Ramdas Shenoy in conversation with Veer, the music maestro from Kannada Music industry
Veer Samarth from BIDAR a small city in Karnataka, known for art was attracted to music right from his childhood and pursued music from Sangeet Kala Mandal. His first teacher was Sri Balwanth Rao Kulkarni under whose guidance he was first exposed to the magnificent world of Hindustani Classical Music. He passed his juniors in Hindustani classical music and completed his seniors under the guidance of Aashita Ghosh. Even though he enrolled for the Pharmacy course, music was his calling. In 1998, he pursued his musical journey at Sri Suresh Wadkar’s Ajeevasan Gurukul.
He considers himself lucky to work professionally with the living legend, Sri Ravindra Jain and worked with greats like Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Shubha Mudgal,
Ismail Darbar and Sandesh Shandilya. After moving to Bengaluru in 2006 till date, he has composed Music for 30 Kannada Movies, even a Hindi and one Marathi movie, as an Independent Music Director. Legendary singer ASHA BHOSLE sang for the first time for a Kannada film for him.
Some quick musical bytes from Veer–
What is music for you?
Music is as important for human beings as breath is for staying alive. It is said that even a hearing or speech impaired people have music in their lives. You cannot imagine any life without music. Every life will have some rhythm. As Indians, music is part of our lives from a very young age. We start learning music very early in life with lullabies and mantras. On a personal front, music is my lifeline and my livelihood on professional front.
There is lot of competition and lobbying in the film industry, how can a new musician survive?
Any profession you cannot do away with competition. In fact, competition makes you strive for the best. Same goes with lobbying. I try to focus on the positive aspect of the situation and put all my energies on carving and creating my own niche. Once you have clarity on that, other things don’t matter.
How can a young aspirant know that he has qualities of becoming a good musician?
You have to look at the world outside and with an open mind try to absorb and learn things. A good student in the field of music is the one who never stops learning. Only when you are a learner you will understand what is quality music, what will be appreciated by your audience, what will be discarded. In the end, you will be able to create good music when you know the merits and demerits of your music. The most important thing though will be the guidance of a Guru, who will help you hone your skills to become a good musician.
What is your advice to the next generation?
I am still a student of music, and not achieved heights to advice anyone. But yes, if I have to suggest and what I follow is to try and create something that will make the world to take notice and avoid any mediocracy.