MUMBAI: Singer – Songwriter Vismay Patel who is famously known for “Dariya”, “Dil Mera” and “Behne Do”. The composer also received over 12 million streams in Spotify for “Pal Behta Jaaye”.
Radioandmusic got in touch with the singer, songwriter, composer and producer to get to know more on how he decide to make a career in music. He also expressed his thought on how “Pal Behta Jaaye” garnered 12 million streams on Spotify.
Check the interview below:
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Tell us about your background and early life?
I was born in Siliguri, Assam on 18th April 1999 which is very close to the time when “Kargil War” took place. After 1.5 months my dad had to leave for the war. Even my name “Vismay” was inspired by one martyr. As a child I was a quiet and introverted kid. I never played outdoor games like other kids. My favourite thing to do was listening to Kishore Kumar’s music and to watch Amitabh Bachchan’s films like Don, Natwarlal and the list goes on.
How did you decide to make a career in music?
Music was always there. But I picked music as a career at the age 17. In army school, I took Music as an extra activity, I got to know about music in depth but never took it seriously. As my dad got posted in Srinagar, we had to move to Gujrat and when dad came to Gujarat for holidays after 3 months, he gifted me the exclusive CD of the movie “Rockstar”. This was the biggest turning point for me. That movie inspired me a-lot. It changed my mind completely. After that I took music seriously, I wanted to learn music, create music and to perform. But in small cities, this was not that easy. I saw one poster online where it was about a free music production workshop at Beatfactory Academy, Mumbai. This was the first time I learned how music production works. I came back and started music production day and night. After a year, I created my home studio from where I made my first song “Uda Dil Mera”. After that I developed a full fledged music production studio “808 Music Studio” in my city & started music production professionally.
As you belong to an army family and traveled around the country, does travel give you/ adds inspiration in your music or song writing in any way?
Yes it does. It’s not like I write while travelling, but I write on that experience I had. From each and every place I lived, Hyderabad to Gujarat, I gained some crazy experience which allowed me to catch the exact nerve of my audience.
Your song Pal Behta Jaaye garnered 12 million streams on Spotify, how does it feel? Did you expect this kind of response?
I created “Pal Behta Jaaye” in lockdown. The lockdown gave me the freedom from my usual work to write something or to create something on my own terms. I started writing this song at my home studio once again where I started this journey. “Journey” is the word that clicked to me and the basic idea was to write a song on life’s journey. After creating this song, I didn’t like it and I was about to delete it but for a second opinion I sent it to my manager Manthan and my guitarist Devang. They loved it so I took a chance and started the post production. It was very difficult to get the video and artwork done because of the pandemic situation. So I started making the artwork and the one you can see now is created by me. I wanted an animated music video for this song and it was a difficult task too. I started hunting for an editor and randomly one fine day I was reading my mail and found this guy, “Prabhu” who was eager to work with me on any project. I texted him and we started working on the same. After a week we were ready to release it. After the song was released, it got a great response and I got my audience. I never imagined that one song which I created with limited resources and I was about to delete will change my life completely. It was a dream.
Do you plan to perform at more shows and fests in the coming months?
I always love to perform, meet new people.
How do you think is the music scenario in India and how will it look in the coming months?
The good part about the current music scene is there’s a huge space for indie music which was not the case in the past. Independent musicians are not dependent anymore on music labels or films. But on the other side, according to me, some musicians are still creating the same kind of music with the same parameters. Now, there are great opportunities for artists to explore and create new kinds of music for their audience. But yes, I strongly believe that the indie music scene in India will grow rapidly.
Future plans
Creating a new kind of music is the plan. I love to experiment with new sounds. In India, we always refer to western music to create songs which according to me is not cool. India has so many different kinds of music which is endless. I would like to learn and bring something new for my audience.
