It seems like another lifetime now but I was once involved in the British Asian music scene. I appreciate that some visitors of gsamra.com will only be here because of my musical past so it only made sense to dedicate a special page to the subject!
Those Early Years
I started out with a keen interest in DJ’ing, which eventually led to me producing my own music. I was fortunate enough to make my “professional debut” as a producer on Panjabi Hit Squad‘s Desi Beats album, which was released by Universal/Def Jam UK in 2003. Working with DJ Markie Mark is an experience I am grateful to have had. I went on to release several independent recordings between 2005 and 2010 under the music tutelage of the legendary Frantic Kam where I not only learnt how to produce music but where I also learnt about the music business in general. I had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the biggest names in Desi music such as Surinder Shinda, Lehmber Hussainpuri and the late Dev Raj Jassal. I was Bobby Friction‘s featured artist of the week on the BBC Asian Network and I even landed my own radio show on Sanjhi Awaz, which was the first and only independent Asian music station on DAB at that time. It was a crazy period but I have no regrets.
My Back Catalogue
As there appeared to be genuine interest in my older material, I had to do something about it. The Throwback was released on 31/Aug/2018 and is available through all popular services. This album contains (almost) every track that I released between 2003 and 2010. It goes without saying that the release of this album is dedicated to all those people who supported me back in the day.
Me & Music Today
I still have my production studio, The Hive. I still make music and I still spin music for fun (gotta keep those DJ skills sharp) but my output is at a much slower rate than before. I’m just far too busy with life these days.
I put out two singles in 2017 named Bhangra and Starz respectively and although I wasn’t expecting them to be huge hits, I’ll admit that even I was shocked at how little attention both releases attracted when compared to my past releases. However, I’m not losing any sleep over it because creating music provides me with personal fulfillment. If a track resonates with people then that’s just a plus for me.
I do have loads of unreleased backing tracks (or “beats” as the cool kids would say) and I’m working with an agent to start offering these backing tracks up for licencing opportunities. Whenever I have something available, you’ll be able to find it over on the The Beat Shop. Please note that access to this page is restricted to industry contacts. Sorry.
Peace!