"Negative Feedbacks Are the Ones That Help You Change and Update Yourself" - Satish Sandro

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1. Tell us about your background and journey. 

I was a normal fan boy of several artists and an audiophile, it all happened on March 2 2013, a live show that happened in Pebble, Bangalore. DJ Chuckie was the mainstream DJ playing for the first time in India especially Bangalore. 

I was a big fan of dirty dutch music, a record label that is run by DJ Chuckie, I somehow wanted to buy a ticket for the show but my empty pockets made me realize it’s out of my league. 

The only option I had was to jump the compound and trespass the area and I managed to do. It all started from there, it was a dream come true show for me. 

I was inspired a lot to play like him, in other dimension I couldn’t afford a DJ course, so I decided to find an easy way to learn that is “Youtube” my dedication towards my passion made me grasp things very soon. And hopefully I managed to learn many things from a channel called ‘ellaskins’. 

I still consider him as my master and tutor and he was kind enough to reply to my mails and text me personally to clear by doubts without expecting a single penny. 

It took almost a year to learn the basics that is best matching, mixing, juggling and other tricks. For my in hand experience I decided to travel with sound vendors to install sound for clubs and to do sound checks. Hopefully helped me a lot and it was one of the best platform to experiment what I learnt. 

And 2014 kicked in, played my first live show in February 11, 2014, a Pre Valentine party at No Limmits Bangalore. 

It was a killer gig with more then 150 in the house and I was supposed to warm up and I did my part, played a good number of deep house X commercials to warm up the floor. 

The second mainstream DJ did not show up that day and the organizer asked me to take over the closing too. 

It was my first show and in-front of 150+ I lost confidence since it was my first time. I had a friend Amith who decided to accompany me for the show, Amith is an another audiophile, who was craving like to do something big in music industry. 

He cheered me up and we both took over the stage for next one hour, gave our 100% and managed to keep up the heat, so we literally could kill it together. I still believe it was a dream come true show for me, few from crowd hopped on the stage and took pictures, I still wonder if it happened for real or it was just an illusion. 

I jumped in joy and hopefully our fan base started growing, I and Amith started DJing together, touring inter states, a hell load of college shows and not to forget the crazy wedding gig’s.

Well, my other half Amith is no more, I know he’s at a better place now. And hopefully he’s raving in paradise and got his eye over me.

This a story in brief about my journey towards the road to be a DJ. 

2. Is DJ'ing a mainstream and financially stable career in India yet?

Yes, it is! Until and unless the fire burns in you and you accept negative feedbacks and ignore the positive once whole heartedly.

Because negative ones are the ones which helps you update yourself, and make some changes, positive feedbacks are the one that people already see in you.

This is what I teach all my students, ignore the positive things and start accepting the negative things in life to succeed. 

3. Who is your favorite artist and why? 

I personally love DJ Chuckie’s skills and have taken him as my inspiration, in other dimension AVICII.

Avicii  influenced a number of mainstream artists in electronic music, and I’m one of them, his production skills and the way he layered his chords. It’s just wow. He’s one of the Musician who inspired me to make or produce music other than DJing. 

Before he left, he conveyed a strong message, i.e. 

“You can do anything you want with your life, you just have to be willing to work hard to get there, and when you die all you have to remembered is for the life you lived, not for the money you made”.

4. What are some of the common myths about your profession? 

Common myth!! 

Indian parents look us like a spoilt brat, rather then a music enthusiast who wants to make his career in music. 

Well, my dad introduced me to his friends saying I’m a pianist playing in a group of orchestra, since I have a synthesizer at home.

The other common myth is, DJ’s are chick magnets, Nah that’s so fake, we all have too much to do behind the decks like analyzing the next track, counting bars and match the beat and work on intro’s and outro’s. 

There is another famous myth, “SYNC” real DJs don’t Sync their beats or auto match. They literally work their ass off to Match beats and bars to give smooth Transition to the next track. 

5. How and from where can one gain formal training for being a DJ? 

YouTube!

YouTube is the best source when your pockets are empty. And you still wanna do it, it is one of the best platform to learn things. I honestly learnt everything from YouTube. 

Takes a while, may be years. It straight away depends on your dedication towards your profession or career. 

6. What are the kind of opportunities you get after being a DJ? 

I get to meet many people, many artists, I got a chance to play with/along major artists, fulfilled my dreams to play at sunburn mega fest. 

I got the opportunity to work along with South Indian music composer/singer Chandan Shetty and I’m honored to be a part of his live shows and music videos. 

Back to back shows, travelling, lack of sleep.

Over all, I lived my life to the fullest. 

7. Your message for people who want to make their passion their profession. 

All I wanna say is “If you can dream it, you can do it”.

Not only as musician, where as in other field too.

All you wanna do is, work hard give your 100%, and their comes a day where you might end up getting weird thoughts to quit and do something else in life, well if you have lost hopes, yes you can do sometime else. 

If you’re strong enough to keep your hopes high, trust me you’re already winning.

And don’t imitate others, or copy their style, because imitation is suicide, insist on yourself!

Emerson said that.

8. Which is your favourite book and why?

Oh boy, what do I answer here? 

I actually don’t read books. I was never fascinated by books. 

Satish Sandro

Facebook : facebook.com/djsatishsandro

Instagram : instagram.com/hey.sati

Soundcloud : soundcloud.com/sati5h

Mixcloud : mixcloud.com/satishsandro

Interview By - Chaitra B Sriram