Delhi-based bass music producer and the winner of The Remix , Suhrid Manchanda, popularly known as Su Real, talks about his experience at the Amazon Prime’s show and announcing a 12-City Celebratory Tour.
How did the name ‘Su Real’ come up?
Actually my first name ‘Suhrid’ is sometimes difficult for people to pronounce, so in school, my friends started calling me ‘Su’. But when I got into college, I realised that there were many ‘Sus’, like Sudhir, Suman etc. so that’s why I added the word ‘Real’ to set myself apart.
How did you develop interest in this particular style of music and where did your journey begin from?
When I was four, my mother enrolled me for piano classes, and as I got older, I started playing guitar and making electronic music. I always gravitated more towards the cutting edge music, trying to find a perfect balance between the mainstream and the experimental, with the focus being on the choice of people.
Tell us about your experience at the reality show, The Remix
I had an awesome experience at The Remix and really hope to do a second season as well. We are such a large population with so much talent but very few platforms where people can enhance their talent, but The Remix gave us a chance not only to reach a wider audience but also to discover deeper depths and new areas in what we do. I came out as a better producer and a better artist and also had an amazing experience with the judges at the show. Every team looked forward to their feedback and comments, because that’s how we learn.
In most of the tracks produced by you, various types of music is mixed to form a complicated genre. What do you have to say about this taste of music?
Mixing various types of music is going on in Bollywood for a long time by influential music directors like R.D. Burman, and today it has become a necessity as every Bollywood song is 6-7 minutes long, and in a long song if the music isn’t switching from one genre to the other, it might sound boring to the listeners. Another aspect to look upon while developing a song is what’s being shown on the screen. This way the music will end up evolving the visual appeal because the scenes on the screen have a lot of elements, and this is how I come up with my style of music.
What are your views on the Western music’s influence on the Hindustani music?
I think in most cases it is positive, because if one wants to cater to the audiences worldwide, fusion becomes necessary. Even I like expressing myself in a way that not only people around me, but also people living in other countries like and relate to, because doing such experiments make us global citizens.
How important is the remixing of existing music tracks for our music industry?
The word ‘remix’ is a modern term but this concept, where the same idea gets redone over and over again, is very old. Many of us won’t know that some of the old Bollywood songs too have been inspired from much older folk songs, and I believe that the concept of remixing is very important as it’s a way of reinterpreting the past for the young generation and introducing the older listeners to the modern music they might not be familiar with.
What are your plans for the 12-city Celebratory Tour?
I am looking forward to going around and meeting all the fans and friends who have been so supportive throughout the show and who have faith in my music. On stage, I’m actually not supposed to play stuff from the show, so I’ll be playing my own music and will be doing some special remixes.
