I am a self-taught musician. I started playing drums when I was seventeen and then slowly moved on to learn Latin percussions - I felt I had a strong connection to it. I started a Latin music band in Chennai (South India) called “Zahrra” in 2003 alongside my musician/friend Tanvi Shah. The band was a first-of-its-kind outfit that used to perform some of the best world music around at that time.

Soon my interest shifted towards learning Indian music, which also gave me a chance to be a part of “Oikyotaan” - a Bengali Baul Music Band experimenting on traditional Indian folk. Also traveled and toured a lot with the band performing in all the major music festivals in different venues. Simultaneously, I was also freelancing for music groups from different parts of India.

Then I started researching and training on world percussions like Darbuka, Djembe, Cajon and more. I spent quite a lot of time digging up on various drumming styles like Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Middle-eastern, Central-African and other styles. I also started collecting a wide range of percussion instruments from different parts of the world, which has always fascinated me and I am still buying!

I started freelancing as a drummer and a percussionist for more than a dozen bands in India ranging from folk-rock to carnatic-fusion to jazz bands. “The Raghu Dixit Project”- the most sought after band from India, kick-started with me as the principal drummer/percussionist. I performed and toured with the band all over the world for more than four years since its inception. I still play for the band whenever I get the chance to.

In 2005, I formed “Yodhakaa” - a contemporary Indian music band that evolved around the idea of finding a bridge between the traditional and contemporary. The band handles traditional Indian Sanskrit chants and layers it with musical and cultural influences from all over the world. In that way Yodhakaa has been very successful in reaching out to a wider section of the crowd. Yodhakaa now has an album out which is selling really well on different platforms.

In 2006,I joined Radio Mirchi which is one of the premier FM stations in India, as a Radio-Jockey and Producer, and also multi-tasking in different areas like music production, programming, advertisement and jingle production and designing show concepts. For about three years I have hosted music based shows on radio interacting with musicians from different styles and backgrounds from India and abroad. I also hosted and produced a research show about South Indian folk music dealing with ancient folk styles and showcased musicians performing those styles live-on-air.

With inputs from all the research work about Indian folk music, in 2009, I started a contemporary-Indian-folk-band called “La Pongal”, which blends South Indian folk forms and new-age sounds with influences from musical styles from all over the world. La pongal has now grown into a platform that is keen on setting up an artistic conversation between traditional folk musicians from various corners and contemporary musicians from the other side. I am also in the process of producing and directing a documentary film about folk musicians and ancient folk forms. The first project of la pongal is an album on contemporary Tamil folk music (South Indian folk). Now as project.2, I am looking at exploring folk music from other countries and trying to collaborate with those musicians to create bridge between indigenous folk forms.

 

I have travelled around the world for performances and have been lucky enough to be a part of some of the major festivals like WOMAD July’09 (Charlton Park) Lovebox festival July’09 (Victoria park, London), Chennai Sangamam 2007 and 2008(India), Kala Utsavam 2007 & 2010 (Singapore), Namaste India festival 2008 in Tokyo, Sori Arts festival 2008 in South Korea, Vladivostok Philharmonic Hall(Russia) and the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival 2008(China).