I turned music producer after close to four decades of live performance. Five
star hotel residencies, local concerts, international tours and just about
every genre of music contributed to my continuously updated music vocabulary.
Turning music producer was the most natural development in my career. Producing
other artiste's music gives me greater pleasure than producing my own. I set up
a recording studio in Goa and went about doing just that and in a span of two
years I have produced over seventy originals, many of which topped
international internet charts. The world was ready for original western music
from India but India wasn't. Right through my career I only encountered record
labels who knew exactly what every Indian wanted and that was songs to be sung
in Hindi. It was just about the same with radio stations. Granted, we live in a
country ruled by bollywood and Hindi is a major language. English speaking
people in India may be a minority but
then when we talk even a tiny percentage of India, we are talking the
population of an entire European country. Indigo 91.9 FM is probably the only
radio station in the country to see this perspective and took on the might of
bollywood by broadcasting only international music in India. The station
launched in Bangalore and then in Goa and quickly grew into the favorite
channel for those of us who enjoyed western music. All other radio stations
fell prey to bollywood loosing their identity with all of them sounding the
same. Indigo 91.9 FM stands out as the only radio station catering to western
music lovers. Most of the songs I have been producing has been in English and
Indigo 91.9 was my only hope to have my music broadcast in India. It took me a
long time to convince the heads that western music being produced in India
easily matches and in many cases even outclasses international releases. I had
documented my tracks that topped thousands of
worldwide entries on internet charts and this finally convinced them to give
my music a shot. The 26th of August 2012 will go down as a historical day for
local talent in Goa when 'Indigo Goa Grooves' went on air in a one year long
weekly broadcast. In just three months the slickly produced two hour broadcast,
showcasing only local talent, grew into the most popular show on air in Goa
prompting the station to take the show on the road through a series of live
performances around Goa called Indigo Goa Grooves-live in concert! If you are
in Goa on a Sunday tune in to Indigo 91.9 FM's Indigo Goa Grooves at 5pm.
Colin D'Cruz
www.jazzyatra.com
