Today the young generation is advancing on all fronts like IT, Startups, Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Art. This is a story of one such young creator who makes music. This young lad started his journey into the world of music at the age of 13 and went all the way to creating his own original scores and his work is also available on big platforms such as iTunes and Spotify.
According to Elton, he started his stint in the music world at the age of 13 and at that time he was not quite sure of making it so big. “I started with music right from an early age of 13-14 and my parents enrolled me for music lessons, where I started off learning keyboard and piano,” said Elton adding that at that time his interests were in playing football than learning musical instruments. “I didn’t quite enjoy it at that age and I would rather have played football instead with my friends. I left music classes after a few years, as I never really picked up any interest in the same.”
It was later on that he realised that his destiny is connected with music. “I was always fascinated with the guitar and later on I decided to learn it on my own,” said Elton adding that he took guitar lessons from a YouTube channel. “I did go for lessons, which lasted about a month, but the pacing of the same was slow so I left that and started learning by myself.”
Elton also realised that his inclination is more towards English music. “But that does not mean I did not like Hindi music, I loved to listen to a very small set of artists such as Prateek Kuhad, and Hindi Rap artists like Divine and so on. So overall I would say that my musical taste is more modern and linked to new genres,” he said.
In the field of creativity and art, one needs inspiration to follow and for Elton, it was ‘Tsumyoki’ a music creator from south Goa. “One day I came across this artist and musician called ‘Tsumyoki’ who was from South Goa. He had just started his musical journey and he had signed up with a label called Gully Gang: India’s biggest Rap label,” said Elton adding that he really started liking him after listening to his first album. “I thought to myself if he was doing something like this and creating his own music, why can’t I? And this is how I thought about getting into writing my own music and how people actually listen to your creation.”
Soon Elton decided to connect with Tsumyoki and sent him a message. “I wrote in the message that I want to get into original music as I had a very basic microphone which I had purchased because I wanted to make cover songs to post on social media at the time, and after getting in touch with him he advised me to just get started on making the songs in an attempt to start somewhere and eventually I would get better at it as he said you can’t be good at it directly which made a lot of sense,” he said.
When you start working on a new project or idea, it may not be successful at the first attempt but that does not mean that you give up or feel discouraged, in the case of Elton it was no different.
“Initially, when I started writing my own lyrics, honestly they weren’t that good,” said Elton adding that he was just starting, “I used to write just 4 – 5 lines and leave it as I realised that it wasn’t going anywhere, but the situation changed suddenly when the pandemic struct, I had nothing much to do, so I decided to go back to my hobby of creating music and with the time it started getting better and better and during that time only ‘Tsumyoki’ moved to north Goa and joined the same college where I was studying and the rest is history.”
“I started learning by observing his (Tsumyoki) music and realised why things were the way he made them. I learnt quite a lot from his stuff and this way he helped me make my 1st song which I wrote around July 2020 after finishing it I decided to release it on all platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and elsewhere in August 2020,” said Elton.
Just creating music and uploading it on big platforms is not an easy task said Elton. According to him, there are many hurdles and fees that you need to bear. “We need to pay the distributors to get the music uploaded on all the available platforms, after the upload it goes for the reviewing process and will then finally be sent to the streamers to be uploaded on the platforms for all the listeners to enjoy,” said Elton. He also said that Spotify and Apple do pay for music once it’s played on their platforms, but it is hardly anything that would help to recover the cost involved in the process of making the same.
After a long wait, Elton managed to make 3000 INR for the entire year for music played on these platforms. “But from time to time, I withdraw from this account so that I can pay for things such as the cover art which is designed by a proper artist. But honestly, it isn’t about making money, I actually enjoy making music,” he said. To date, Elton has made around 10 songs which include songs in collaboration with other artists. “Speaking of videos, as of now I do not have any of my own but I am planning and working on my own video that I will be uploading soon and for this, I am working with someone who is well-versed in video-making. Prior to this, I was part of the music video that was for Tsumyoki’s song with this artist called Skeletron and this was showcased on VH1.”
The creation process of original music is not fixed says Elton. “There’s no fixed process, I start with producing the beat and create the melody in my head which is basically the tune that I hum, and eventually I add the lyrics to it and this is always my process. According to what I feel, the vibe is how I work on the music as I don’t work on the lyrics beforehand.”
Every artist has an inspiration that prompts him to do something creative and for Elton, it is “Juice WRLD” and “iann dior”. “My inspiration comes from these 2 artists,” said Elton adding that “you could say that my music is like theirs but for each song in particular I write about something related to my life. It is something that if I feel happy or sad, I would write a song based around that, and the idea is to write things based on your experiences where people can connect to the feelings behind the songs I believe that feelings are the best inspiration.”
“As far as music production goes, I have an approach that utilises both types of style which is creating music using instruments and digital production. Recording guitars and other instruments directly into the computers via the interface is how we go about the process. Nowadays everything is done using digital interfaces, where we record and layer things such as instruments, audio tracks, and vocals and later the process is mixing and mastering where we tweak everything up to the levels needed and to sound good. The process of mixing and mastering too, is something I learnt all by myself and I would say that YouTube is a blessing,” he added.
Elton has a plan of making music his career. “Honestly, I am going to keep making music and I really want this to work out and make it my main career. If that wouldn’t work out as I want it to, I would enter the field of mixing, mastering and producing music because I feel that it is definitely my strong suit. I currently do this for other artists in Goa, so I earn some cash from there as well,” he said adding that he does not ask money from his parents for all his expenses as he remains dependent on his music. “The guitar I use belongs to my Father, I have the old keyboard that was mine since I was young but all the work I do now is done on the PC. The expenses that I incur are the ones I pay for by earning whatever I make in the music line and I don’t believe in asking my parents for the money because it is my passion.”
“As far as the future growth goes, I am constantly working on my music so one day if it clicks it clicks,” he said adding, “The latest track released last month is “Games with my Heart”. It is my first song that has gone into an official Spotify playlist called “Fresh Finds India” and this is where they showcase all the new talent and music of India. I consider it quite an achievement in just a year. But in all this, there is still a long way to go and I say that there are absolutely no shortcuts in this line and the key is to keep at it and make good music.”
“As an artist or someone who creates, you hit mental blocks where you sit down and try to write something but it just doesn’t come, or your melodies don’t sound good. In that scenario, people say that keep at it and flush out the bad songs and lyrics and that eventually, the good stuff will surface. But the idea also is to take a break once in a while and not overwork yourself because you do not want to hate what you’re making,” he concluded with these words.
Text – Aakash Ghadge
