Music always intrigued me: Shatrujit Tikka Singh

Keith Sequeira talks to Shatrujit Tikka Singh, the advisory for Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. He has been associated with luxury and luxury brands for the past 10 years.

 

Excerpts of his interview on CNBC-TV18’s special show VH1 Club Class

 

Q: Taking you back through your adolescent period, probably even earlier and your musical experience from back then. What you relate to first when you started growing up?

 

A: First music I ever heard was in a Gurudwara. There were these old jatta da ragis singing which amazed me and then of course coming home there were the Beatles and there was a great singer called Donovan which I still enjoy. There was Paul Anka, there was whole genre of that 60s style hip-hop.

 

On the other side there was a classic music too my mother enjoyed to listen through old records which had to be wound up. So there are great memories of music. It is a mix of all kinds of music. I was exposed to so much. When I went to boarding school. You have to sing patriotic songs. I was in the school quire, tried to play tabla. Music is part of an Indian’s way of life.

 

Q: We have always been a country that loves its music so intensely from the variation in terms of the instruments that are available to everything else like you just pointed out. You went to the Gurudwara and you heard the wonderful voices and sounds and then you came back home and then you changed it completely and you heard a lot of western music. Did any of that influence take you through life and do you think made you the person that you are now?

 

A: Sure. I think music has helped me develop as a person. It has calmed me. It relaxes me and I am curious about different cultures. I think music unites people. Everyone loves great music. I do not think you have to be Einstein to appreciate it. It is just the rhythm, whether it is Africa, Brazil, India, Korea, Japan or even church music inspires me, the Gregorian chants. It is just fascinating. Music has always intrigued me, but the biggest question I have always asked myself, how come I did not have any talents to sing or play any instrument.

 

Q: That is a perennial question in everybody’s mind. How come I cannot sing? It is an amazing talent you have though. You can let out so much, such a lot of emotion that goes into it.

 

A: Absolutely. I have a mother who plays brilliant piano, who has trained very well and I have a son on the other extreme who I believe is a hugely gifted rap singer. It is completely different genre, which I cannot figure out.

 

Q: Do they have any jugalbandi together ever?

 

A: I do not think so. He sings well. Apparently his friends think he is a great star. Mine is a generation which just did not have the talents, but we were appreciative of music.