A born musician

Anish Sood is an acclaimed DJ and music producer who was one of the first few breakthrough artists in the homegrown dance music industry at a time when the concept was at its nascent stage in India. One of the busiest DJs in the country, his touring schedule includes close to 90 performances a year.

Excerpts:

How did the EDM journey start for you?
I started collecting music at a very young age because I grew up in a family of musicians. By the time I was around 12 I already had a sizeable CD collection and I started DJing at 16 primarily to share the music I had collected. After playing in a few college parties in my late teens I started playing in clubs around Goa and eventually clubs and festivals around the country.

What goes through your mind when you make a track?
It depends on what my starting point is. Usually, it could be a hook or melody that I came up with at some point and recorded into the Music Memos app on my phone. If I'm working with a songwriter, then I usually jam out with them until I find something that catches my attention. Post that I start laying down different elements like drums, bass, synths and work towards making a demo that I send over to the songwriter to write vocals on.

When I was writing the first single 'Starry Night' with Zach Sorgen in LA, I went over to his studio at 10am to begin the session and went over to his kitchen to make some coffee. I noticed a bottle of Hennessy lying there and ask him if he ever tried putting some in his morning coffee. He immediately threw some in his mug and then wrote the opening line of the song - 'Woke up in Amalfi, put some Henny in my coffee'

Tell us about your debut album?
The album draws heavily from my teenage years when I was listening to a lot of jazz, rock and pop. When I decided it was finally time to write an album I wanted a fresh unique sound and exceptional songwriting. Hence, I temporarily moved base to Los Angeles with absolutely no expectations or pre-conceived ideas. I then got to work with some of the best talents and I’m happy with the result. While the primary genre is the house, the album also embraces pop, funk, disco and techno elements.

Most of the collaborators are established singer-songwriters based in and around Los Angeles. The first thing that struck me when I started working in the studio with them is how professional and committed they all are. Some of the tracks took barely two hours to finish and that’s exactly how I like to work as well, if the writing process drags on for too long it’s going to sound like a forced product. The two lead collaborators on the album are Zach Sorgen and TRISHES. Zach is a very gifted songwriter with a great voice and has already put out a couple of big records with Slander and Bobby Puma. The first thing I noticed about TRISHES was the depth of her writing and vocal range. She sounds very Lana Del Ray-esque and her live set involves very cool live looping as well.

Tell us about your experience with Kygo?
It was exciting to support Kygo on his debut India tour. Coincidentally, I played an hour before him at Sunburn Goa in 2015, where he made his India debut so it's a nice follow up.