CHENNAI: She has a degree in Economics with honours and an MBA. However, none of this interests her. Her academic feathers were to meant to adorn her parents’ caps, she says. Music had always been her passion. Shubhangi Joshi, a vocalist and a guitarist will be performing at the Jazz music festival at Phoenix Market City this week. The Delhi girl spoke to City Express about her vocation.
“I was passionate about music from a very young age, but my parents had different expectations from me; so I decided to fulfil their expectations before I pursued mine,” she laughed.
Shubhangi worked for a year after she completed MBA. Quitting her cushy job, she moved back to Delhi to follow her passion. “I am a self-taught singer. I took a few guitar lessons but I had to quit when I moved back to Mumbai,” she shared.
When she is not performing, she lends her voice to advertisements. The Mumbai-based artist has done solo performances in Pune and Bangalore as well. She released her debut album Talking away the Night last year, which received positive feedback but she is modest when speaks of her success. “I am glad that I received positive feedback for my debut album, and I feel the kind of music I am making is changing and right now I am trying out different things,” adds the vocalist.
Announcing that she will now be performing as the member of a band, she said, “We formed a band recently in February. Things are working out well; we’re working on our next album, which is a full length eight-track album.”
So, how has the shift been — from an independent artist to being in a band? “A band is more complete and there are more dimensions to the output, where as in solo, I had to take care of all the elements. It’s easier because I have a band,” she explained.
She also added that there were many new ideas that surfaced while working as a team made it interesting and innovative.
Inspired by different artists and musicians, deciding on a solo idol was a difficult task for Shubangi. “I admire different things in different artists with regard to music and instruments. I have been influenced by a lot of artists, it’s a mix match of many musicians and not just one person,” she shared.
Shubangi’s advice to budding musicians: “Be true to the music you do, and do not bow down to what the crowd wants. Success and failure are both parts of our lives,” she added.