songs of the time, but it was mostly garba,” recalls Amit. By the seventh day of the concert, “it had gone so big” that “a gentleman called Chandresh Shah,” who was a theatre producer, approached the then 20-year-old musician and gave him an opportunity to compose for a Gujarati play Ek Phool Khilyani Vaat.

Nikhil Chinapa

Nikhil Chinapa had to play a two-hour set at a night club in Mumbai.

He is a popular VJ, DJ and curator of popular music festival. But about two decades ago, Nikhil Chinapa, recalls the first time he got a chance to play a set, which lasted for two hours. “I played a set in a resto-lounge in Mumbai. I had 3 CDs with 10 tracks each and 15-16 records. A grand total of 45 tracks to choose from for a two-hour set. I don’t get paid. It was a friend’s place and it was just a lot of fun. Drinks were on the house though,” he laughs and recalls.

Shilpa Rao

Singer Shilpa Rao was paid Rs 100 for her first ever performance in her school.

The singer, recalls her first ever jingle, which she recorded for the lifestyle brand, and she still hasn’t cashed the “500-rupee cheque”, she received after her first ever job. “I was in college and I was looking for work so after college I would go and meet lot of jingle composers and film composers, and that’s how I got my first jingle with this duo Luv and Kush. My dad has still kept that cheque as a memory. We have not cashed it and it’s still there at my home back in Jamshedpur,” she recalls. But while she credits this jingle as her first professional project, she once received Rs 100 for a musical performance in her school. She used that prize money to buy CDs and Cassettes.

Jasleen Royal

Singer-composer Jasleen’s first ever performance saw her perform at a wedding anniversary.

Before she started pursuing a career in music, singer-composer Jasleen Royal, as a teenager used to move “around town” teaching music to around “four-five kids” and one “lady who learnt Christmas carols”. She would charge Rs 500 per lesson per student, and managed to make Rs 2000 per week. Her first professional project, was playing at a wedding anniversary, when she was in College and her first ever professional concert fetched her a princely sum of Rs 7000.

Amaal Mallik

Music Composer Amaal Mallik’s landed his first professional gig when he was a teenager.

The 30-year-old who has behind popular film albums, started out as someone who composed jingles. “My first ever paid project was a jingle for a dairy company, directed by my mentor Kailash Surendranath. He was some one who guided me during my initial days in the advertising world and worked with me on almost 30 or 40 jingles thereafter.It was the first time I was paid for the project, and I think got about Rs 20,000 for my job,” he recalls.

Jubin Nautiyal

Singer Jubin Nautiyal’s first ever gig saw him raise money for charity

Jubin’s first ever professional project came to him, before he even came to Mumbai, and while he didn’t make a single penny from the concert, he was able to raise enough money to save a girl’s life.”I was reading the newspaper and I read that an eight-year- old girl Tanisha Mishra, was suffering from blood cancer and it was very difficult to save her. Her father were looking for some urgent help to raise funds. I was a budding artist and this somehow got to me at that moment. I thought if I could do a charity concert and raise some money to help this little girl, it would spread the word about their problem. The auditorium was able o accommodate around 1500 people and we announced a show there. We raised around four to five lakh rupees, and quite a lot of people turned up and contributed to this cause. We all worked together and saved her. I think that is a blessing I will carry with me forever. I didn’t make any money out of that, but what I got was priceless,” he recalls.

Sona Mohapatra

Singer Sona Mohapatra has been performing and winning prizes since she was in college.

The fsinger-songwriter remembers taking part in college competitions, and winning the prizes for her musical talents. “I clearly remember my first top prize in Hyderabad’s Osmania University. Rs 1200, a watch, sunglasses and a gift voucher ! Quite a loot!” she recalls. “The best musicians in the area ended up becoming some of my really good friends and not my academic peers. All of this definitely fuelled my ambitions to be a performing artist and pursue a life of music & artistry over a desk job,” she adds.

Armaan Malik

Armaan Malik was only eight-years-old when he recorded his first ever professional song!

He had started singing since he was four-years-old, and had decided by the time he was seven, that music was “going to be my career.” And the very next year, the then eight-year-old Armaan got a chance to sing for a television jingle, in around 2002-2003, and received a sum of Rs 25,000 for his first every “professional job” as a singer. “I sang and did the voice over for it too. I never got a hold of that money because my mom saved it all up in some ‘cub account’ I had. Haha,” he laughs.

Neha Kakkar

Singer Neha Kakkar’s first ever song as a playback singer was for a TV show.

She started her singing by singing bhajans and devotionals songs in Delhi, before she joined a popular singing reality TV show. But she was only four-years old when she, along with her sister Sonu Kakkar, and their elder brother, Tony Kakkar, were “invited to perform” by their neighbours. “It was a Jagran in Delhi when I was around 4 years old and I had received Rs 100 for it. It was a neighbourhood/community function,” she says further recalling that her first gig as a playback singer was the title song of the TV show Na Aana Is Des Lado. “Music director duo Sachin-Jigar made me sing this track. I did not get paid for it,” she recalls.

Naezy
For the Mumbai based rapper, Naved Sheikh aKa Naezy, his first ever project professionally also landed him in a studio for the first time, and it happened to be a Bollywood song! It couldnt have gotten better than this for the (then) 22-year-old rapper, who was un till then, only famous in the “underground” rap circuit. “The song was Birju, for the movie Hey Bro, which starred some of the biggest stars,” he says recalling how the song opened more doors for him. “ After that song, people knew I was a mainstream artist. Even from Bollywood I started getting a lot of offers, and this song just opened so many doors for me to show my craft as a musician,” he adds.

Rohan Solomon

Rohan Solomon was the frontman for the rock band, Cyanide, and their first ever professionally paid gig was at a nightclub in Delhi, where they opened for the rock band, Orange Street.

Delhi based singer-songwriter started his career with the rock band, Cyanide, and he recalls the first ever gig the band, for which the five-member-band received a sum of Rs 5000 for the show at a nightclub in Delhi. “I think it was in 2003 and we opened for a band called Orange Street. The show was organised by a music magazine,” he recalls. “We only had four originals at the time, so it was mainly covers. I don’t think i can name all the songs, but i can name a few. We played Until The Day I Die b Story of the year, Breakdown by Tantric, Fever Dog by Stillwater, our originals Untold Misery, Lucid Dream, Abstract and Cool Breeze on Camel’s Back. We must have played more but I’ve forgotten. Haha,” he laughs.

Midival Punditz

Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj were first paid as the musical duo Midival Punditz in 1998.

For the electronica duo of Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj, their first ever professional performance under as Midival Punditz was in 1998 when the two “had been making our first few tracks and doing local club gigs called Cyber Mehfil. But we never got paid till our 3rd or 4th Cyber Mehfil which was at a hotel, Delhi ,” recalls Gaurav Raina, one half of the popular duo.

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