"Study the Genres and Try Something Different From Others"

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1. Tell us about your background and journey.

We (Ayonesh and Anshu) started our journey as an Electronic Dance Music duo back in 2015 and unified to form Leadhunterz.

We tried several stage names but nothing was attractive for us. We started Producing Electronic Music at first and faced a lot of difficulties like finding a lead sound of tracks, we decided that we can name LEADHUNTERZ and boom that's how we got our stage name.

At first we got many rejection from Record labels, we used to make many tracks, but nothing clicked our luck. It was 2017 when we released our first track we were so happy but still we are not up to that level which we are dreaming of. But if you work hard there is a way, we released our second track and yes it hits the WORLD BEATPORT CHART TOP 50, and we received support from various dj all over the world.

Timmy Trumpet currently ranked 13 and Australia’s number one Dj supported us a lot. He even played our track in his personal Radio Show. Secondly Hardwell who was number 1 DJ for 2 time according to DJ MAG hosted a competition for upcoming music producer and we were in TOP 10 from all over the world.

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

Yes it is a stable career, but don't know about Kolkata, to be honest scenario is not that good still now. There are hell lot of DJ’s and event companies who ruin the market but on the other hand, there are many others trying to recover the scenario.

But yes you can make your career as a DJ but you have to work hard a lot else you will be at the last. I will suggest if you want to be a good DJ and want to stable your career then try producing tracks, which are not too mainstream, study the genres and try something different from others.

3. Who is your favorite artist and why?

Question is so hard, cause there are many but if you ask “any one” then we can say KSHMR, He is not only an artist, he is like god for us. He not only helped us but many other upcoming DJ’s and music producers too. Everyone respect him.

His knowledge about production is tremendous, what we like about him is that he produces unique kinds of tracks which got Indian touch, kind of Indian classical with Electronic Music.

We have recently released a track which is inspired by him only and we signed a contract with QUARTZO RECORDS since they liked our track.

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

Hahahahaha. I like the question cause many people are still confused, I want to clear it out.

Firstly, we don't produce track on stage nor we remix track on stage, people need to understand that. We play tracks which are pre-remixed or original tracks on stage.

Secondly, all DJs are not same and people need to understand that prior booking them. Some prefer to play Bollywood music, some prefer to play Electronic music. They need to understand what the crowd wants.

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

There are many DJ institutes which offers very good training but before taking admission I should suggest that you should know from whom you are getting trained and what is the background of that faculty. Many DJ Institutes are bluff they take hell lot of money from the students at the beginning but they don't teach professionally.

Recently we opened our institute, “Leadhunterz Academy” for DJ and Electronic Music production, we train students until they are well groomed and we don't charge extra for extra classes. We provide them for free cause we try to give good facilities for every student who take admission. Our students are doing good, they perform and they are well settled.

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

We started our career back in 2015 and we got many opportunities to feature our track in good record labels.

We got shows in and outside Kolkata, like Bangalore, Mumbai, Goa and many more. Till now we did not got that opportunity to perform abroad, but ya we will do that too, let the time come.

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

Harsh but true, not everyone can be a DJ cause you need some knowledge about music. For someone who don't have that much of knowledge of music must try learning some musical instruments like guitar, drums or piano and then go for becoming a DJ.

If want to be a DJ then patience is must, don't think that you will learn today and the very next day you will start earning which is absolutely false. Work hard and you can do it, nothing is impossible. Don’t lose your hope even if it takes time.

- Ayonesh Saha and Anshu Das (Professional DJs)

Interview By - Abhirup Dey